Question 1

1. Question 1:
In what ways does your media product use, developed or
challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

2. The products normally stick very closely to these conventions because it is familiar
to the audience and something they expect to see.
For example, with film posters no matter what the genre you will always find the film
title in the biggest font choice, as if the audience want to see the film they need to
be able to easily recall it.

3. Important characters are always present on the products such as the protagonist
(victim) and/or the antagonist (villain) to imply who are the main characters of the
film. These characters are always ‘the face’ of the products sold as it gives the
audience a direct link to the film and aids with recall.
Protagonists & Antagonist ProtagonistAntagonist

4. My Product - Poster
When creating my poster I looked at
the poster promoting the film ‘Carrie.’ I
found that the poster helped to
communicate the narrative and told
part of the story before you even see
at the trailer or the film. I was drawn
into the antagonist with their direct
approach. It was at this moment I
decided that this was the route I
wanted to take.
I decided to include the
antagonist/villain for the poster as this
is conventional for the antagonist or
protagonist to be the face of the
product.
Official film poster
from
‘Carrie’
My poster

5. The antagonist, ‘Evelyn,’ is a dominant figure
in the film and by placing her central in the
poster, with her direct eye contact makes the
audience feel uneasy. You immediately
recognise some of her evil personality traits,
even from this solitary image. The makeup
helped to portray the genre of the film and by
including the blood on the character strongly
suggests that violence will take place in the
film.
Adding the blue lighting on one side of the
character’s face suggests she has two sides
to her personality. It conveys that the dark
side, the more sinister side, is likely to come
out during the film. By having the shadow
around her face draws the audience’s eyes to
the character, which is quite chilling.

6. I decided to use a similar colour
scheme from ‘Carrie’ as these
are typical of the genre.
Using the colour red connotes
danger and violence, this links
directly to the genre of the film.
Using black around my
antagonist connotes strength
and the authority she has over
the other characters. The facial
expression also supports this as
the direct visual address shows
her power and ill intent.

7. A tagline is always present on the products and is
usually a short sentence which will stick in the
audiences mind.
The short sentence could suggest what the trailer is
about. Looking at ‘Carrie,’ I placed my tagline above
the title of the film as it linked well with the name of the
film as it formed a full sentence, ‘not just your ordinary
subscriber.’ This links to the plot of the film as the film
is about a Youtuber’s life and how a young girl tries to
be like her and wants to own and control her. The title
and the tagline anchors the meaning of the image, as
you associate her as being the subscriber that is out of
the ordinary and that she has a side to her that is yet to
be revealed in the trailer and film.
On my products the tagline is ‘not just your ordinary,’ I
decided to use this as every person that subscribes to
a Youtuber isn’t determined to have control over them,
doesn’t stalk them or want to take over their lives. The
fact that my character is doing this suggests it is not
normal and that they aren’t like every other subscriber.

8. The release date is also key on the
products so that the audience know
when the film is available to watch.
The poster I studied did not have the
release date on it but said, ‘coming soon’
this is also another way of enticing the
audience as they don’t know when it will
be released. This is likely to encourage
the viewer to find out more, perhaps by
visiting the film’s website. A release date
is normally present on teaser trailers,
which are produced before the main
trailer is released. This gives the
audience a small advanced peak at what
they are waiting for. The reason that a
release date may not be included is
because the final launch date hasn’t
been decided yet. This is mainly done by
well known media conglomerates such
as Disney, as they have lots of money
and time to draw in a larger audience,
whereas independent film makers only
have enough money to create a trailer
and a film or sometimes just the film.
‘Disneys’
teaser poster
and official
poster

9. As I am an independent film maker and I
didn’t have the time to create a teaser trailer
and a main trailer, I displayed a specific
release date which is ‘September 8th.’
Giving a specific date meant that my
audience had an exact date for when they
would be able to watch the film, therefore
they could buy tickets in advance if they
knew it would be popular.

10. The film’s site link is present on most
products as it gives the audience a
chance to find out more if they wish to.
For my products I created a production
company called High Def Films, I
presented the logo and the website of
the company so the audience could find
out more about other films and genres
available.

