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

2. Format conventions:
• TEASER
• Form is the basic structure of a text, our teaser included montage editing, which compresses time and shows the best
part of a film, it helps create a fast pace which would interest an audience and grab their excitement. In my research I
found out that montages can be used to represent a particular theme, for our trailer we did this to represent the theme
of conflict. In our teaser we followed the conventions of the length- it was 1min 20seconds long which fits under the
usual 60-90second length of a trailer which I based on my own research/ content analysis. The soundtrack reflects the
pace of the teaser, in the last third of the trailer, it starts to increase pace, when researching trailer’s we noticed this and
that they usually build to a climax. Usually trailer’s start off at a slower pace, our soundtrack starts off at a slower pace
through the piano note music heard.
• POSTER
• Poster’s usually have a usual layout which shows a dominant image in the centre of the poster and have a title, as well as
a tag line surrounding the image. They also have a billing block near the bottom in small text which shows who helped
produce the film. As well as this a release date or indication as to when the film is being released is usually seen near the
bottom as well. The actor’s and actress’ names are crucial in a poster too and depending on how big the actor’s are, their
names are usually placed at the top of the poster a large font that can vary in size. I follow the usual layout of a poster as
I place from top to bottom actor’s names, main image, title of the film, tag line billing block and release date, in a simple
order. The title of my film is in the biggest font which is what is usually seen in film poster’s, for example ‘Body of lies’
and ‘The prestige’.
• MAGAZINE
• The layout of a magazine usually is the same, it holds the masthead at the top in the biggest font, and several other
cover lines around vary in size and font too. The largest cover-line usually is the title of the film or tag line that links to
the film, for ‘EMPIRE’ magazines it is usually the title of the film as I learnt when researching ‘SUICIDE SQUAD’ and
‘INCEPTION’. It is common that magazines will advertise other films on their cover too and mention other stories. Each
magazine has a ‘house style’ that they follow. Although the layout is the same, the font and colour schemes may differ.
For instance ‘EMPIRE’ has a very bold and bright style to it’s magazine cover whilst ‘studio’ is a more female based
magazine cover that has a gentle appearance of using italics rather than bold text. Because we followed ‘EMPIRE’S’
design, we had to make sure to use bold text and bright colours such as red black and white to give off a striking
appearance and follow the colour schemes of the film too.

3. Institutional conventions
• TEASER
• For a teaser from hollywood blockbuster, I would expect it to be fast paced and would demonstrate a lot of CGI and
contain very climatic music. In this kind of teaser you would expect company information to be presented at the
beginning, i learnt this through analysing ‘gone girls’ teaser where they have 2 seconds of showing company idents
and at the end there are social media links to find out more. I followed these conventions in my own teaser to make
sure it looked professional too, by having ‘#thegirlinred’ to allow it to trend online and also facebook links to find out
more.
POSTER
• As well as this I would expect a Hollywood blockbuster poster to have a unique selling point of advertising it’s a- lister
actors and have their main image of the actor’s face to be a central part of the poster. I would expect it to have the
usual layout but highlight at key parts to a film and only to show who is important. The poster also should have
enigma codes, for instance the tagline, it should be unexplained and create mystery just like for the poster of ‘the
presitge’ - are you watching closely? It makes audience think. The colour red is symbolic on our poster and the
transparent blood splash is too in conveying murder and danger from our narrative. As well as this information is
included in the billing block at the bottom of the poster.
MAGAZINE
• A Magazine from a Hollywood blockbuster would usually have a dominant pose that covers the magazine, EMPIRE for
example keeps the focus on the main actor’s by placing the actor’s image in front of the masthead and they are
always ‘in character’ too. By putting a recognisable face on the cover is great in terms of marketing. EMPIRE’S
magazine use similar colour schemes to the film for example for ‘the joker’ they use consistent amounts of green as
the character is linked with this colour and for ours we used red for the same effect. They usually contain ‘plus!’ on
the front with other cover lines to show that this magazine offers more than expected for audiences, urging them
once more to buy it. I use this on mine- capture several audience members attentions (from a range of genres).
Captions such as ‘EXCLUSIVE’ and ‘REVEALED’ are used to stand out and grab an audience’s attention.

