2. In what ways do my media
products use, develop or
challenge forms & conventions
of real media products?
3. In what ways do my media products use, develop or
challenge forms & conventions of real media
products?
In my media coursework, I have used
many conventions that I found whilst
studying media products such as
magazine covers, movie trailers and
movie posters. The main conventions I
found in these products surround colours,
text font and size, imagery, shot types
and layout. I have created a magazine
cover, a movie poster and a teaser trailer
as a promotion package for my product,
and I feel I have used many conventions
within all of these products.
4.
5. In what ways do my media products use,
develop or challenge forms & conventions of
real media products?
My magazine cover is created for a film genre of
horror. The image I have used links to this genre
through costume, (2 models have fake blood over
clothes and messed up hair), and mise-en-scene,
(the location is dark and surrounding a grave
yard, and props such as chains and lanterns are
shown). The 2 models used in the image are also
creating a mysterious and scary emotion through
there facial expressions. These factors
conventionally link to horror and I feel for this
reason, my image was a successful choice.
6. In what ways do my media products use,
develop or challenge forms & conventions of
real media products?
I fitted the text around the image, conventionally creating a
professional looking magazine cover. The text colours I chose
were red and white, this was because the red signifies horror in
general – blood and evil. White works well with the red to
‘soften’ it up, because if I used red for all of my text it would
not be eye catching. Also the colours are clear above the image
which is generally dark. Also, using two colours allowed me to
create a house style of subheadings, headings and descriptive
text. I used red for my headings and subheadings as it is more
eye catching, and white for the longer patches of text so that it
was clear for the reader. I added a banner at the top of the
magazine cover to put an eye catching reason for people to
want to buy the magazine – in this case, a competition. I made
this background bright orange to catch the readers eye. I made
the text white so that it was clear for the reader but also fitted
in with the rest of the text colours. The font I used for headings
and subheadings was Rockwell and Accent. This was because
they are clear but also interesting; I didn’t want a ‘boring’ font.
Other fonts I used, for paragraphs included Accord because it is
a clear format.
7. In what ways do my media products use,
develop or challenge forms & conventions of
real media products?
The layout conventionally uses the path of the
eye line effectively – the banner and title are read
first, allowing the reader to instantly relate to the
genre through the colours and wording used. The
image (mainly the facial expressions of the
models) is noticed next, relating clearly to the
genre of the magazine. “The Cure” is the next
thing to be seen, in large red writing it catches
the reader’s eye, and again, relates to the genre
effectively. I placed celebrity posters in the
bottom left corner so as not to have too much
writing and include some imagery – the posters
are seen last, just before the bar code and price
which is the least important thing until the reader
decides they want to buy the magazine.
8.
9. In what ways do my media products use,
develop or challenge forms & conventions of
real media products?
My movie poster again conventionally follows the genre
of horror. The image includes a bandaged hand
covered in blood holding a chain. This creates mystery
for the onlooker as it isn’t a clear meaning – but it
portrays violence and horror, interesting the reader
through the creative imagery. To create a house style,
I involved the same colour scheme as the one I used
for my magazine cover. I made my main title red for
the same reason as my magazine cover; it catches the
reader’s eye, it is bold and allows them to relate to the
genre of horror instantly as red signifies blood, evil and
power. The smaller writing is a contrast of red and
white to keep to the house style. The font style I used
was Academy Engraved throughout. I felt this text
was readable and clear, but it has a gothic edge to it to
conform to the genre.
10. In what ways do my media products use,
develop or challenge forms & conventions of
real media products?
The layout of my poster also conventionally uses
the path of the eye line effectively. The title is the
first thing to be looked at, allowing the on lookers
to take in the meaning of the film. The image of
the bleeding arm and chain leads down to the
ratings of the film. This allows the person to learn
a little more about the genre, and also see that it
is a successful film as the ratings are 5 and 4
star. I have also included actor names and the
release date to give the basic information they
need. The 18 certificate is placed in the last place
they look; this is to clarify the boundaries of the
film, and to ensure the cinemas do not allow
anyone that is under 18 to watch the film.
11. In what ways do my media products use,
develop or challenge forms & conventions of
real media products?
We have also used many convention in our media
trailer. Examples of these include a happy
beginning and a mysterious finish, written
narrative, for example: 3 weeks later, different
shot types and upbeat music. We decided to
include all of these after analysing horror trailers
for their conventions. Our main narrative is the
news reader, which i feel is an effective way of
telling the story line because it gives the main
facts and shows the seriousness of the topic. We
then introduced short and snappy violent clips to
pick up the pace of the trailer as shown in
conventions.
12. In what ways do my media products use,
develop or challenge forms & conventions of
real media products?
Much of the editing included ducking -
where we made the background music
quieter whilst the news reader scene was
playing to allow her voice to be clear. We
also changed the saturation, exposure
and brightness of the video clip to make
some scenes black and white and to make
the other scenes clearer and brighter. We
cut some of the scenes at the beginning
and at the end of clips that we didn't need
to make the run through more efficient.
14. How effective is the cross-media package as a
whole?
Overall, my cross-media package is effective as a
whole. This is because I have consistently stuck to a
house style of colours, fonts and image conventions, in
my magazine cover, poster and trailer. This shows that
I have created a horror genre in each of my products,
and they can all fit together as an audience would
relate the same fonts etc as “The Cure” package. Also,
the magazine promotes The Cure and provokes the
reader to want to watch the movie with the information
given, the movie poster clearly promotes The Cure and
persuades the on lookers to watch the movie, and the
movie can provoke people to buy the magazine to find
out about the characters and behind the scenes if they
haven't already done so before watching the movie, so
it all links into each other as a package.
17. What have you learned from your audience
feedback?
From my audience feedback I have decided to use the
results in the planning of our product. We can see that
our target audience enjoy watching horror movies, so
this is a good start. The majority of the people asked
would however change stereotypical events, the most
being changing the gender of the villain from
conventional male to female. We have decided in our
movie, we are going to include both male and female
characters that are seen as “villains”, (in our case,
zombies). The majority of people asked, said that Dead
Set was there favourite horror movie, which is effective
as that includes zombies, and we are basing our movie
on zombie like characters. Also the feedback
questionnaire I created about our finished media
promotion package turned out to be very successful;
the majority of the answers come under ‘definitely’
which is the desired answer.
18. What have you learned from your audience
feedback?
For our movie poster, we decided to edit the
image to show conventional stormy weather. This
idea has come from the feedback: the majority of
people stated that stormy weather is most
effective in a movie poster. We will use a zombie
character for the magazine cover, this therefore
includes one of the actors/actresses so the
audience can relate easily to the movie, but also
it shows the horror genre. We will also use bright
colours like red to attract the readers to buy the
magazine, but also it will go with the blood on the
characters clothes.
19. How did you use new media technologies in the
construction and research, planning and
evaluation stages?
I used some new media technologies whilst
constructing my research, planning and
evaluation. Examples of these include imovie - to
edit my trailer, Fireworks to crop and edit images,
and a modern video camera to film our trailer,
using updates such as night vision. All of my work
has also been put on this blog which is an
example of new technologies. In the production
stage I used imovie to edit our movie trailer and
make it more professional, and I also used the
night vision on the modern video camera to
create an effective trailer in the dark. In the
research stage I used fireworks to crop images I
found and analysed.