11. This also gives the audience a chance to review the
work of the production company. Some viewers may
follow selected companies on social media, as they
are now aware that the company produces films
they like and enjoy. Having a logo makes the
company easy to recognise. An example of this
could be ‘Marvels.’ Most superheroes come from
Marvels so people follow the name to find the films.

12. Although ‘Carrie’ didn’t have some of the conventions
such as the institutional information and the credits, I
looked at horror film posters as a whole for these
features and decided where it was generally placed.
Institutional information is conventional as it is
displayed to the audience to show who produced the
film. The credits acknowledge and commend the
people who took part in creating the film. I placed the
credits at the bottom of my poster as this is
conventional to place it there as people don’t pay
much attention to the credits. However it is respectful
to show those involved and provide them with the
appropriate appreciation and credit. As an
independent film maker it raises the profile of your
film company.

13. For my website, I looked at the film site
for ‘IT’ the movie.
This site followed all the generic
conventions of a film site and I found I
could learn from it well.
Immediately I noticed it sticks to the
conventional colour scheme of red,
black and white. Adding in the colour
yellow shows that the boy represents
happiness, positivity, energy,
enlightenment, loyalty, and joy. It also
carries across a lot of the information
that appears on the poster such as the
title, tagline, credits, institutional
information, release date and images
of the important characters. Official ‘IT’ the movie, film site

14. I found on the ‘IT’ movie website the title is the biggest font and placed away from
other information to stand out further. I placed my title and tagline together on the
left side of the site, away from most of the information. I placed it on the left side of
the site as we predominantly read from left to right, so by having this on the left you
are likely to read this first.
My Product -Website

15. When looking at the site's navigation bar, I did not like how it was placed on the site, so for my site I
placed my navigation bar across the top of the page. This is a personal preference.
I placed it across the top as it made it easier to access and it filled the space better. I didn’t like how
‘IT’s’ page looked empty with just the image. I felt that the information was tucked away.
Something I did like about ‘IT’s navigation bar however was that when the feature is clicked the font
changes from white to red. I decided to incorporate this in my site and when the viewer clicks on one of
the features, the font changes to red.

16. As this is a familiar convention to audiences, when the viewer rolls over text, it changes
colour. The viewer knows what they are clicking on and this helps the viewer to navigate
through the site as they can easily recognise what page they have clicked on and when
selecting a different page the red font colour then changes on the new page selected.
The page name is also present at the top of each page to reinforce what the viewer has
clicked on.

17. Social networking is used a lot in the 21st century
and on sites there is always a social network bar so
you can share with family and friends or so that you
can follow the film further and get more insight
about it.
For my site I added a social media bar in the top right of my site. The social
networking sites I used are most commonly used nowadays so I included
medias such as Youtube, Twitter and Facebook.

18. Having social networks on my site helps my film be more successful as people
would share, comment and like on the trailer and this will inform more people of
the film, thus creating a potential larger audience. I can also target certain
demographic groups to help target certain people such as age, gender,
education, interest and even social class.
To help the icons work with my colour scheme I changed them to white as
having them their original colour can distract the audience from the important
information such as the tagline.

19. Looking at important characters in my film, I decided to use an image with both
the protagonist and antagonist on the homepage as it shows the relationship
between the two characters.
By having the antagonist’s hand on the protagonist it shows she is in control,
with the protagonist unaware of the hold on her, which also shows she is in a
vulnerable position. This gives an insight on what the film could include.

20. Other features I found that made my website more interactive were the photos,
videos and the animation.
The photos and videos allowed me to show the pre-edited raw images I took and
the ‘behind the scene’ videos showing how it took many takes to get the perfect
shot for some scenes in the trailer. I also included scenes that were taken out
when editing to show the viewer footage that was considered for the trailer.

21. These features are conventional as film websites should contain sound, video,
images and animation. The animation is included on these features as if you
hover over the photos individually it shows what image you have selected by
turning grey. If you hover over the selection of videos it tells you the video
number from my camera and the duration of the video.