4. My poster and other Posters

5. My poster as evidently can see follows the
layout conventions (format) for a poster by
containing a title, a tagline, actor’s names,
main image, billing block and release date.
It contains the actor’s names at the top of the poster
like the following poster’s on the right but however
they challenge the layout as I mention one actor’s
name twice to convey the sense there are two
personalities of one character, linking to the
narrative. The other posters don’t do this.
‘Body of Lies’ follows institutional conventions of
featuring a-lister actor ‘LEONARDO DICAPRIO’’s
name in a big font at the top of the image, also it is
in red to help it stand out. This helps market the film
based on the success of the actor. We however
market ours on the genre due to the blood splash
across the whole poster which conveys a sense of
danger, creating an interest for our audience.
In all 3 posters the title of the film is the
biggest font as this is the most
important piece of information the
audience will want to know, I follow this
format convention.
My poster challenges the other two in terms
of the fact it doesn’t mention who the
director is, this is because we wanted our
tagline to be in a bigger font so it can be a key
part in creating enigma.
We followed a colour scheme of red black and white on our poster as
red links to the thriller and love present in our film as well as links to
our brand identity where the ‘red scarf’ is seen across all three media
packages. All posters have their own colour scheme also, the key
information seems is in brighter colours to help it stand out.

6. My magazine and other
magazines

7. The type of wording I choose for my magazine follows usual
magazine conventions as it includes words such as ‘PLUS’
‘EXCLUSIVE ‘MEET’ which are used a lot on EMPIRE’S
magazines to gain attention of an audience.
I have followed magazine conventions and put any important information or
words such as ‘plus’ in bold and larger fonts to what describes what the
magazine includes. These are to capture audience’s attention once more to
the important info. Also I used the italic font for ‘plus’ just like EMPIRE do to
show they are offering something different too.
I used wording such as ‘meet rose’ like the dark
knight’s cover to engage my audience with the
magazine as it is including them to get to know
to character.
Overall I made sure my magazine cover had a colour scheme of red white
and black, just like the teaser so it looked visually striking and balanced in
terms of a variety in colour. This follows usual magazine conventions of
showing a vary in font, font size and colour on their cover lines.

8. Genre Conventions- add pictures
• Setting-you’d expect a thriller romance teaser to be set in an abandoned building/ narrow alleyway or backstreet- this is seen
evident in ‘SAFE HAVEN’ used these settings to influence my own choice in places. Twilight also use the setting of the woods- I
inspired by this and used this setting also to add a sense of mystery into the film and create an eerie atmosphere.
• Style(mise en scene,editing,sound, iconography) -
• You’d expect the editing in a thriller romance to be fast-paced and at times abrupt- when analysing ‘Twilight’ I noticed they used a lot
of fade outs and cuts to black to help add suspense to the trailer- I also did this to create the same effect.
• Mise en scene- you’d expect the mise en scene in a thriller teaser to contain elements that represent danger or a threat such as- a
knife- blood- things that spark a sense of danger. Romance- you’d expect props such as flowers or generic romance clichés that
represent this idea of a ‘love interest’. For clothing in a thriller you’d expect dark outfits- maybe even hooded clothing for an
antagonist- for instance when analysing the trailer ‘twilight’ there is no real use of bright clothing to convey to this idea of darkness
and intimidation that the film is wishing to give off.
• Sound- For sound in a thriller romance you’d expect it to be very climatic and have an increased tempo as the trailer progresses. It
may start off with simple yet eerie music such as the teaser ‘twilight’ and ‘gone girl’ do. And then ease into a more darker sound and
increase in volume. This creates an eerie feel for the audience- my trailer does this - i suggested we started it off with piano notes to
ease it into the drama. Sound effects such as impacts are usually used when titles appear on screen- as seen in the teaser ‘twilight’.
Upbeat sound such as guitar melodies tend to be used for romance films to represent the ‘romance’ blossoming, such as ‘Safe haven’.
• Iconography- use of dark lighting (we expect from a thriller) and flashbacks (safe haven and twilight) are used to add suspense
and create fear upon an audience. We expect to see certain things in a thriller such as shadows also. Also the idea of confined spaces
is seen in thrillers- one of my clips shows a shot where the protagonist is hiding on the other end of the door is the antagonist
knocking it down- she’s trapped- adds to idea of confinement. Short and quick cuts- loud music- audience to be on edge. For romance
films bright lighting is used however to convey happiness and love.
• CHARACTERS
• You would expect a character from this genre to be quite isolated and a lone, usually with a troubled background to add to this dark
theme. There’s usually always a female protagonist in thriller films and a male antagonist that is jeopardising her safety and well-
being, the female character/protagonist is usually presented as ‘innocent victims’. For example the film ‘TAKEN’ follows this
convention of the daughter being ‘innocent’ and the father being her saviour, whilst the men who took her are seen as the ‘villains’.
There are usually criminals within a thriller film too, in our film it is the murderer ‘damian’ who fills this character type/persona.
• CAMERAWORK –
• A lot of low angle shots can be used to show how intimidating another character is. Dutch angles however add a lot of
tension and can also add this intimidation to a character. Tracking shots are also good for conveying the sense someone is
being followed- for example the opening shot of our teaser is a tracking shot to convey this message.

