My coursework does all three, it uses develops and challenges forms and conventions of real media products 

1. My coursework does all three, it uses develops and challenges
forms and conventions of real media products,

2. My coursework does all three, it uses develops and challenges forms and conventions of real
media products,
Trailer- My trailer idea has always been to be an action. I have always loved going t the
cinema to watch action movies and loved the trill and tension that they use to make my blood
rush that little bit faster. Action films are described to be a genre in which one or more heroes
are thrust into a series of challenges that typically include physical feats, extended fight
scenes, violence, and frantic chases. Action films tend to feature a resourceful character
struggling against incredible odds, which include life-threatening situations, a villain, or a
pursuit which generally concludes in victory for the hero. (Wikipedia) This therefore puts me in
the position to try and recreate this myself using my own actors, filming techniques, editing
skills, props and settings. Todorovs theory is often placed into the genre of action/thriller films
because of the balance of equilibrium being broken by the antagonist and tried to be resolved
by the protagonist.

3. My trailer followed Todorovs theory, Craig and the smaller gangs he runs around Chelmsford
are disrupting the equilibrium of the City. In doing so they kill Nicks family and leave him alone
in the world. Nick becomes the protagonist although he can also be seen as an antihero
character and tries to restore the cities order by killing off all those trying to destroy it. This
follows and uses codes and conventions of action films as the story line and lead theorist is
similar to the tried and tested classic action plot. Another code and convention that we
followed and used is the use of low key lighting, changes in shot angles and quick cuts. All of
these are found in almost every action film and my piece is no different and follows the same
codes and conventions. In my trailer we also used flashback scenes, chase scenes, diabetic
sound of breathing/heartbeats and finally gunshots. I was able to identify all of these
conventions, not only in my trailer, but also in the three I analyzed being ‘John Doe:Vigilante’,
‘Harry Brown’ and ‘Gangster Squad’. All of these three trailers are action/crime films from the
last 6 years which makes them newly released genre similar films. When I analyzed the three
trailers and identified their codes and conventions I made note of them as they appeared.
Here are the three combined trailers’ lists of the codes and conventions.

4. Jump cuts
involvement of police
low key lighting
flashbacks
black and white scenes
tension building music
strong beat heavy music after
quick cuts
different angles same scene
shot reverse shot
extreme close ups
close ups
establishing shots
medium shots
rarely long shots
gunshots/explosions
inter titles
protagonist dramatically looking up to camera.
Female character that needs help - over sexualisation

5. Within my trailer I decided to count up all the times that these happen, here are the results.
Jump cuts x 1
involvement of police x 1
low key lighting x 23
flashbacks x 2
black and white scenes x 1
tension building music yes
strong beat heavy music after yes
quick cuts x 18
different angles same scene x 2
shot reverse shot x 3
extreme close ups x 3
close ups x 15
establishing shots x 2
medium shots x 10
rarely long shots x 1
gunshots/explosions x 5
inter titles x 8
protagonist dramatically looking up to camera x 1
From these results we can clearly see that I have followed all the codes and conventions i was
able to identify out of the three trailers I analyzed.

6. I developed the standard codes and conventions by tying in features from other genres into
my own action genre. Although my film is still very much an action film it involves aspects of
thriller and even a few horror conventions along the way. For example, the way the trailer
builds slowly at the beginning, with an eery music in the background. As the trailer continues
to develop and the scenes become more shocking and scary, the eery music highness and
then drops suddenly. This is a common theme used in horror films where an eery noise plays
in the background as the protagonist becomes in danger. This time however it is occurring up
until a point. At this pint, more action music plays and the trailers events follow the action
conventions I previously mentioned. This the in of the horror/thriller genre into the action
genre is interesting and blatantly shows my media piece developing normal conventions of
action films. This I find interesting and exciting about my piece and think that it word very
effectively.

7. Finally at some points of my trailer, it does completely challenge and contrast between normal
action films. In many action films a female actress is used as a ‘damsel in distress’ and needs
to be saved by the over masculine protagonist. I myself think that my piece is a refreshing
change from the normal plot and think that actresses should be given more of a similar role in
action films than just to be a sexual object. This is the case in one of the trailers I analyzed.
Action Squad uses the main character of Grace as an attractive woman who has an affair with
the protagonist. Although this is common within these films, I chose not to use this convention
and the main female character was the mother of Nick who is killed in the film fairly early on,
shown in the trailer.
I also challenged the common conventions of a trailer by having very little audio dialogue in my
trailer. I decided to let the dramatic music play the most important part to set the scene of the
trailer and focus on the action within the film. I think that this is what actions should be like and
so decided to stay away from in depth audio and relate my trailer to the old style of a real full
packed action film. This is how I challenged action genres common codes and conventions
within my Trailer,

8. Within my ancillary tasks I also used, challenged and developed common codes and
conventions. Firstly with both my poster ad my magazine cover i decided to follow the
convention of other posters I analyzed. This was a large title, the film name in the middle just
below the main body of the image in a contrasting color to the main images color. All posters
and covers I looked at also had the main character of that film in the middle, this is a strong
image that stands out from anything else on the age and has a direct point of focus with the
audience looking at the print products. This direct point of focus gives the image more presence
on the page and makes it stand out a lot more than t would without it. Secondly i decided to
follow the white text effect. Lots of the similar pieces used white font, this is because it stands
out, looks sharp and has a good contrast it the rest pf the page.

