The document discusses conventions of teaser trailers and how the media product adheres to and challenges some of these conventions. It notes that teaser trailers typically have a duration of 60-90 seconds, use montage editing with a voiceover to showcase key plot points and conflict through short clips. The media product's teaser trailer follows many of these conventions, such as using montage editing and showing dramatic moments, while also challenging conventions by varying the pace to reflect the changing mood of the protagonist. The document also examines conventions of genres, posters, magazines, and institutional standards, discussing how the media product both adheres to and innovates within these forms.

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

2. TEASER TRAILER
CONVENTIONS
When creating our teaser trailer, we knew that there were
conventions that we had to follow for it to be classified as a
teaser trailer, conventions such as the whole thing has to be
between 60-90 seconds, short shot duration with montage
editing and a voiceover, the clips shown are the key plot points
and usually show conflict, they tend to have a sense of enigma,
they tend to have the name of the film and the name of the
cast in it along with non-diegetic music and company idents,
sometimes they have a release date and a billing block. If we
wanted our trailer to be a teaser, we would have to follow most
of these conventions. As teaser trailers are shorter than a
normal trailer, we had to make sure we got all of the key points
across and one way to do this is through montage editing, this
means that clips can be put together in an order that is not
chronological and still make sense as the point is to get across
the key points and make it quick and exciting, shorter shots
make the pace faster which makes the audience feel the
suspense and drama that is in the film and will then make
them want to watch it.
These are two stills from the teaser trailer that show
dramatic moments in the film, there are different techniques
used here, the bottom picture is quite fast paced and has 3
different things to focus on at once so the audience wont
know which one to look at and will want to see what’s
happening in all of them and the fast pace will excite and
interest them, making them want to know what happens in
the film. The picture on top is a more conventional way of
showing a dramatic point in the film, it has an argument
between 2 characters and is fast paced and the music has
stopped so the audience are focusing on what they’re
saying as they have a lot of importance to the film.

3. TEASER
CONVENTIONS-
DURATION AND PACEAs teaser trailers are shorter than normal trailers, they tend
to have a quicker pace than a normal trailer and only show
the important parts. In Soft Focus, the pace is quite slow in
the beginning as a reflection of the protagonist, how she is
lonely and life is dull and moves slowly, then she makes a
new friend and that’s when the pace begins to quicken and
the shots get shorter and the overall mood of the trailer is
lighter and more upbeat. This is also portrayed through
the music in the background as it starts to get faster and
more upbeat as the video does as well, this makes sure
that the audience will know that the mood has changed.
The images above are stills from the teaser trailer, the top
picture shows Lucy, the protagonist before she meets her
friend and the mood changed she is lonely and the whole
mood of the trailer is slow and sad. In the bottom picture,
Lucy has met her new friend, she looks happy, the music
is more upbeat and fast pace and the shots are shorter
creating a faster pace overall and a more light hearted
mood. A similar technique can be seen in the Perks of
Being a Wallflower trailer where the protagonist is lonely in
the beginning and the whole pace is quite slow and it has
a depressing mood and then he makes friends with some
people and the music is more upbeat, the shots are
quicker and the overall mood is happier.

4. TEASER CONVENTIONS-
MONTAGE/CONTINUITY EDITINGAlthough trailers typically use montage editing they tend to have continuity editing in it as well
otherwise it is unlikely they would make any sense. We used both continuity and montage
editing in our teaser trailer as we wanted to have a contrast and to keep it interesting, as a
change of pace is more likely to keep the audience captivated than it being the same pace the
whole way through. Montage editing is so commonly used in teaser trailers as there isn’t much
time to have long continuity clips. With a montage the clips don’t need to make sense but can
still be next to each other as it is a more effective way of showing the key points in a small
amount of time. In our teaser trailer we used montage editing as a convenient way to show that
time has passed without having to have time pass in real life, an example of this in our trailer is
when the protagonist is walking into the classroom and her clothes change every few seconds,
this shows the passing of time, and her isolation, while still showing the character just doing
one simple thing, walking to her desk.

