Through researching real media products like trailers, magazines, and posters, this document discusses how the described media products use and develop conventions of those real products. A preview screen and production company are used in the trailer to appear official. News stories and locations are featured to set the scene, while characters are not shown much to disorient the audience. Filters and camerawork are added to increase realism. Credits, images, and information are formatted on the magazine cover similarly to influences like SFX magazine. Fonts, taglines, and layered visuals are employed on the poster to convey an unsettling tone while maintaining continuity across the media products.

1. IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT
USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND
CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?

2. TRAILER

3. After the research we completed, we realised that most trailers feature this style of “Preview
screen” which makes them appear official, and also provides a sense of professionalism.
This links to the research we completed about Classification, and making trailers suitable for all
audiences.

4. We used our own production company name, to allow us to create this ourselves, and this is a
typical convention of a trailer. The production company video is a typical convention of a trailer,
and from our research we noticed that they last only 1-2 seconds, so carried this through to our
own product.

5. We used two news stories within our
trailer, both are establishing shots of the
location, similar to some trailers which
introduce the audience to where the film
is set, if this is necessary to the plot.
We used only locations, as using another
person in the trailer would distract from
the plot/disorientating feel of it.
Unlike most trailers, you don’t see much
of the characters in the trailer, but the
pace is quick, and uses a lot of jump cuts,
which is something which appeals to a
young adult audience.

6. The handheld “REC” style of this image adds to the realism of the trailer, the filter
added is similar to the one used in REC, and Quarantine. And the handheld, cinema
verite style is one of the common uses in modern horror films, with films like
Paranormal Activity, and the Blair Witch Project adopting these techniques to make
the audience fully aware of the realism.

7. Most trailers we researched had a very short credit sequence, and because our film had no one
that could be classed as a “star” we have made the credits on the same sequence as the title.
The title is something which must be added to the trailer, so the audience is aware what the film
is called.

8. MAGAZINE
Through the early development stages of this
magazine, and research stages I took
influence from the science fiction magazine,
“SFX”’s special edition horror issue.
Keeping horror as the theme of the magazine
made it link appropriately to the trailer and
poster.

9. Using a banner at the top and bottom of the cover adds more information on the content of the
magazine. The top banner is more of an attraction to the audience, as the consumer will be able
to view this on a newsstand before the rest of the information on the cover.
Example from Total Film
magazine

10. Using a main image on the magazine puts this as the
main focus, and enables the magazine to be
advertising “Indignation” more than any other films
listed on the magazine cover.
I took influence from the Total Film cover, of the Green
Lantern, similar to ours the main image is edited quite a
lot to bring across the genre of the film, this one being
sci-fi.

11. Magazine selling
line- typical of all
magazine genres
The magazine title is placed behind the character, as a symbolism of importance, this puts the
characters of the film before the magazine, making it appear as though this is the main focus of the
magazine.
I added the blood splatter to the top left of the image for the aesthetics, as it is not a typical
convention of a magazine, and adds something to the horror theme of the magazine. However, the
SFX Horror edition which I looked at used this, and therefore I was slightly influence by some of the
techniques on their cover.

12. The barcode was added to the magazine, to make it professional, as a magazine
can only be physically sold by the seller by using the barcode system. This is a
typical convention of a magazine.
Total film lists the date of the issue, and the
price elsewhere to the barcode, however,
because of the layout of our magazine I felt
it was important to keep them together,
making them easier to locate to the
audience.

13. To add to the aesthetics of the
cover, I used a similar idea to the
headings on the “SFX horror”
issue, which used red squares
with scratchy style white fonts.
Listed information in the style of Total Film
magazine, a typical convention of using
different font styles and “lists” to give
information on the content of the magazine.

14. POSTER

15. To achieve the aesthetics of a professional poster I created a set of credits for our film, which included
information on the cast and crew, as well as logos of companies like “Dolby Digital”, and “Sony digital
dynamic sound”

16. The tagline is a typical convention in the marketing of a film, ours being “Justice won’t be
witnessed..” we have used this in the poster, but not in the trailer because we chose we liked it
without.
I liked the style of the font and colour of the “One Missed Call” (American version) and the way it was
simple yet quite eerie. The use of red connotes blood, and danger, which is the same in our poster,
to symbolise the horror conventions of the film.

17. To create the title for the poster, I have used a similar style to the trailer, making the themes
continuous. The poster has a filter to make it appear more hand-held, gritty and this is used to
provide a sense of realism. So to keep the distortion, creating a sense of disorientation, I put the
same filter on the text.
This is similar to the blurred style of the “One Missed Call” poster, which I felt was similar to the
tagline of our poster.

18. A lot of horror posters use simple images, and simple layouts, we did ours using a simple
background image and edited filters, and other images to create a layered effect. This makes ours
different to other posters, and breaks out from the typical conventions. I have used these effects on
the poster to simply add to the sense of disorientation and the “fear of the unknown” which comes
across in the trailer.

19. As with most films, we have used
a recurring font style throughout
our trailer, magazine and poster.
This creates an element of
continuity, adding to the level of
professionalism to our project.
The series of “Paranormal
Activity” films, and posters
used the same font style, in a
variation of colours for their
marketing, and this influenced
our continuity for each
product.