1. How does your product use, develop
and challenge the conventions of real
media texts?
2.
3. Sam‟s role in the group was to play the character of
Grimmers who tries to force his girlfriend (Mon) into
taking drugs. He becomes easily angry so we had to
bare this in mind when choosing his costume.
In order to characterise “Grimmers" and bring him into
his role of the drug dealing character, costume was
important:
We dressed him in all black and dull colours as well
as with a baseball cap on to slightly hide his face in
order to disguise himself slightly and to show his
hidden life to drug dealing. The black connotes that
he‟s a „bad person‟ and the audience would pick up on
this straight away.
The prop needed was the drugs which was the main
part of his storyline shown here.
4. For Grimmers and Mon‟s scene, we used the storyline of Grimmers forcing
drugs on Mon. We obviously didn‟t get real drugs for this so needed a
substitute which appeared to be real but were in fact safe. For this, we used
IBUPROFEN tablets.
Here, Shadia has made a
quick flow chart of how to
make the ibuprofen look like
they were drugs in our scene
and below is how we used
them in our trailer.
5. My role in the group was to play Mon – an innocent
girlfriend who was being pressured into drugs by her
boyfriend.
In order to get me into the character role we dressed
my character in a costume showing my character to be
a "normal teenaged girl" which consisted of jeans, a
vest top and a leather jacket, very day-to-day and
casual. A white vest top connotes Mon‟s innocence
too as lighter colours would contrast with the
darkness of the alleyway and of Grimmers‟ costume.
This gives off to the audience that “Mon” is just a
normal teenaged girl from the way she dresses, we
also decided on minimum makeup so that her
scared/frightened emotions on her face show well
through and also how fragile she can be towards Sam.
Her hair was also just down and straight to make sure
the emotion on her face was the only thing that stood
out.
6. Josh played the role of JP who we decided was going
to be a homosexual character so we had to choose his
costume carefully.
In order to get JP into his character role; we dressed
him from how we have seen stereotypes in other
programmes such as Desperate Scousewives with the
gay married couple‟s outfits. We dressed JP in tight
denim fitted jeans along with a pink polo top buttoned
up to the top and tucked into his jeans, "geek" glasses
were also used to exaggerate his appearance on film.
The pink would show the viewers his ‘feminine side‟.
We wanted new audience to also know he‟s
homosexual by just looking at him so this was
essential as we were aware that new viewers would
be confused if this wasn‟t made clear.
7. Sophie played to role of “Soph” – the best friend of JP.
Soph's is a normal teenaged girl therefore we dressed
her character role we dressed her in her costume as a
"normal teenaged girl" which consisted of jeans and a
white top, very day-to-day and casual with her
normal hair. Also, as she has been filmed in a house
environment we wanted her to look comfortable. We
also needed to keep all attention on JP’s storyline in
this scene so we had chosen to keep all the clothes
plain and neutral colours.
8. Harriett‟s role was to play Hal who runs away from her
housemate (Shad) when she‟s out the house after she‟s
been stopped multiple times.
As for Hal's costume we decided on dressing her in her
parka coat as she will be travelling for a while if she
is running away and the audience would know this as
she is wearing big layers in the trailer. As for
props, she had her mobile phone which was most
valuable to herself along with her bag of clothing and
stuff that she was taking with her on her travels which
was in a blue holdall that could be a gym bag which is
easily available for students to have rather than a
suitcase. A note is written by Hal too which is another
prop we needed to show that she‟d ran away.
9. Shadia‟s role was Shad who is Hal‟s housemate and
knows she‟s having troubles but is there to support her
to stop her running away.
Shad is a normal teenaged girl in a home environment
and has just woken up, therefore we dressed her
character role we dressed her in her costume as a
"normal teenaged girl" which consisted sweatpants
and a top, very casual with her normal hair also as
she has been filmed in a house environment we
wanted her to look comfortable and like she had just
woken up. She has her phone as a prop to call Hal
which shows the audience her concern for her
housemate and a mug.
A mug shows she‟s in a
comfortable home
environment
10. An entrance door partly open
gives the lazy student vibe as
no one has shut the door
behind them.
Basic white
walls and light
coloured table
give off that
this is the
student flat
kitchen – draws
attention to the
character‟s
housing.
The basic colours make sure the audience
aren‟t distracted from the characters during
the trailer.
11. Being in front of the characters
makes the audience feel like
they are the 4th wall so the
shape of the living room was
fitting.
Neutral colours show it could be Contrast of sofa and
a university common room. wall, darker colour could
indicate there‟s an argument
about to happen.
12. Long alleyway framed by fences
created great framing in
camera shots and the feel of
depth.
Trees over the
When Mon top of the alley
stands in front way so creates a
of the red brick shadowed mood –
wall, it perfect for our
indicates drug scene.
danger so we
found this
worked well
too.
Grungey green colour of moss
on the fences creates a moody
atmosphere.
13. Platform and railway make it
clear where the setting is –
easily accessible for target
audience.
White sky and dull colours of
the platform/train tracks gives
a dull atmosphere to represent
Hal‟s mood.