9. How have you challenged these?
• I have challenged these conventions by firstly challenging character types
in thriller films. My female protagonist is represented in some sense to
begin with as ‘innocent’ but as the teaser progresses we learn that she is
the one trying to help, through the dialogue line ‘I’m trying to help you’
and she seems the dominant character by the end of the trailer, defeating
usual character types within thriller’s.
• As well as this my poster challenges hollywood blockbuster poster’s as I’m
not selling my film on behalf of the famous a-lister actor’s I am selling it on
it’s genre and narrative.
• Our teaser is on the longer side of what a teaser usually is, as our
inspiration trailer ‘Gone girl’ was only 30 seconds long, we felt we wanted
to offer a little more into the plot but enough to keep the audience
intrigued.

10. 9 Frames

11. 9 FRAMES OF OUR TEASER TRAILER ‘THE GIRL IN RED’

12. 9 Frames of Gone Girl

13. • When it came to comparing my own teaser to a real media product (teaser
trailer of Gone girl) I firstly noticed that my teaser had a slower
introduction than ’Gone girl’, this may be due to gone girl being a lot
shorter than my own trailer at 30 seconds, whereas mine is 85 seconds
long.
• My trailer follows the conventions of usual teaser’s as in ‘Gone Girl’ it
displays 2 company idents at the start, to reveal to the audience who
produced and distributed the film, a usual teaser convention. These were
displayed for 2 seconds as it had to stick to a teaser’s usual fast pace.

14. • My second frame I have chosen is quite warm in terms of it’s colours (colour grade) as I wanted the costume of
the red scarf to stand out and to represent the romance between the two characters, however as the teaser
progresses the exposure decreases to show the darkening of the plot.
• The costume of the ‘red scarf’ is used throughout as p art of our marketing campaign’s brand identity. It is bold
and connotes the ideas of love contrasting with murder, this helps establish our genre of a thriller romance.
• This shot establishes the setting to the audience and keeps them guessing as no character’s are revealed in this
shot, my face is hidden. This creates a sense of ambiguity as to who this character is and deliberately with holds
information from the audience. Following usual teaser conventions.
• The music/soundtrack of the trailer only begins ever so suddenly in this very first shot, it has a slow tempo and
only piano notes are being played to follow usual teaser conventions of starting off slow and then building up the
pace towards the end. A voiceover also is introduced here, it states ‘I saw you’ to add to the narrative.
• My setting develops the genre conventions as it is linked to thriller’s, an empty woods, which is abandoned,
putting the protagonist in a vulnerable situation. The tracking shot used in my teaser follows my genre
conventions as this type of camerawork is used in thriller’s, conveying the idea that the character is being
followed / watched, in which she is.
Setting Sound Voiceover Costume and Camerawork

15. • This frame is the opening shot of the trailer and just like my teaser, it
firstly establishes the setting before the character’s so it keeps the
audience guessing. This follows usual teaser conventions of withholding
information. The setting is important in conveying the genre conventions
in this shot as it features a dark abandoned setting at nighttime with a
character holding a flashlight, making the setting seem all the more eerie.
The prop of the flashlight also helps establish the narrative as it conveys
the idea that these people are searching for something.
Setting Props Voiceover

16. Camerawork and characters
• The third frame I decided to choose shows a developing
action, as here we are introduced to our antagonist, this
causes the audience to realize who is behind the voice over.
The camera tilts up from a low angle to reveal our antagonist,
this follows thriller camerawork conventions of making the
character seem intimidating as we as the audience are looking
up to him.

17. Camerawork and lighting
• In this third frame Gone girl seems to introduce the main character
through a photo which is useful in creating an interest to the
audience, an unusual low angle shot is used here to create a
unusual viewing point- following thriller camerawork conventions
also. This is very similar to the last frame from my own teaser I just
analysed. The low angle makes the image/character seem
important as well as the photo is in selective focus, this draws the
audience’s attention towards it rather than the man holding it. To
also stress this character’s importance the lighting of the shot is
fixed on this image so that once again the audience’s attention is
drawn towards it.