5. TRAILER CONVENTIONS- COMPANY
IDENTS & TITLES
Most trailers have a company ident in it at some point so we designed one for our
trailer called ‘Pyramid Productions’. The production company is the company that
produces and distributes the film to the rest of the world. We used Final Cut Pro X
to create our ident and looked at a tutorial on YouTube on how to get it to be
animated to look like it was handwritten as most company idents are animated for
example, the Paramount ident has the stars going over the mountain. Majority of
trailers have some titles in it, whether it’s the name of the film, the cast, the release
date or the social media campaign related to the film, they tend to have some text.
We had quite a few titles in our teaser trailer to help tell the story, we had some in
between shots and then the name and social media campaign of the film at the
end. Having a hashtag or Facebook page is always good for new films as it creates
a buzz and allows people to talk about them which means that more people will
hear its name.
The top row are
stills from the Soft
Focus teaser
trailer and the
bottom row are
from the Perks of
Being a Wallflower
trailer, there are
quite a few
similarities
between the two,
this could be
because we
looked at it a lot
during our
research and
planning stage but
it could also mean
that we followed
the conventions
for teaser trailers
for this specific
genre.

6. POSTER
CONVENTIONSTypical movie poster conventions are having a main
image with the main character(s) on it and the title of
the film in a large font, they also usually have a billing
block and a release date. Sometimes they will have a
review or an award that the films has won, they usually
have the names of the starring actors. In terms of the
picture it can vary but movie posters normally have a
relatively plain background as that is not the main
focus. Our movie poster for Soft Focus follows a lot of
the conventions for movie posters, it has a main image
of the protagonist (however, our main image does
break the conventions as the protagonist is not making
eye contact with the camera, which is something they
normally do but we felt that it wasn’t necessary because
she looks as though she is thinking and the words in
the background are meant to represent her thoughts it
could also represent the characters awkwardness as she
cant even make eye contact with people and it
represents her very well) with the title in a large font
and a billing block, its got the release date and awards
its been nominated for, it also has the name of the
main actor and the background is plain in colour but
has some words in the background.
In both posters the
protagonist is not
looking at the camera,
this could imply the
shyness/awkward-
relateableness of the
characters that can
connect with real people.
This pose could also
indicate being deep in
thought.
Both posters have a
tagline, the protagonist
as the main image, the
title of the film in the
biggest font and the
release date amongst
the billing block.

7. MAGAZINE COVER CONVENTIONS-
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
When we had to design our magazine cover, we
needed to pick a magazine that would suit our film
and the genre of it. So we researched into a variety
of film and TV magazines and found that the one
that our target audience would most likely
read/look at was Entertainment Weekly, after
looking at several of their front covers side by side
to other magazines such as Empire and Total Film,
it was an easy choice which would suit our film
better, Entertainment Weekly. Entertainment Weekly
usually has cult current favourite TV shows and
films that the younger generation are watching,
which is why we chose it because our target
audience is young people. Magazines like Empire
focused more on sci-fi movies and as our film
wasn't a sci-fi movie and we weren't targeting sci-fi
fans, it would not have been a good magazine
choice for our genre.
Above are a few examples of
some Entertainment Weekly
front covers that would likely
appeal to our target market.

8. ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
MAGAZINE COVER
CONVENTIONSEntertainment Weekly’s covers share lots of
similarities each time, the house style consists of
the logo at the top of the page with the word
‘Entertainment’ and the word ‘WEEKLY’ inside the
last 4 letters of entertainment. They usually keep
their own font but there are some exceptions like
on the Stranger Things edition they used that font
as it is well known and a cult favourite. They
usually have the people on the front covering part
of the Entertainment Weekly logo with their heads
but they don’t always. When designing our
Entertainment Weekly cover, we had to look at lots
of different past covers so we could see what
always stays the same and what doesn't.
Above are 3 EW magazine covers next
to ours to show how there is diversity
within the covers so it allowed us to be
creative with our one and it still looks
as though it is an EW magazine cover.

