a2 media evaluation question 1

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

2. For my media project, we decided to make a Film Trailer. the film trailer
in which we made was called retribution. the name of the film already
hints the main storyline of the movie already. which is to get revenge for
something which has happened in their lives. this is a common
convention which horror movies use as the title of the film always links to
the film or gives an idea of what the film will be about. having a one
worded title also is a common convention which horror movies use such
as Annabelle, Halloween, Insidious and also Scream, this helps the
audience remember the film title easier as its the last thing which they
see in the trailer before the billing book.

3. after researching recent real media products at the start of the
project I realised the typical forms and convections of real media
products out today such as The Purge. this is a horror/ action film
which i chose to analyse briefly. as a group we decided to watch
about 20 trailers which we went through and came with the
decision of what genre of film we chose. These included Hercules,
Dawn of the Planet Of The Apes and Annabelle. from analysing
these trailers we found that the typical conventions which were
used were that they all include fast paced shots and sounds which
complemented the action which is on the screen.

4. All trailers featured their best bits of their film and also gives hidden plots
which make the audience want to see more of the film. all trailers cut to
the title sequence at the end. we tried to be different with our conventions
compared to other horror trailers which we viewed, our film does
challenge the conventions of horror movies to an extent as instead of there
being one murderer there is multiple masked murders who are involved.
this would relate to films such as Identity and The Purge. from viewing the
film trailers we decided to incorporated an idea form the film The Purge.
this was the use of a prop which was used during the film. this was the
white mask. we felt that using this in our film trailer would make it seem
more mysterious on who they are. this is challenging conventions of the
horror genre as it is quite typical in a horror movie.

5. The location of where we filmed our shots had typical shots which would be
used in horror movies such as in the woods and in dark rooms which give off a
spooky effect to the shot we produced. these are both used in typical horrors
such as the cabin in the woods and also Saw. the reason why we used these
locations was because the woods is seen as a mysterious evil and spooky place
and a dark room would have the same eerie effect to it as well as they are seen
to be unknown of what could be inside of the room. using the woods in our
trailer also gives off a sense of mystery of what is going on which would help
build suspense on what was going to happen next.

6. Also by viewing these different movies we discovered other conventions which
were used throughout them, these were that when there was a state of
disequilibrium there were more cuts and transitions to build the speed up and
make it look more exciting, a shot which shows a villain or vulnerable character.
There is also a disturbing shot where someone is killed, injured or being taken.
this occurs very frequently during movie trailers. I feel that my film does
challenge the conventions of horror as our film trailer shows a shot which
shows shots of someone being taken and also a shot of someone with a gun to
their head. these kinds of shots are seen quite often during trailers such as
paranormal activity where it shows the people being dragged across the floor
and the people screaming for their lives. we believe our film followed
conventions of horror such as flashbacks and a disturbing shot.

7. when making our film poster we wanted to make sure it was like a
typical horror movie poster. we done this by making it quite simple.
this was done by making it black and white to make the mask stand
out more and make it look more spooky. we used the same idea as
scream by using a close up of the main character to show who the
main character is with a black and white background.
when making our magazine cover we also similarly used
codes and conventions of horror magazine covers. as seen in
other magazine covers the main actor in the film has the
direct address of the camera which is seen in most magazine
covers on the cover. and lastly other small details such as
the barcode, price layout and sub headings which are all
conformed to what a real horror film magazine would look
like.