18. Camerawork (focus) and Character
• This frame I choose is introducing us to the protagonist properly as we get
to see her face for the first time, this build up in suspense is useful in
exciting the audience as to who the protagonist is and by not introducing
her straight away is useful in creating an interest. This follows teaser
conventions of withholding information as it is only showing us snippets.
The shallow depth of field is useful in drawing the audience’s attention to
her expression which appears as worried also, which helps establish the
narrative. As well as this, the selective focus is cleverly used to help stress
this character’s importance as the film is wanting us to see her and
nothing else.

19. Camerawork focus and
Props/Iconography
• In this frame the props play of an importance as we are shown
a ‘crime scene tape’ which helps establish the narrative to the
audience. This prop follows the iconography conventions of
this particular genre being crime/thriller. As well as this the
focus shift in this shot helps deter how the prop has affected
the main character. This establishes the narrative once more
and creates further meaning into the film without revealing
too much.

20. Black screen
• My trailer uses quite a lot of black screens to help keep it’s slow pace off
at the beginning, it gives thinking time for the audience to take in what
they have just seen. Also the use of the black screen helps build tension
between action so it can keep audience’s interested as well as follow usual
trailer, format conventions. It also helps break up the trailer into different
parts.

21. Props and lighting
• In this frame the lighting plays of an importance as the main character is
featured in low key lighting so that his face is darkened and is darker than
the character’s behind him. This hides the character’s identity from the
audience creating an interest but also helps present the character as
intimidating. Low key lighting is used a lot in thriller’s to create eerie
atmosphere’s and helps enhance the shadows in this scene. As well as this
the useful prop in the background reveals something to the audience that
one of the characters is ‘missing’. This helps establish the narrative to the
audience and hints at the genre of ‘crime/thriller’.

22. Props and focus
• This frame is useful in conveying danger and thriller into the film as the
use of mise en scene in my own trailer of a knife and blood helps establish
the genre of the film and follows genre conventions to thriller’s. The
iconography is used here so that the audience automatically think of
danger and thriller films when they see blood. It helps establish the
narrative by hinting that some kind of murder has taken place. The pull
focus used as well in this shot helps draw the audience’s attention into
closer detail and shows more of the surroundings.

23. Lighting and Setting
• In this frame, the low key lighting is cleverly used to darken the character’s
face and body, this kind of low key/ back lighting is useful for help
presenting the main character as intimidating and enhances the shadows
within this shot. As well as this his identity is hidden from us due to this
lighting, so it follows teaser conventions of restricting information from an
audience. Shadows also are a key part of iconography in thriller films,
following usual conventions for the genre. As well as this the setting use of
a house that seems abandoned is a common setting for thriller films. The
shot also features the character isolated and alone making him seem all
the more dangerous to an audience.

24. Setting, Framing and Character
• This shot is also framed in a way where the antagonist seems
to be looking down on the protagonist making her seem all
the more vulnerable, the idea of a vulnerable protagonist links
to character conventions in this type of genre.

25. Title
• Gone girl here, is introducing the first title which is helping
market the film, by suggesting ‘BASED ON THE BEST-SELLING
NOVEL’ to impress the audience, following format conventions
of teaser’s. This can draw fans of novels into the film as well
as interest those whom have already read the book. Also this
title can space out the teaser and determine what shots we
see when for effect.

26. Shot/Camerawork, Editing and Sound

27. Characters, Editing
• ‘Gone girl’ is first introducing the protagonist here and what
she looks like. My teaser follows this idea of revealing what
the protagonist looks like later on (not straight away) to build
up an excitement too from the audience. The duration of this
shot is very short also to follow how fast pace a trailer is
supposed to be, so it is restricting what the audience get to
see. Restricting information from the audience is a common
teaser convention also, as it keeps the audience guessing and
creates enigma.

28. Title, Sound effects

29. Props and editing
• The use of mise en scene in ‘gone girl’ of smashed glass and
messy furniture creates the idea that crime is involved within
the film also and establishes the thriller element to the film.
This shot also creates enigma as this type of a set up for a
living room setting is not normal and helps establish the
narrative that something bad has happened, linking to the
genre of crime. The shot’s duration is very short and no
explanation is given into it which follows usual format
conventions and helps build an interest from the audience.

30. Some other frames that show I have
challenged/followed conventions.
SOUND

31. Some other frames that show I have
challenged/followed conventions.
ICONOGRAPHY/PROPS