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

2. TRAILER
When beginning to plan my trailer I first researched existing products that were
aimed at the same target market I had selected and were also the same genre –
Social realism – these trailers I looked at were ‘Billy Elliot’ and ‘Fish Tank’. I chose
both of these as they had the same look and feel that I was aiming for with my
product. I specifically chose these two as ‘Billy Elliot’ was filmed exactly the same
way I wanted to film mine as in it had similar shots and very similar mise-en-
sense. I also did a little research into the conventions of feature length and teaser
trailers so as to be able to decide between the two. I then decided after looking
at my two chosen trailers to keep it no longer than 2 minutes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8n7P8HaOgPo – my trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9gF_97towc – Billy Elliot trailer
I eventually chose to do a teaser trailer as they are typically shorter and punchier
than a feature length. Teaser trailers rely greatly on the publicity created via word
of mouth and hype giving away little about the plot thus creating excitement.
However I chose to challenge this by incorporating quite a lot of the story line
into my trailer as the initial film wouldn’t ever be produced anyway.
Another key element of my trailer is that some of the footage was shot on
handheld cameras. This is quite a new, postmodern feature as most mainstream
films are shot on fixed cameras. Therefore my product would appeal to both a
mainstream audience but also to a more niche arty type of viewer.

3. Another element that challenges conventions is the lack of names featured within may
film trailer footage such as those of the actors/directors/producers etc. I chose not to do
this as I didn’t want to disturb the tension I had created and I didn't want to distract the
audience with having to much to read.
Both of these points of the trailers have
voices overs. The Billy Elliot one has a
voice over where the narrator is speaking
where as my trailer is my main character
Jackie doing the one voice over.
A particular convention I challenged was the amount of voice overs overlaid
over the footage. When researching trailers and their conventions I found that
social realism films do have voice overs therefore I decided to put a few in but not
many so that not to much was given away and so it wasn’t exactly like a social
realism film. I think only have a few bits of dialogue in my trailer works better
has it leaves the audience to decide for themselves what the rest of my trailer will
or would be like. At the same time having the few bits of dialogue and voice overs
I did include did allow the audience to be teased.

4. Conventions –
here are a few shots from Billy Elliot and Fish
tank that i tried to incorporate in my trailer.

5. Conventions
Pace of shots – The pace starts of relatively slow then the pace picks up
considerable towards the end, then right at then end it finishes on another slow
shot.
Music – start of the trailer, music is driven by a girls choir, with a repeated melody.
It then sinks into a normal song, by Ellie Goulding called Explosions. The song
differs in speed and pace and fits in perfectly well with my trailer.
Mise-en-scene – costume, setting and speech stereotypical of working-class society.
Trailer has as very dark and grungy feel in most areas.
Lighting – mostly low light inside, dreary, low-mood. Raining and dark when
outdoors, almost metaphorical, main character trying to reach out to a better
future.
Representation – the main character is shown to be the ‘underdog’ in the plot, and
controlled by the adults in the story. Trailer shows her trying to escape and break
through. Representation on working class society is very stereotypical. It shows the
parents/adults are dominant.

6. How far did my trailer match conventions of a like product?
I felt that I matched the conventions of those in ‘Billy Elliot’ very well, by using a wide range of
different shots to be able to tell my story in a short trailer. Certain aspects of my trailer match
those in Billy Elliot but they also match other film genres. For example nearly all of the trailers
I studied included a background synchronous sounds, and it also kept to a colour theme when
have credits etc.
I feel that I used similar shots and artistic conventions to make my trailer as in other trailers I
have analysed. In particular I am pleased with the shots I used in order to portray my main
character as feeling isolated, an example of this is the close up quick shots I have of her
throwing her dancing shoes away, or the mid shot of her dancing and her mum looking
uninterested, but with a lot of empty space within the shot.
The genre of ‘social realism’ was a key feature when designing my trailer, and I hoped that the
idea came across within my trailer. I considered and included things such as stereotypically
low culture costume, and back ground settings, for example the main character often wore the
same old clothes that was often too small. I also included the main characters bedroom as
being plain and simple to give it a low culture feel and look. For example in the opening shot of
Billy Elliot trailer the main character here is wearing old clothes that is too tight and mall for
him, the room is also fill of dirty smoke.

7. How far did my trailer match conventions of a like
product? Cont.
Although I focused a lot on the trailer of ‘Billy Elliot’ I also studied the film trailer of ‘Fish
tank’, therefore I wanted to develop the idea of ‘Fish Tank’ a bit more in my own trailer.
Traditionally in a the genre of social realism, stereotypically the ‘happy ending’ doesn’t
happen, however in my trailer it was something I wanted to include. Therefore towards
the end of my trailer it picked up the beat slightly to make it seem slightly happier, and
showing that the character could have a happier light, however I didn’t want to over
exaggerate the happiness because I didn’t want to give the ending away.