The document discusses the conventions used and challenged in a poster, magazine cover, and trailer created to promote a film. For the poster, a conventional layout with a central image and title is used, while an unconventional solid black background helps the image stand out. The magazine cover develops conventions by positioning the image and title differently but keeps a simple structure. The trailer develops conventions through dark, barely visible scenes and breaks conventions by lacking voiceover or dialogue. Conventions are mostly followed for familiarity but also developed and challenged to suit the styled products.

1. Robbie Dale

2. Use –Poster
 My poster uses a conventional layout with a large central image, with
the title and release date below. (Insert Pica Mine and Other)
 I have the ident and web addresses of the company at the bottom in
the middle and the two corners respectively.
 The credits used Steel Tongs which is a conventional style font . (Insert
Image )
 The largest piece of text is the title of the film followed by the release
date. This is a very conventional – and logical – style, which provides
potential audiences with the most important information required.
 I followed conventions by having a small font size for the credits, as my
director had not made any Bafta/Oscar winning films.

3. Use – Magazine
 My magazine uses a conventional layout with a main image and secondary
supporting images. This is a conventional layout for a film magazine.
 The use of colours is conventional with red being used for the title as it is eye
catching, and black and white are easily distinguishable on the cover.
 The Plus section is a conventional method of highlighting other articles. On
my magazine cover, this is also positioned following the codes of a film
magazine.
 The barcode and web address are conventional (and vital commercial)
elements that add professionalism. They are normally placed out of the way so
as not to distract the reader from the main image.
 The use of a bar to highlight text is conventional and is often used to emphasise
a main story.

4. Use – Trailer
 My trailer follows many of the conventions of a thriller/horror trailer ;
just like the opening of the Woman in Black trailer
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPYMUnJGURI) I use a fog effect
across the ident at the start to immerse the audience within the
mysterious world of my film immediately.
 My use of transitions is conventional to a thriller trailer as I use many
fades and flashes to emphasise terror and fear.
 I paid close attention to framing, which is very important in any film;
the correct mise en scene is necessary to the suspension of disbelief (as
the many ‘bloopers’ programmes indicate, these can introduce
inappropriate humour into a scene). Any unwanted or unrelated
prop/background would detract from the viewer’s experience.
 My trailer runs for about 1.40 min, a conventional length for a trailer.

5. Develop- Poster
 While I have a strong central image, it is not of an
actor or character. So although my poster still has a
conventional layout, it does not use a standard image.
 The solid black background is relatively unusual for a
poster. However, as part of a monochrome colour
scheme, it helps the image and title stand out.

6. Develop- Magazine Front Cover
 My magazine develops upon the conventions, as while the
cover still has a main image, it is positioned towards the
right-hand side. While this is not unheard of, it is not a
common layout.
 My cover also develops conventions by adopting another
uncommon layout in which the main film title is
positioned towards the bottom, relying primarily upon the
main image to catch the potential reader’s attention. This
layout may be used for films with easily recognisable
characters or a unique design - such as my danse macabre
styled image.
 My cover is not as busy as others but follows a more simple
and structured design.

7. Develop- Trailer
 My trailer develops conventions through the use of
dark scenes in which the characters are barely visible.
I felt that ‘dark’ scenes with clearly lit characters
detracted from the atmosphere and wanted to create a
more realistic scene.
 My trailer breaks conventions by not using either a
voice-over or dialogue clips to outline the story. This
was partly because I lacked access to strong or
experienced actors, but also because I wanted to create
a sense of intrigue and mystery.

8. Challenge – Poster
 My poster challenged conventions by not having an
image or name of my actor on the poster as some films
with unknown actors do not show their names as it
would add nothing to the poster.
 My poster also challenges conventions by only using
black and white, as most poster which are mainly black
and white have a splash of red to give them life.
However, as a previous slide show described, I felt that
the any added colour on my poster was ineffective.

9. Challenge - Magazine
 My cover does not have an image of the actor on it,
which is unconventional but I used this to carry over
the skull motif and design a danse macabre inspired
image.

10. Challenge – Trailer
 My trailer did not challenge conventions as I felt that
my trailer had to meet audience expectations.

11. Conclusion
 I mostly followed conventions in layout and design as it
allowed my audiences’/readers’ to familiarise themselves
with the product quickly.
 I developed upon conventions as it would still follow the
codes of related media products but would adapt them to
suit my stylised products.
 I challenged conventions by not including colour on my
poster as it detracted from the overall effect or an image of
an actor in either of my ancillary tasks as they were
following a danse macabre styled image.