This document discusses how the creator of a film trailer media product analyzed existing thriller film trailers like Limitless, Insidious, and Wanted to identify common forms and conventions they could utilize in their own trailer. Some conventions they adopted included using a voiceover at the beginning to engage the audience, including fades between scenes, and using foley sounds to transition between clips. However, they also sought to challenge conventions by excluding background music and actor names, and including an extreme close-up shot. The analysis informed both what forms and conventions the creator implemented and challenged in their own thriller trailer media product.

1. In what ways does your media product
use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?

2. When deciding to create a film trailer, I realised
that my trailer would have to be similar to
trailers I have researched prior to creating my
own. To look at the forms and conventions
which i would need to use I looked at trailers
within the genre I had chosen, for example
Limitless. Although I wanted to follow the
conventions of thriller trailers, I also wanted to
challenge these to create a different trailer, not
just a copy of a successful trailer.

3. I have looked at many trailers such as
Insidious, Limitless, Wanted, Orphan, Unknown and
Uninvited to establish the different forms and conventions
within a thriller trailer, which I could use in my main
product.

4. • Voice overs
• fades to next scene or black
• uses music and voice overs
• use of foley sounds when changing scenes

5. What I took from Limitless
and how it effected my work.
When looking at the trailer for limitless, I enjoyed the voice over, it is
more engaging between the character and audience, than if it was just
music. I got the idea to have the protagonist in my trailer to do a voice
over at the start as well, to immediately engage with my targeted
audience. Although I liked the voice over I did not like the way the voice
over was combined with music. When it came to creating my own I felt
that if i included a voice over, the voice over is the only sound I would
want the audience to pay attention to.
In my trailer, also, I have used the fade effect whether that is to go from a
scene to black, or from one scene to another. I did this as I liked the
pace of the editing, including the fade effects.
To challenge the forms and conventions of this trailer I have decided not
to include the actors or actresses names.

6. • Voice over - introduce protagonist
• production logo comes in after introduction
to protagonist
• Inter titles to introduce characters

7. What I took from Wanted and
how it effected my work.
I haven’t followed many of the forms and conventions of the
Wanted trailer. I did however again use the idea of a voice over
at the beginning of the trailer.
However unlike this trailer I decided to put my production logos
at the beginning, before any of the scenes are shown. If the
audience see a well known production logo first they would be
more enthusiastic before even watching the trailer.
I didn't like the way the characters where introduced through
inter titles such as; The Master, The Student, The Teacher etc.
I think inter titles within a film should link to the other
promotional campaigns for the film.

8. Ways in which I have challenged the forms
and conventions of the trailers I have
analysed.
• In all of the trailers which I have analysed, I have not seen any
extreme close ups, of the protagonists face. I have included an
extreme close up shot of the characters mouths, as I thought it
would be an interesting and different shot.
• I have not included any background music, as I felt if I included
music, foley sounds and a voice over, there will be too much
going on and the audience will lose concentration and
engagement in my trailer.
• All of my inter titles have been based on the tagline, linking with
my ancillary texts and making a link which is visible to my
audience.

9. Ways in which I have used the forms
and conventions in my media product.
• The voice over is a key element which I found
effective when analysing real film trailers, engaging
with the audience and getting their attention is key.
• I have used foley sounds as sound bridges to go
from one scene to another which I found was in all
of the trailers I had analysed.
• Following the forms and conventions used in the
Limitless trailer, I have used many fades to black in
my trailer, especially in the slow paced beginning.