My A2 Media evaluation question number 1

1. IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR
CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?
EVALUATION QUESTION 1

2. My product manages to follow some conventions and go against
others. This is so that audiences have an idea of what's going on
and are not completely lost, but also in order to excite audiences
and keep them interested and wanting to watch more.
CONVENTIONS I HAVE ADHERED TO:
Most TV trailers are often between 2 to 3 and a half minutes long,
over usually is an extended trailer, with under a minutes mostly
being teasers. I followed this with my trailer being 3 minutes and
24 seconds, including my ident.
I have got more than enough footage and if I used all of it, then it
would be over the limit of what counts as an extended trailer.
Therefore I had to be selective and edit down the footage to follow
the convention.
GIFS OF EXAMPLES OF TV SHOW TRAILER (GIFS)

3. Examples of TV drama trailers fitting into the 2 to 3 and a half
minutes would be ‘Californication’ season one trailer.
As well as showing an ident, another convention I’ve followed is
featuring my series name, right at the end of the trailer. It is end at
which point audiences are most excited, and so that is where
almost all will reveal the name. I decided to follow this as I agree
the most exciting part of the trailer is the ending making it the
perfect place to reveal the title.

4. As I mentioned before I included my
custom made ident at the start of my
trailer.
Most trailers will include their
companies ident either at the beginning
or end so I have followed this
convention, using it at the start in an
attempt to draw audiences in more, as I
felt if I had it at the end of mine it isn't
as effective. I follow the conventions of
showing relatable, realistic situations
many teenagers will be familiar with, so
it appeals more to my target audience.
Series featured on E4 show the title
and ident at the end, as opposed to
shows on ‘Netflix’ and ‘BBC ONE’ who’s
ident is featured most often at the start
of the trailer.

5. Given the sub genre of my drama is teen-drama, the main focus is
the characters who are all teenagers. Along with this there are
how my characters are actually represented, each one of them
out of six has a clear representation of a specific character type,
with them being unstable, kind, bitch, fool, nerd and lesbian.
I felt this also appealed to most teenagers, who would know
someone who at least one of my characters reminds them of. I try
to make the characters a more extreme representation of their
character types, given it isn't reality, and wouldn’t be as
entertaining if it was 100% realistic. The props used are also very
familiar to teenagers such as smart phones, laptops and alcohol.

6. The location choices are also unusual for a
teen-drama as it is very common to have
the school/university heavily involved e.g.
‘Waterloo Road’.
There are uses of houses mostly for
characters hanging out and parties, which I
have stuck to, however the complete lack of
using any shots in their place of education
is breaking the convention. My series would
focus more on the sociable lives of the
characters which I personally believe
audiences, would find much more
entertaining. Since the location usually sets
the tone of the series, I purposefully did not
include shots within their educational
facilities within the trailer. I do manage to
incorporate work into the trailer however, I
make the story of my fool character,
desperately requiring help and guidance
from my nerd character, in revision for the
upcoming exams.

7. It is also the character
representations when I decide to
break some conventions, there are
some attributes of specific characters
would more commonly be seen in
another, but I chose purposefully to
mix them up a bit to add some more
uniqueness to my trailer. For example
it would be more likely for the
unstable/bitch characters to be the
one with a single parent but this was
given to kind character.
This use of family relationships
however is following a convention of
storylines within dramas, dealing with
domestic themes. This can be seen in
‘Waterloo Road’.

8. Most teen-dramas also base their
main stories a lot with romance
like in ‘Gossip Girl’ I decided that I
would use romance but it wouldn’t
be a major feature. I included one
story with romance between my
nerd character and the lesbian
character, the nerd being unaware
that she is in fact gay. I wanted to
challenge more subversive issues.
There is also no single main
protagonist, all the six characters
show get an equal amount of
screen time, as they are the main
protagonists, it sets up for a multi
strand TV drama, with multiple
storylines that are all interlinked,
such as in ‘Skins’. Their use of
dialogue within the trailer is short,
and simply used to further
represent their character type.

9. I have included voice overs, foley sound, soundtrack
and custom made font for the title of my series and
to use when introducing each character. I made two
versions of each title, so when edited right it would
give it a wiggle effect, giving the trailer a bit more
light-hearted feel. I also gave each characters font a
selected colour, trying to further represent their
character. Almost all TV drama trailers will feature a
select small amount of dialogue, which is effective,
can describe the character, as well as give away
some plot points so the audience has some idea of
what's going on like in ‘Sherlock’s season 4 trailer.
Like in ‘Skins’ season 4, season 4 finale and season
5 trailers, I went through each shot within my trailer
and drained the colour from it with Photoshop. When
actually watched as a series, the colour wouldn’t be
as drained but I did this for more effect following the
convention.
The soundtrack is also very important, instead of
using licensed music like most trailers. I edited my
own on Filmstro, but following the convention by
keeping it in the same pace as the shots, overall
ending up being a fast pace track.

10. Overall I feel I managed to please my target audience, I received
good audience feedback complementing me on my use of
character development, soundtrack and ident. I was in my early
drafts informed that the soundtrack might not be right, as well as
being a bit too loud during certain scenes. So I went back to
‘Filmstro’ and picked a new soundtrack, and edited it so it was
quitter during the character introduction shots. I later would revisit
this and change it up a bit more to increase the exciting feel.