1. I N W H A T W A Y S D O E S Y O U R
M E D I A P R O D U C T U S E , D E V E L O P
O R C H A L L E N G E F O R M S A N D
C O N V E N T I O N S O F R E A L M E D I A
P R O D U C T S ?
K AT I E G R AV E T T
2. TEASER TRAILER
Our teaser very much follows the format conventions of a teaser trailer, we looked at many examples
that we aimed to follow for things such as the duration, sound, text/graphics and certain editing style.
When deciding on duration we knew that we
wanted to get as much information across
but still remaining within the average time
frame, therefore aimed between 60 and 90
seconds. Prisoners duration is 1 minute 3
seconds and Skyfall is 1 minute 24 seconds,
this helped us to see how much information
we could get into the amount of time we
had. Teasers are designed to be short as a
way to engage the audience, they give out
key bits of information in a short space of
time so that the audience get a feel for what
the genre and narrative of the film is.
Sound is a very important aspect of a teaser, it
brings the whole thing together as it helps to
back up the images you’re seeing with a sound
that matches. It helps to determine the genre of
which you are watching through the pace and
type of sound it is. In the film Prisoners there was
a section of sound that I thought would work well
in our teaser so I then found a loop of non-
diegetic sound on GarageBand which we then
incorporated into our teaser when the titles are
shown.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUSfKQ4xVtc
Prisoners
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24mTIE4D9JM
Skyfall
The way that our teaser was edited follows the
general convention of a teaser, speeding up as
it progresses. We made sure that once the
soundtrack began the clips began to get more
intense and we ended on an intensified sound
just like the Prisoners teaser.
3. POSTER
During my research I looked at the Prisoners
poster to help give me ideas of what I wanted to
include in my own, the use of two characters was
a key feature that I knew I wanted to incorporate.
This doesn't always follow the format conventions
of a film poster however with two of the films we
looked at it did therefore it encouraged me to use
the feature.
In a lot of the thriller posters we looked at there is a reoccurring theme of the use of dark colours and
shadows and highlights, this helps to set the scene and create a sense of mystery for the audience.
The tagline we used needed to not only relate to the film but also try to convey the genre which
Prisoners does with the tagline ‘A hidden truth, a desperate search’.
The billing block is a feature on most film
posters, this includes names of starring actors,
production companies and specialist positions
such as lighting technicians. I noticed how small
of a feature they were on a poster whilst still
remaining important, they tended to be located
along the bottom and were in a tight formation
so that you could barely read it. We adopted
this style and followed both the Prisoners poster
and Girl on The Train however added in ’Coming
Soon’ and ‘Experience at IMAX’ as a way to
challenge the typical format conventions.
4. POSTER CONTINUED…
An extra feature that I feel develops from a
traditional convention of a film poster is the
mist that we used in the background, a
common element is the introduction of things
like shadows and highlights however the misty
scene I felt created the same look. When films
have dark colour schemes for their
promotional material it immediately notifies
the audience that this isn’t going to be a
comedy or romance but more like a thriller or
horror. The mist was incorporated so that we
could get that same feeling from our
audiences.
5. MAGAZINE COVER
After looking at companies such as Empire and Total Film we
noticed that the main image that is used on a magazine cover
tends to be the main character in the film they are promoting,
it is the biggest in size and the main focus of the cover. Our
main character is Andreas therefore we used a full body shot of
him holding a gun as objects are also a common feature as
well as it linking with our teaser.
We decided to use Empire as we not only liked the style of the magazine but also when we carried out
further research into the company we discovered it is the number 1 selling film magazine which was an
instant draw. They promote mainly action and thriller films that are aimed towards males which fits in
with our target audience. A feature that we tried to stick with on our cover was the listing of other films
as well as the title of the film boldly positioned in the middle.
We followed the colour scheme
conventions of an Empire
magazine, this being that they tend
to use quite dark colours however
no specific one. They have a focus
on one or two colours which helps
to link all the information together,
we liked this idea and the effect it
had on the presentation so we
decided on white and blue.
6. GENRE CONVENTIONS
Thrillers are full of mysterious and dangerous
characters, they include murderers, thieves, police
officers, victims and many more. In our teaser we
decided on having two main characters who were
both victims in their own way. Two other
characters were present however didn’t have
screen time, one was a police officer and another
the kidnapper.
Looking at the film Prisoners there are two
innocent victims (the young girls) and the
criminal. Based on this research we looked at
doing something similar, therefore came about
the idea to have a kidnapping of a young boy
(Joey). It follows all the typical thriller
conventions therefore was a good aspect to
include.
Setting and location is also important in helping
the audience to identify what genre it is, thrillers
are set in urban places like cities or abandoned
areas however we were constrained to the college
and Reigate area. Our setting and location
challenged the conventions, however this was due
to the restrictions that were in place. I looked at
the Skyfall teaser when I wanted ideas on the
locations in which we should film, as the film
series and Skyfall alone are known to have a wide
range of action happening in different
countries/areas of the world.
7. GENRE CONTINUED…
In my research I found that a typical narrative in a thriller or sub-genres of thrillers always end in a
goal trying to be achieved, this could be things like retrieving someone who has been kidnapped,
finding a missing item or finally killing an enemy. Films that have done this have become very
successful as audiences get a chance to work out for themselves how they are going to achieve it,
if it is a good thriller it will keep them guessing all the way through.
Prisoners used the narrative of a
kidnapping which we followed closely,
the idea of the young person going
missing helps to intensify the
audiences reactions which we also
wanted to gain when people saw the
teaser for Enigma. The main character
played by Hugh Jackman was the one
intent on finding them which we
recreated with Andreas trying to find
Joey. They also have a family relation
like in Prisoners.
8. INSTITUTIONAL CONVENTIONS
Certain organisations bring certain expectations as to what type of film/teaser the audience will
see, often how much money they have defines this. Examples are Hollywood Blockbusters, Low-
Budget films or even British Independents.
Enigma was a low budget teaser, this is
because of the environment of which
we were doing it in as well as the fact
that it was only a college assignment. If
there was more meaning to it,
then more money would be put in. An
example of a low-budget film that
became a huge success was The Blair
Witch Project, they set a budget
of $60,000 and made back over
$250m worldwide.
The posters that come from low budget films still display
the same information as a Hollywood Blockbuster would
however the quality in images and text would be lower
due to the equipment used. Our poster was low quality
however well thought out and it still conveys to the
audience the genre and narrative of our film which is
part of their purpose.
