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1. HOW DOES OUR PRODUCT
USE, CHALLENGE, OR
DEVELOP CONVENTIONS OF
REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS
Liam Willoughby

2. HOW WE MATCHED THE GENRE WE CHOSE
• Themes of classic psychological thrillers
• Setting, tone and atmosphere set during the trailer
• The characters and role in the trailer
• The sound effects to make the trailer appear more realistic
• Lighting and shadow effects to fit the mood and tone
• The music we selected

3. THEMES OF PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER
FILMS
• In our film we included certain themes and elements that we added to making our trailer true to
the conventional psychological thriller genre, these are:
• The props we used such as the knife used by the killer and the flashlights while in the dark.
• The setting we used to film the scenes was in a dark abandoned house and this created a perfect
setting for our film. This is because it created a atmosphere of mystery, and after our research into
these types of films it is important to include this into our trailer so that it is true to our genre.
• We also filmed in outside locations to change the setting of the trailer so not all scenes felt
repetitive. This also allowed us to use minimal lighting to create a sense of fear for the audience.
After our trailer analysis we have discovered that it is professional to demonstrate an array of
shots throughout the trailer. We wanted to mimic this sense of professionalism in our own trailer
and this therefore shows our way of developing our product to match the conventions of other real
world media products.

4. USING REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS FOR THE
MUSIC AND SOUND
• To be true to the genre we looked at other film trailers from this same genre with films
like American Psycho. We studied these trailers to see how would could incorporate
conventions from these media products into our own. We looked at the type of
music/sounds that were used in these trailers and how they aided the setting of the
trailer. An example of this is with the use of the constant change in tone from the music.
The trailer opened with light, upbeat music that deceptively tricks audiences into
thinking this could be a film of a different genre. Although later on the music
drastically changes into a darker sound that changes the atmosphere of the trailer to a
more serious tone. We liked and toyed of using this for our trailer. In the end after
editing our trailer we didn’t have such a dramatic change in music but we added on
numerous sound effects that change tone of our trailer. These consisted of having
sounds of an elevated heart beat, jump scare sounds and footsteps. All these sound
effects come in at the third act of the trailer to help build the suspense in this final act.
And after looking at ‘what makes a good trailer’ in the beginning of our research having
this third act be suspenseful is key to having a trailer that draws in audiences.
• Therefore thanks to looking at real media products like the American Psycho trailer we
were able to develop our music and sound effects to create and atmosphere that was
true to the psychological thriller genre. Our research into sound also gave us a variety
of different sound effects to use that were suitable for the genre.

5. USING REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS FOR THE
POSTER CREATION
• I personally created the poster using Adobe Photoshop. After
looking at and analyzing different posters from this same
genre it gave me a few ideas when creating our own. The
posters I analyzed were for the films ‘Glass’ and ‘American
Psycho’. Both these posters provided numerous different
ideas and techniques that we could incorporate into our own
poster. This can be seen the shattered mirror effect from the
‘Glass’ poster. This film heavily focuses on one of the main
characters having a number of different personalities and I
therefore felt that this broken glass effect mirrored and
represented that mental illness. This in turn made me want
to look at ways in which I could incorporate into our own
poster. This is because our main character is suffering from a
similar mental illness and we wanted this to be clear in our
poster, clear for viewers to make the connection.

6. • This is also clear with the ‘American Psycho’ poster with the text that we
added to our poster. For our poster we decided to add a quote that would be
from our film. On the poster for ‘American Psycho’ there is also a quote. The
quote on the poster says “killer looks”, and this links in perfectly with the
movies main character and his personality. This line in two words sums up
the character and films dark comedic tone. We wanted to replicate this with
our own poster, so that viewers would come to understand the tone of our
trailer by just looking at the poster, we wanted these words provide a hint at
our main characters personality as well. We took our quote from the film
Fight Club which also shows our exploration into other real media products.
We took this quote because we wanted something that links with our main
character and the quote we took was “its only after we have lost everything
can we do anything”. I felt this resinated with our characters personality
very well and took to making this being displayed on our poster underneath
our title. Not only that but after I had finished analysing the ‘American
Psycho’ poster I liked the idea of having our main characters face displayed
on the poster for viewers to see. This showed audiences a bit about what the
character was about and who he was.
• Overall after examination of the other posters I decided to create an almost
hybrid of the two posters, ‘American Psycho’ and ‘Glass’. Both these posters
shared similar themes to what we intended for our trailer. Therefore by
taking inspiration from these real media products and using their
conventions I was able to construct a poster for our trailer that was true to
the genre of psychological thriller.

7. HOW OUR POSTER CHALLENGED REAL
MEDIA PRODUCTS
• One way in which our poster challenged real media products was that when I was
looking at the posters for ‘Glass’ and ‘American Psycho’ something I decided to add
myself was the reviews by ‘critics’. I chose to do this because I felt it gave a sense of
professionalism to our poster. Not only that but I also felt that if viewers saw that on
the poster they would feel more inclined to go and find out more about our product
and this therefore allows our fan base to grow. This challenges real media products
because neither the ‘Glass’ poster or the ‘American Psycho’ poster have this
displayed. I felt adding this on ours would give our poster its own identity and
because I was heavily inspirited by the two posters I wanted to do something
original with ours along with doing it for the other names benefits.

8. REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS FOR OUR WEBSITE
• For the creation of the website Art used wix.com. Art did research into
other websites that were made for films that share the same genre as
ours. An example of this was his analysis of the website for the film
‘Venom’. This movie was released in 2018 and Art discovered there
was interactive aspects to the website like playing as the main
character in a game on the website. After a deeper look this could
used so that the product appears more to children and therefore
allows them to grow a larger audience among all ages. The website
also had numerous trailers embedded into it so viewers could watch
the trailer straight on the website. During Arts research of different
websites he wanted to discover to made audiences want to come back
and revisit websites. For the Venom website, having a game on the
website allowed for people to want to revisit so they could keep
playing. However, Art decided to go against the use of having a lot of
interactive elements to our website due to our lack of resources to do
so and we wanted to focus more on the advertising of our product.
Having our website simple and easy for anyone to use allows viewers
to gain all the information they need to know about or product and
added everything that was important.

9. • Everything that we included in our website was meant to be there so that nothing felt
unnecessary. These included embedding all of our trailers on the website so viewers could watch
the trailers then and there. Also Art put our poster on the website so it could aid the advertising
of the product overall. Thanks to Art looking at a number of real media products it allowed him to
gain a better understanding of what to include in our website. Thanks to his research into the
‘Venom’ website he was able to point out what we should not include, like the game. By keeping
our website short and simple it gave audiences everything they needed to see and nothing
unnecessary.

10. USING REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS FOR OUR
TRAILER
• The research we did before filming and editing our trailer lead to us
analysing a variety of different trailers from the psychological thriller
genre. We looked at trailers for films like ‘American Psycho’ and
‘Shutter Island’. By doing this we got a better insight to what we need
to include in our trailer to be true to our genre. From the ‘American
Psycho’ trailer I learned that gradually building up tension to the final
act was very important to making your trailer entertaining to
audiences. After discovering this about the trailer, when creating our
storyboard we took this into account and we wanted to have a build to
the thrilling scenes in the later part of the trailer. By following this
three act rule and the building of tension we were able to construct
our trailer so that it appeared slow in the beginning and then
gradually end on a cliff hanger and have audiences left wanting more.
This therefore, will have audiences requesting to see more and we will
therefore be able to gain more interest into our product. Following this
three act rule has allowed us to organise our scenes understanding
what shots we will need to film to have a more suspenseful ending,
that along with the music and sound effects will allow us to create an
atmosphere that will meet this need to suspense. By looking at the
‘American Psycho’ trailer it gave inspiration to follow this three act
rule and to build suspense in our own trailer.

11. • Also from looking at real media products, in
our trailer analysis’s we discovered that
having a variety of shots is important to
make your trailer appear more professional.
After looking at these trailers we felt we
needed to change the setting of shots. By
doing this people watching our trailer will
not feel as if they are watching the same
thing over and over again and not feel as if
what they are seeing is repetitive. By
including this different array of shots it
gives our trailer a more professional feel.
Making our trailer feel as if its on par with
the real media products we have studied
will give our audiences the impression that
what they are seeing something they should
worth investing their time into and not just
another mediocre product.

12. • In conclusion by looking at these real life media products it has given us insight into what conventions we have
needed to include to make our trailer, poster and website true to the psychological thriller genre. Our trailer
analysis’s have given us a idea about what to include in our own trailer to make it appear as if it itself is a real life
media product. We have looked into different sounds and music to help aid the setting we were looking to create
along with different ways in which we were looking to create. This along with, the types of camera shots we should
use to make our product appear professional and the following of the three act rule to make our trailer build
suspense have all come together to allow to create a successful trailer for ‘Trapped Minds’. Looking into different
posters from this same genre have given us ideas to what our poster would look like. Looking at movie posters
that share themes that are similar to ours has given me many ideas in the creation process of the poster like using
the cracked mirror effect that the film ‘Glass’ had for its poster and ‘American Psychos’ use of display for the
photograph ideas and the quote. By combining these two posters and also adding a few original ideas I have been
able to create a poster that is true to the genre and one that fits the theme of our trailer. With our website Art has
successfully created one that incorporates all the necessary components so that the sight is simple and easy to use
for any viewer. The research he has done prior has allowed him to design it so that it focuses on advertising our
product to the public so we can create increase our fan base. Overall we done thorough research into this genre
and products of this genre and it has given us inspiration to create our own products that all tie in together
smoothly and successfully. We have established a tone that is visible and clear throughout all pieces of our work
and this demonstrates our understanding of the genre and the work we have put into the research to being to
achieve what we have done,
CONCLUSION