22. For the reviews on the homepage, I used the animation tool ‘fade-in’ to slowly
bring the reviews onto the page one by one. The reviews were also present this
way on the ‘IT’ site, so I found I was following the conventions of an existing, well-
known film site.

23. Seeing these reviews shows the audience that professional people/big name
companies have liked the film and given good feedback so they should consider
watching it themselves. I decided to present them one by one as I felt if they
were all present at the same time it would look overwhelming and the viewer
would find it harder to read. Reviews like these act as a strong endorsement to
the wider viewing audience, helping to encourage and persuade the audience to
pay to see the film.

24. With a trailer, it is conventional to have the institutional
information, credits and the title of the film. The example
I looked at of a horror trailer was the film ‘Split.’ In this
trailer the institutional information was near to the start
of the trailer so for my trailer I did the same and placed it
as the first initial shot you see.
Official film trailer for the film
‘Split’

25. My Product -Trailer
I decided to do this because although this information
is important I felt that the title and release date which
is later shown in the trailer was more important and
to have it displayed closer to the end of the trailer
means the viewer is more likely to remember it as it is
the last bits of texts they see.
All horror trailers start with the equilibrium elements
where everything seems normal and there is no
suspicion of anything going wrong. For this element, I
had my characters sitting together eating food and
chatting with each other. The main character is
popular Vlogger with many followers, as she
converses with her friends she is vlogging at the
same time. As the trailer progresses things become
clear that are unnerving, then from this point the
viewer is thrown into seeing the horror.

26. From the start of my trailer it shows that the
protagonist puts ‘Youtube’ first in her life and
that she is key to give the viewers what they
want to see. Only when she watches back one
of her clips does she realise there is a troubled
girl lurking in her videos.
I feel my trailer follows the aspect of an
equilibrium, as the girls at the start of the
trailer are unaware of the danger they are
about to be in. My protagonist is the least
aware of her danger as she is self
absorbed in her own importance and is
busy updating her status and posting
more video on her vlog. Her perception of
her surroundings are blurred.

27. Jaws Soundtrack
My trailer also follows the generic build up of the tension.
The trailer starts off calm, slow and then as the tension builds, so does
the pace. By using shorter and faster cut aways, provides the viewer with
a visual impact that conveys something has or is about to happen.
Music and sound effects are critical to help build the tension for the
viewer. Without it, the tension build would be virtually non existent.
Sound makes all trailers more dramatic and engaging for the viewer. I
have placed sound throughout the trailer in order to create the desired
tension build. Equally, the volume of music or sound affect is also critical.
By increasing the volume and pace of the sounds this can provide an
increase in both the drama and the suspense. This is then supported by
the visuals the viewer sees,
An example of when this has been used really well, is ‘Jaws.’ The initial,
slow ‘dun-dun’ sound effect builds quicker and quicker as the shark nears
the swimmer. The crashing chords tap into our fears, with the viewer
relating to what they have seen. Even closing your eyes you can already
imagine what is about to happen as the sounds grow louder and faster.
The sounds when working with the visuals create tension, even horror in
which people find thrilling. This is where people sometimes say their
‘hearts are racing.’

28. For my trailer, I followed this by layering many sounds over each other to exaggerate the
tension and horror scenes. I used uncomfortable sounds such as clanging of instruments;
a heavy, thumping heart beat; a female scream and a tv glitch effect.
All these sounds were used at different times where multiple disruptions were taking
place, supported by fast paced shot types. This suggested the violence that was taking
place and helped communicate the tension in the atmosphere, without physically seeing
the horror, with your brain drawing conclusions as to what may have occurred. This is
used in the trailer to draw the viewer in, and wanting to watch the film to see what actually
happened to the victim and what the villain does next.

29. An example where the sound effects worked very successfully, was where the antagonist
was approaching the protagonist in her sleep. There was a dramatically heavy, thumping
sound used with a high pitched screeching to convey the suspense where the protagonist
is unaware of her danger.
Whilst I didn’t use any voiceover in my trailer, I am aware that carefully selected voiceover
can also provide a build of tension and drama to convey horror.

30. Thank you for viewing my presentation