A2 media studies

1. Question One
IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR
CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?
Zack Morgan-Vinciguerra

2. Format Conventions – Teaser Trailer
Duration
The first convention of a real media product we researched was the duration of a teaser trailer. We found through looking at examples such as ‘taken’
that a teaser trailer lasts roughly one minute or slightly over. When editing we took this into account and tried to cut the footage we had to fit the
conventions.
Editing style
The next format convention expected in a real media product is fast paced editing for a teaser trailer. We use the convention as we followed the editing
style used in a teaser trailer such as Inception. However, ours could have built up more tempo towards the end like real teaser trailers.
Use of sound
We challenged the use of sound in a teaser trailer as in other real media products such as inception they have a tension building soundtrack which build
towards the end, however the soundtrack we created barely any tension towards the end and we didn’t use the standard non-diegetic bangs to
complement text as seen in Inception.
Text/Graphic elements We followed the conventions of a black screen with the title texts, however we did not incorporate actors names which
challenges the conventions.
Narrative information given to the audience
In other media examples they will often introduce a character, we subtly followed the
conventions, however we challenged the conventions of revealing too much of the storyline.

3. Format Conventions - Poster
Layout Conventions:
Eye catching title font – Our film poster followed this convention,
our font also fits with the theme of the hacking and genre with the
glitch effect.
Captivating image - The inception uses a image similar to a scene in
the film, in our poster we followed this convention as we wanted
the poster to clearly represent the hacking scenes and crime genre.
Billing blocks – We implemented billing blocks in our film poster as
it is a key requirement, however in comparison to the real life
example our billing blocks look too large.
Actors names – Real media products like to display famous actors
names to attract the audience however we challenged this
convention as we did not have adequate space at the top without
sacrificing the title of our poster.

4. Format Conventions – Magazine Cover
Layout conventions:
Character positioning – actors head overlaying the ‘Empire text’ we
followed this convention as it is a key theme for this magazine
company.
Generally a barcode is seen on the bottom right of a magazine
however we challenged this convention with our magazine because
we needed to make space for our faceless promotion.
Empire magazines often have a ‘special’ edition tagline right at the
top of the magazine as seen on the example. We followed this
convention to make our magazine look as professional as possible.
Empire like to incorporate circles with information on the poster, we
attempted this but we struggled to create space.
Text around the magazine cover is also conventionally bold and large,
we wanted Faceless to stand out more so we challenged this
convention.

5. Genre Conventions
Crime genre has a wide range of possibilities when it comes to the narrative, we decided to make a hacker based crime
film. This is relevant to other hacking films however would not fit the conventions of a forensic crime film. Using the
comparison of Anonymous (2016) we develop the conventions of character and narrative in a crime film.
The antagonist is made obvious as is the introduction of the protagonist. (Add screenshot comparison)
In this genre the narrative usually follows a storyline of a shows the behavior's of a criminals mind and includes how they
perform their crimes, in our case this was through the computer hacking. We developed this genre convention through
our own storyline, and followed the conventions to establish the genre.
Setting an location for hacking crime genre is usually fairly discreet. The example film I am comparing our teaser trailer
to, Anonymous (2016) uses a similar location layout in their trailer in comparison to our own. He hacker will be in an
unknown setting/ dark room and then the protagonist will be out in public/ with friends.
Anonymous (2016) Anonymous (2016)Faceless Teaser Trailer Faceless Teaser Trailer

6. Nine Frames

7. Title of the film
The title of our film was placed at the end to follow the conventions of a teaser trailer. The title
is bold, framed in the centre on a clearly contrasting backdrop. The font we used had miniscule
numbers and letters surrounding the fairly bold text, this fitted well with our film and genre as
we wanted to give to allow our teaser trailer to be easily identifiable as a hacking film just from
the text alone. This is why we implemented the same text throughout all three products we
created.
I have included a real life media example from anonymous (2016) to
give a comparison, firstly they have utilised a 3d animation effect
which does suggest the-
hacking narrative the text appears on screen mysteriously , the font
and
text size are also fairly similar comparing the two. I think that our font
Conveys our narrative more so than the real media example because
it isn’t as basic.

8. Costume and Props
We followed the conventions of a teaser trailer with our
costumes and props through the use of credit cards and cash
to emphasize the crime scene conventions. I have included a
real life media example which we took inspiration from. We
used the conventions for props to make our films genre clear
to the audience.

9. Camerawork
We used a variety of camera angles such as the high angled shot during the
introducing of our protagonist. This symbolises the inferiority of the character in
our film. We used the location of Reigate high street because it linked well with
our character representation of Jack the college student. This type of location is
frequently seen in crime genre films so we followed the conventions to highlight
genre.

10. Editing
We used montage style editing to showcase the storyline of our film and show
the different settings for the hacker and the protagonist. The fast paced cuts are
a key theme utilised in teaser trailers. We followed this convention to allow our
footage to fit into a 1 minute clip making the teaser trailer an effective
marketing tool.

11. Title Font and Style
We used factual titles in between
key scenes to build tension. This is
a frequent theme seen on crime
genre films such as Anonymous
(2016)

12. Lighting
We used low key lighting during the
hacker scenes to highlight the
mysterious character. The