This document discusses how the media product uses, develops, and challenges conventions of real psychological thriller media. It uses conventions like urban settings, normal costumes, quick cuts, close-ups to build tension, and a plot involving a stalker/victim. However, it challenges conventions by having no dialogue, using popular music instead of eerie tracks, and brighter colors in the trailer and poster rather than the typical dark tones. The poster further develops conventions by showing the frightened lead character turned away from view rather than facing the camera, and includes glowing reviews to intrigue audiences like other posters. The magazine cover closely follows Empire magazine's layout but uses whiter colors to match the trailer.

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

2. • I tried to use as many conventions from the psychological
thriller genre in my work. This is because these
conventions would hopefully emphasise the genre and
the storyline I was trying to express.
• It was from my research
that I was able to analyse
the conventions of a
psychological genre which can
be seen in the Prezi I produced
and in the analysis of the
trailers/posters/magazines.
What’s the same?
Prezi

3. Trailer - Using
• The plot line is similar to that of a psychological
thriller. This is because it usually consists of an
villain and victim. The trailer I made has this as there
is a girl who is being watched and stalked by a man.
• The trailer also contains features that have been
purposely chosen to make the trailer as life like as
possible. This is because it creates fear if the trailer
is similar to the daily lives of audience members,
they feel like the situation could occur to them. To
create this notion the location, costumes and
storyline were all very urban and ‘normal’.
•

4. -Location is urban and modern.
Typical of a psychological
thriller.
Props are mobile phones
in this shot, they are
commonly used by
teenagers. Not unusual.
Costumes are normal and
typical to teens.

5. • Close ups and extreme close ups were used, this is a
typical convention from the genre as they easily
show character’s emotions.
• I made sure to include lots
of quick cuts so that the
action was fast and the
audience were left
wantingmore. This is common in the chosen genre as it makes
the shots exciting and interesting.
• Quick cuts are also used on the antagonist (villain) to
conceal his identity. There’s
always low lighting being
used when he is in shot.

6. Trailer - Challenging
• There were some things in the trailer that went again
the norm for a psychological thriller.
• Firstly there was no speech in the film. This was because
we felt it would look more artistic to have 0 talking
and it added to the wondering of what was going to
happen next. It also meant that the music and action
became the main focus. It helped support the plot
line that was focused around how everyone socialised
through technology and social medias.

7. • Instead of using eerie tracks where the intensity builds
I chose some modern and popular tracks. This is
because they would appeal more to the teenage
target audience.
• The colours used in our trailer were different too. We
chose to use pink and white for the title sequence
‘CYBERGIRL’. This was chosen as it fitted the plot line
•
better as it’s main
character is a female.
This goes against the
conventional dark
colours of a
psychological thriller.

8. Poster – Using
• The poster contained the
traditional credits at the
bottom of the page. These are
needed for legal reasons so
couldn’t be missed.
• It also included the title of the
film in bold lettering.
• I made sure – so to use synergy –
and follow the conventional
psychological thriller’s posters
I used the lead character from
the trailer as my poster girl.

9. Poster - Developing
• Developing the ideas from my research instead of
having the model on the poster
facing the camera she is turned
away. This is similar to the
Inception poster that has the
character facing away from the
audience. This made his character
mysterious. For my poster I think
the character look frightened but
also her identity is being concealed,
intriguing the audience.
•

10. develop this further I included three reviews. These used exciting
language so that people would be more drawn to it. I also used stars
as I have seen these used on posters from research.
• Similar to the black swan poster I wanted to include some
reviews of the film. There is a quote from Empire
magazine describing the film as an
“Extraordinary, intoxicating experience”.
The purpose of this is to influence viewers
to go and see the film. I wanted this for my
poster, so to

11. Poster - Challenging
• The poster I created is different to conventional psychological thriller’s
posters as it is brighter and has more colour to it. Traditionally, from
research, dark colouring and low-key lighting are used in the imagery
and font colours. This obviously correlates with the films. As my
trailer is aimed at teenagers and takes a different approach to the
traditional plot lines, I felt it couldn’t use the same colour schemes. I
chose pinks as this is the same colour I used for the title on the
trailer. It looks different and enticing. I made sure to include blood
splatters on the poster however, as this made it obvious that things
were not going to stay ‘pink’ and bright throughout.

12. Magazine FC - Using
• I used the same layout as other Empire magazine
examples I looked at. I included the same tagline of
‘The world’s biggest
movie magazine’. I also
used, like the example
on the right, the header
at the bottom of the
page. This is because the
magazine title and film
title both have a major,
eye-catching feature on the page.

13. • I also used similar sub-headings and colour types. This
is because they are conventional features of a
magazine cover of Empire magazine. I wanted mine
to look as authentic and professional as possible, so
it was important for them to be similar.
• The way the ‘credits’ were placed were important.
Empire magazine tend to have them in between the
points of the ‘M’. I did the same and then had the
barcode on the right of the page.
• The image I was to use had to also fit the conventions
of a magazine cover. I chose an image that had
direct eye-contact and had good use of the grid
method, which meant the model would be in the
centre of the page.

14. Magazine FC - Challenging
• My magazine cover doesn’t challenge much of the
traditional conventions. This is because I wanted my
cover to look authentic and didn’t want it to stray
from the norm. I believe this may have put readers
off if I went for something different to what Empire
magazine usually produce.
• What is different is the colours of the image are much
whiter. This is because it suits the trailer for it to be
white and bright. It wouldn’t have looked right if a
black background was used.