1. IN WHAT WAYS DOES
YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT
USE, DEVELOP OR
CHALLENGE FORMS AND
CONVENTIONS OF REAL
MEDIA PRODUCTS?
2.
3. The first way in which my media product follows the conventions of real
media products is through the use of a green screen. Including the green
screen to my product adds a sense of realism as we have created a replica
of the green screen used in real films. I’ve also included the age rating to
allow the audience to see the appropriate age group for my product.
These are iconic for real films.
Below is an example of a real film rating green screen.
4. Another convention I used when making my trailer was to create a studio ident.
Rosie and I decided to call out production company ARCameras so we created
an ident that would support this. During the trailer, atmospheric music is
played to introduce the audience to the film and genre
5. The establishing shot used in Trace is a close up shot. This could be a form of
challenging the conventions of real media products as trailers often start with an
establishing shot rather than a close up.
6. However, a panning shot is
used to introduce the main
character in the trailer. This
sequence of shots eventually
becomes a long shot – a
conventional shot used at the
start of trailers.
PANNING SHOT
LONG SHOT
7. The variety of shots used in my trailer can also be seen as conventional of real media
products. Throughout the trailer, a point of view shot is often used to show the
view from Cindy’s (the stalker) perspective. This is a conventional way of
portraying a stalkers narrative and if often used in films of the same genre. Using a
point of view shot creates tension and suspense as the audience are unaware of
the identity of the stalker. Similarly, when we began filming, we wanted to keep
the identity of the stalker secret in order to build up the plot and create a dramatic
revelation at the end of the trailer. Here, we are challenging the conventions of
real media products of the same genre as most trailers don’t reveal the stalkers
identity- only the victims.
8. The music used in our trailer reflected that of a typical thriller film. Using this
sound, we were able to build up the tension in our film, something we
found particularly effective through the process of researching other films
of the same genre. The soundtrack used is dramatic and mysterious which
is typical for the thriller genre
9. Our trailer challenges conventions by having very little dialogue. At the start of the
trailer, a short narration is used over the film footage and there is a very small
amount of speech from Belle ( the victim) as she answers the unknown phone call.
We felt that this would be an effective way to create tension and suspense- a main
convention of thriller films- as the music used is very atmospheric and eerie.
Similarly, our film was set in daylight compared to the dark lighting usually used in
thriller films. However, we felt that this didn’t effect the overall outcome as the
music still create an eerie atmosphere.
10. Another way in which we challenge the conventions of typical media products is the
ending of our trailer. In typical stalker/victim films, the identity of the stalker is not
usually shown however, in our trailer, we use a gradual close up as the final shot to
reveal the identity of the stalker. Although this is not particularly conventional for
trailers to reveal the stalker character, we felt that it was a strong was to finish the
trailer and still intrigue the audience into wanting to see the final product.
11. As the main characters in our film are teenagers, much younger than characters in a
typical psychological thriller, we have created a unique selling point which
differentiates itself from the conventions of a typical film of the same genre. By
doing this, we are allowing the audience to relate to the characters in the trailer as
they are of a similar age group. Stereotypically, thrillers usually have a target
audience of 15+, however, as we’ve used characters who are both 18 years old,
this could bring down our target audience age to a 15 as it may be hard for an
older audience to relate to younger characters.
