The document discusses the conventions of movie posters, movie magazines, and movie trailers. For the movie poster, the author aimed to follow conventions like including the movie title and credits while challenging conventions by keeping the design simple. For the movie magazine cover, the author took inspiration from different magazines but challenged conventions by including more stories and text. The movie trailer aimed to include film techniques like different shot types but challenged conventions by excluding dialogue and only using soundtrack. Overall, the author's products both challenged and followed conventions of real media.

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

2. What are the main conventions of your
media products?
I thought the best way to begin my evaluation would be to define
conventional media products. Below I have listed the main conventions
which I discovered when looking into movie magazine covers.
• A large and bold mast head: this is the main aspect audiences will expect
to see when looking at a movie magazine, it will provide the film company
with the popular recognition they need.
• An eye catching and central cover image: the cover image will be the main
aspect and attracts the reader at first glance, usually starring the main
character of the movie featured in the issue.
• The tagline and main story: the main story is always the largest text on the
cover next to the mast head to address the article
• A barcode, a price and an issue: every magazine will have these three
features, not matter what genre or target audience making it a huge
convention.

3. MOVIE POSTER
My movie poster was inspired by the ‘Memories of a Geisha’
poster which I immediately saw and thought would suit the
target audience and genre I was aiming for. The main purpose
of movie posters is to excite and give the audience this
desperate anticipation for the movie’s release, there for I
wanted a really dark and blunt tagline and eventually came up
with ‘never trust a pretty girl with an ugly secret’. I think this
was perfect, the trailer gives the audience this sense that the
main character is mysterious, dark and hiding something and
my poster is support this idea. I believe my movie poster
supports rather than challenges media conventions when
looking at movie posters, I have included the main features
found on a movie magazine including my main movie title, the
name of the star, the poster credits and release date. All of my
text is in a white colour and the same font throughout, I
wanted this to be very professional and sophisticated so stuck
to a single theme rather unlike my magazine cover. I think the
hair being blown over Molly’s eyes really gives across this
drama or social realism genre which I want my audience to feel,
it suggests that because she is hidden beneath her hair she is
hiding away from something or someone yet her eyes are not
completely hidden. I edited the photograph on Adobe
Photoshop, using the brightness effect to make the image
lighter, the spot healing tool to perfect the skin of my model
and even using the burn and dodge tools to darken her lips but
make the eyes brighter.
In certain ways I could say that my movie poster does
challenge conventions of movie posters, whilst some posters
are cluttered with images, backdrops and too much text I have
kept my design simple and decided to use a white or grey
background to keep the main focus fixed onto my model.

4. MOVIE MAGAZINE
My magazine cover is my main product I believe which
will challenge the conventions of magazines. I decided to
switch between taking inspiration from both Empire and
Total Film which has worked very effectively to produce
my final product. Whilst Total Film like to clutter their
magazine covers with text and images, Empire seem to
keep the designs very simple and both work just as well as
each other. My image sits nicely in the centre of the page,
with the mast head across the top and the film title below
taken from the Empire magazine. I decided to put text up
both the left and right columns of the page, after much
consideration and advice I received feedback from
individuals saying they preferred the magazine cover
where a lot of the space is filled with inside stories. I have
subverted conventions by using up as much space as
possible, jam packing my cover with information and text
of stories the audiences can find inside as I believe that
the more I can appeal my magazine cover to customers,
the more likely they are to pick it up and look inside.
My colour scheme remained red, black and yellow
throughout simply because the three worked well
together and looked professional. Seeing as the genre of
my products has been drama, I has given me quite a wide
variety of design and images I could work with which
explains why I ended up picking a very natural and
expressionless image for my cover photo.

5. MOVIE TRAILER
The Plot
The plot of my movie is about a young woman struggling to cope with life in today's society and how brutal
humanity can be for individuals. I tried to include Todorov’s theory of equilibrium in my trailer, we start with a
calm atmosphere but as the trailer progresses we begin to understand how the character is depressed and
hiding a darker secret.
Does it meet conventional film trailers?
The target audience of my product is for ages eighteen to late twenties, where young people can relate to my
characters and plot and will be moved by it at the same time although I do believe this target audience could
grow wider. The genre is a hybrid of both social realism and drama therefore may appeal to a mixture of
audiences. There are different aspects of my trailer which could be classed as subverting or reinforcing
conventional trailers, I’ve used a lot of quick shots and made a brave decision of the only sound being a
soundtrack and having no narrative speech what so ever so I had to ensure the audience could still follow the
plot. I was inspired to only use soundtrack by the ‘Somewhere’ trailer which I shall upload onto my blog in
preparation for my audience feedback but I believe the effect worked well.
A variety of shot types were used during the production, I tried to include a mixture of medium shots,
establishing shots and close ups to reinforce the genre of my trailer. The close ups were used to show the
emotions and thoughts or feelings of my character, being a drama genre this is a very important process and a
main feature in fitting into this genre. It was difficult to film these close shots as my camera didn’t have the
best of focus which you would expect to see from a real movie.
Still over all, I am very pleased with my final media trailer, there are both aspects in it which challenge and
support the conventions of a real product. If I were to do the course over again my main priority would be
getting a professional camera to use throughout filming and also a tripod to steady my shots however I am
very pleased with my development and outcome throughout the year.