9. GENRE
CONVENTIONSSoft Focus is a teen drama so in order to ensure that we followed the
conventions, we had to research into what teen drama conventions
were as we wanted to portray one correctly as to appeal to the correct
audience. Teen dramas are about teens, more specifically its about the
different types of teens such as the popular girls, jocks, nerds etc. and
their lives, they usually revolve around school, they tend to focus on
issues that most teens go through as to be relatable such as a
romance between the popular and unpopular, peer pressure, being an
outcast, leaving a small town to pursue dreams and ‘The Cinderella
Story’. Visual elements such as props can give the audience clues as to
what the genre is, for example in a teen drama you are likely to see
books, phones, teenagers, a school. Audio features can also be used
to help the audience relate to the film genre as they are common
within everyday teen life such as a school bell, mobile phone tones,
students talking and house music at parties. Through research I
discovered that the lighting in teen dramas tends to be right and
natural as they’re commonly set during the day in school hours. Some
teen dramas use techniques such as panning and split screens to
show and compare the difference between two scenes. In order for our
trailer to be easily conceived as a teen drama, we had to follow some
of these conventions so that it would be clear it was a teen drama and
then it would draw in the desired target audience.

10. GENRE CONVENTIONS IN
SOFT FOCUS
In our trailer we used a lot of the teen drama conventions but we also wanted to
do some things a little bit differently so that it would stand out and make it
more of a USP. Some obvious teen drama conventions we followed was that it
was set at school, this then meant that there was bright and natural lighting for
the most part which is also a convention as school is on during the day so there
is no need for there to be low key lighting. In terms of character, we had a fairly
stereotypical protagonist in that she was a loner/outcast and didn't really have
a friendship group but there was something different about her that is not
typically focused on in a teen drama which is that she has OCD and it is a big
part of the story and her life, by having something in a teen drama that may not
typically be in one is a good marketing point as it is something different so
could bring in the usual teen drama audience but it may also bring in a wider
audience who are interested to see how we brought mental illness into a light
hearted film. Our narrative of the outcast finding a friend can be found in quite
a few teen dramas, though usually they find a whole group of new friends
whereas Lucy in Soft Focus only finds one new friend but for her it is a big deal.
In terms of iconography, we used some audio elements such as a school bell
ringing and some visual elements like a school, books, students in the
background, classrooms, schools signs, lunch benches. In our trailer we used a
split screen, which is quite conventional for teen dramas and can be seen in
films such as Mean Girls and (500) Days of Summer.
Above are stills from Soft Focus, Mean Girls
and (500) Days of Summer all have split
screens but they've all been used for different
reasons, we used a split screen to show our
characters OCD while still keeping in the
teaser trailer time limit, Mean Girls used it to
show each characters different expressions
and reactions and the bottom one is (500)
Days of Summer, they used a split screen to
show the characters expectations of what he
hoped would happen and then what actually
happened.
To the left are stills from The Breakfast
Club and Soft Focus, this shows a teen
drama convention of showing settings,
which is by showing a sign/ the building
with the school name. This is a quick
and effective way of establishing

11. INSTITUTIONAL
CONVENTIONS
Higher budget films such as Hollywood
blockbusters are expected to be of a higher
standard than a lower budget, British independent
film. These higher standards may include more well
known actors, they might have more advanced
editing including effects and a larger variety of
locations. As we were not creating a high budget,
high profile film we were not able to achieve the
conventions of a Hollywood blockbuster but we
looked at tutorials on YouTube to show us how to
make our trailer look more high budget. One way
to do this was colour grading, this is a technique
used in a lot of films to make the films match with
their overall brand identity.
There are a few ways in which company
information is conventionally presented, this can
be through a billing block on a movie poster,
sometimes they have the company ident within the
billing block, there is usually an animated company
ident at the beginning of the teaser trailer.