Media, evaluation question 1

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

2. Main product
The first frame of my short movie is a preview board that
appears just before the film. I included this typical convention
as it is a feature that was very common with existing and
successful products. In this way, this convention in particular is
developing forms and conventions rather than challenging them.
I chose this because I believe that it is what makes the film
appear professional and so to challenge this particular
convention may have made my work seem less authentic and
believable.
The second frame of my movie again develops a stereotypical
convention of real media products. This is due to the fact that
the title is usually the opening frame of the actual movie.
However, as I used a locked frame so that my actress was
walking towards the camera, I decided to keep the title
positioned across top of the hills so that it looked like part of
the shot. This was not something that I found a lot of within my
existing products research and so in this way I have challenged
conventions of real media products.

3. This particular frame of my movie challenges a lot of existing
media products. This is because in the majority of films that I
have researched or seen, when a text appears, the camera
usually focuses on the phone so that the audience can read
the message from the phone screen. I challenged this
convention in that I tried to make it more interactive by
displaying the notification within the full shot. This was
something that I thought worked really well as it highlighted
the use of social media in today’s society which is which is
what my movie focused on. This was something I had seen
similar uses of in teen programmes such as Hollyoaks.
The next frame also demonstrated the same conventions but
Instead displayed text messages rather than social media
notifications.
My last demonstration of these conventions appeared in this
frame. This shot in particular displayed a Facebook notification.
All of these interactive conventions of texts and social media
alerts were accompanied with their associated sounds so that
they were more believable and authentic to what they were
intended to represent.

4. The final frame of my movie again developed existing
Conventions of real media products in that it is common
for the credits to be the ending frame. I decided to stick with
this convention as it indicated the end of my movie
successfully and went well the the locked shot. If I had
challenged this convention then there may not have been
a definite end to my movie and may have appeared as
though there was going to be more, or a follow up which was
not the case.
The concept of my movie as a whole challenged a lot of
ideas regarding social media. Although this was not a
convention in its own right, I decided to challenge these
stereotypes of social media to raise awareness of the problems
that it can cause in today’s society. I decided to do this as I feel
like it is something that is not usually explored but that a lot of
people can relate to. In this way my movie challenged
stereotypical ideas of ‘teen dramas’.

5. Ancillary Task
Movie Poster

6. A convention that I decided to develop within my
movie poster was the inclusion of badges linked with
awards that the movie may have won. I decided to
create a badge similar to the Sundance festival awards
to make my movie seem more professional. However,
I decided to have this convention take up a lot of space
within the background of my poster so that it stood
out to the audience. Although I ensured it did not
distract from the rest of the poster by making it more
transparent so that it blended into the background.
This was something that I somewhat challenged as I
had not seen this presentation of a badge in this way on
a movie poster as they tended to be small and located in
bottom corners of the page.
Another convention that I developed within my poster creation was the
Institutional information located in the bottom right third of the page.
This was a typical convention of existing products that I found and was
a feature that I wanted to keep as it added to the authenticity and
professionalism of the poster.
I also developed the convention of ratings on my poster task. This was
whereby I included a rating from The Guardian of 5 stars to make it
Seem as though the newspaper had watched and ranked my movie. This
was something that I found was very common of existing products and so
I decided to keep this convention as it made the poster more believable.

7. The main image of my poster that acted as the background was a convention that I
decided to develop. This was because the majority of existing posters that I researched
and used for inspiration also did this. I found that the posters that appealed to me most
had also used this convention and so I felt that it would be beneficial for me to use in my
own work.

8. Ancillary Task
Magazine Review Page

9. A convention that I developed within my magazine review page was the Drop cap
feature. I used this because I found that it was common in many existing movie
magazines and was something that made the article appear professional and
believable. It also indicates to the audience clearly where the article starts and so is
a useful feature to include.
Another convention that I developed was the inclusion of a sponsor. I used the
BFI as my chosen sponsor given the content, production and cast of my movie.
For this reason I felt like it was authentic to mention the sponsor as they are
linked to the movie.
When looking at inspirational products, the magazine I looked closely at
included award badges and recognition. I felt like this made the movie and
article itself appear more professional and so I decided to develop this
convention in my own work. To do this I created a symbol alike to that of
Sundance Festival and then accompanied this badge with a piece of text
indicating what category my film had won.
Typical conventions that I had to develop within my work were the use of page
numbers and credits. These are set features of the vast majority of professional
magazines and so I felt like I should develop them to ensure that my review page had
the very basic conventions at least. These included both article and photography
credits.

10. A stereotypical convention of existing media products that I
developed was the use of a move title. This was necessary to
develop so that my audience knew what the title of my movie
was. Without this, the page would not have been
professional or even believable. I decided to use a large font
for this so that it would clearly stand out to the audience
which is also a common convention. Just underneath the title
I also included another typical convention of the release date
as small additional information for the audience which would
indicate when the movie was available to watch and appear
authentic to real review pages.
This convention of movie facts
was not a feature that I found
to be very common when
looking at existing products.
However, I did find this feature
on my inspirational product and
so I decided to develop this
convention as I felt it was
unusual but effective. This
feature added to the creativity
of my review page and perhaps
something that would
distinguish my work from other
competing magazines.
Another convention that I developed was the ratings from The
Guardian newspaper. I decided to develop this as the majority of
review pages include ratings from companies to demonstrate the
opinions on the film to the audience. This is one of the main
features of review pages and so I included it for this reason.

11. When researching existing movie magazines I did not find many which highlighted
social media links. Given the content of my movie and the fact that my audience would
be frequent users of social media, I decided to include these links as they would be
likely to increase awareness of the film.
I developed existing conventions of media products in regards to the captions that
anchored my images within my review page. This is a basic convention of many
magazines and so I felt that it was necessary to develop the basics.
Another feature that I further developed was the use of slugs in the top corners of my
pages. The slug in the top left indicated what type of page it was, ie. A review page, so
that the audience were aware of what they were reading or could skip past it if they
wished. The slug in the top right corner simply highlighted additional information of a
website link to the magazine in case they had access to technology to perhaps boost
advertisement for the magazine.