9. In my magazine cover the top line ‘The All Action Issue’ is common among Total Film
magazines. This tells the audience what kind of issue this months magazine will be focusing on
and automatically sets the scene and content of the genre incase none has heard of the new
film ‘The Vigilante’. With the Magazine cover I decided to follow the convention of smoke and
rain. Although there is not always rain in an image, I found that action prints, be it a magazine
cover or a poster, there is usually something else in the image such as an explosion, fire, a
damaged building or smoke. In my magazine cover I decided to use smoke leaving the barrel of
the gun and rain hitting the character. This could be seen as pathetic fallacy showing the
weather around him representing his mood. The rain effect was achieved in Photoshop by
manipulating shapes, giving them a Gaussian blur and then changing colors and opacity. I also
added into the cover famous names as sub titles and the old they are talking about within the
Magazine. This sort of information is often on the front cover to help the company sell their
magazine to potential buyers. The sneak peak at films from 2015/2016 on the cover also would
help to create excitement around those films and would be likely to increase the amount of
people interested in buying the film. For example, chose to use deadpan on the same
magazine because marvel fans are known to be very loyal and love to collect anything involving
something to do with their franchise. I also added in the social media site names where I
believe Total Film would advertise my trailer as part of a product marketing campaign for the
film. This would work as synergy between my production company and the magazine as we
would both prosper. This is a technique used by many big companies who appear on
magazines as they create more sales and in return the magazine publisher promotes the film
on social networking sites and in the magazine itself. The recurring red, black and white colors
add enigma and are effective at portraying the films emotions and genre effectively. Although
the colors themselves somewhat challenge common traits, the rule of three colors that match
and work well in a pallet is the same as all magazine covers and any piece of work in the media
and so is a use of similar conventions and color styles.

10. Finally with the last similarity of the ancillary pieces. With my Film poster, I decided that a
crosshair effect would look good and add an effect to the piece. The institutional information
along the top and the date at the bottom follows similarities that I have seen in most film
posters. I decided to have the date as the same color as the other text, this is because it is the
color that stands out best against the background and is one of the most important pieces of
information on the poster. This is the same with all posters, they must aim to use text a color
than is different and contrasts well with the background otherwise people would struggle to see
what it says and that would deem an unsuccessful poster. Having the ‘Staring’ and the actors
name larger than the rest of credentials along the bottom is a also a feature that is seen a lot on
film posters. This is an important part of film posters as it can help ell the poster to a wider
range of audiences, IE loyal fans of an actor or actress would buy the film or go to see it
regardless of the genre, just because the actor that is playing a certain role.
The font i used for ‘The Vigilante’ is a sans serif block font that is used for a lot of action
posters. The simplicity of the font works well with the genre and emphasizes the masculinity
and bulkiness of the action genre.

11. My products also develop codes and conventions. For example the use of shadows in the
poster to add enigma into the release of the film and the story are emphasized all around the
page. I used the darkness around the edges fading into shadows and then into the image to
crate a sense f enigma, exactly what a good poster should do. I did this because it is important
to remember a poster my be released before the trailer and so enigma at this point is important
as giving too much away at the earl stage will lead to less excitement and pre release hype
around the film which is a negative that is best avoided where possible in the media industry.

12. There are not many occasions where spoilers in the marketing campaign have been successful
and beneficial around the product.
Another development of codes and conventions to do with my poster is the quote above the title
and the main actors name on the poster. This is because Cem Yeta in my marketing campaign
is an up and coming actor who has won many awards. This is beneficial to put on my poster
because, as I mentioned before, fans of his work would buy the film and pre order tickets
because he is in it, regardless if they are fans of the action genre or not.
Having the quote on the poster is also not very common as some people think it takes away the
enigma from the film but i disagree. I think it gives just enough away to make the audience want
to watch the film and would make them happy to wait the time until it was released.

13. Finally My products also challenge common pieces of similar genre and work. My film poster is
different to those of a similar genre and style. Usually I have found while analysis action movie
film posters, i.e. the avengers, there is a lot going on in the background. These include broken
buildings, explosions, fire, smoke or even dramatic falling rain. Although these are featured in
many action movie posters, I have decided to portray enigma instead of full blown action. The
enigma that comes from a simple shadowed backdrop gives the film a whole new feel to its
genre. This is different from what we usually see with this genre and here I have challenged
and started completely away from common genre conventions and traits.

14. My magazine cover does not contain a usual tagline for the film as I left this for the movie
poster and also it does not have a white base color for the Total Film Logo. The black and red
represent the enigma that I have tried hard to portray with the film representing the shadow
taking over from the films upcoming release. The red also helps to symbolize danger that is
also a huge part about the film although none knows yet what the danger is about, adding even
more enigma to the cover. Although these challenge common traits of the coves, I think my
idea and justification works well and is very effective at getting its point across.