This document summarizes 9 screen shots taken from a film trailer produced by the author. Each screenshot highlights how different elements of the trailer follow film conventions. The screenshots show props like mobile phones, special effects, title screens, shots of protagonists and antagonists, close-ups, and promotions on social media. By including these various conventional elements, the author aimed to make the trailer appealing and easy for the target audience to understand.

1. Evaluation Question 1 – In what
ways does your media product use,
develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
By Tom Langford

2. 9 Screen Shots of One New Message

3. This picture is of the 9 screen shots/frames I’ve taken from
the trailer we produced for our film “One New Message”.
They are of certain key points in the trailer which I believe
follow/imitate the normal conventions of a modern teaser
trailer. As you can see from the shots, I have taken them in
specific places which consist of props we have used (such as
mobile phones), certain camera shots (like close ups, two
shots and point of view shots) and finally title and text shots
which include cast introductions and film promotions. In the
film promotion title shots, we have used new media and
social networking sites to promote our film, which has only
just become conventional in trailers recently.

4. 1st Frame
The first frame is of a mobile phone prop that we used in our
film. The reason I have taken a screenshot of this frame is
because mobile phones are regularly used in film productions
in modern media, so as a result of this, we believed it would
be a good prop for us to use too. The prop also relates, and is
relevant, to our storyline because young people in modern
society are often targeted and bullied via mobile phone text
messaging, so this was another reason why we believed a
mobile phone was a good prop to use. Also in modern society,
almost every teenager owns a mobile phone, suggesting that
it would make our film more believable and relatable for the
audience if our characters had mobile phones.

5. 2nd Frame
The second frame is a screenshot of one of the effects we used
in our trailer and I chose to screenshot it because most trailers
often contain special effects that have been integrated in the
editing process, which we have done too. This means we are
following the conventions of modern teaser trailer. I believe
this was a good idea for us to do this because it suggests that
our trailer is more likely to be appealing and attractive to our
target audience, therefore increasing the likelihood of them
going to see our film.

6. 3rd Frame
The third frame is a screenshot of a title shot, telling the
audience that our film is called “One New Message”.
Conventionally teaser trailers often include title shots along
side the normal action shots in order to help the audience
understand the genre, meaning, plot and characters within
the film. This is the reason why we decide to replicate this
convention by including it in our trailer and also the reason
why I decided to have this as my third frame. This frame also
shows the font we chose to use for our trailer. We chose this
font because we liked its simplicity and also the fact that it
looked like a font that is used for text messaging, which again
links in with the plot of “One New Message”.

7. 4th Frame
The forth frame is a two shot of the two antagonists in our film
“One New Message”. I wanted to show this frame because I
believed it was important to show that our film followed the
convention of having an antagonist for the main character or
protagonist to over come or defeat. Most films have an
antagonist or problem for the main character to over come
and so we wanted to replicate this so our target audience
were familiar with our films layout and structure making our
production easy for them to follow and understand.

8. 5th Frame
The fifth frame is a medium shot of our protagonist/main
character in “One New Message”. I believed it was important
to include this frame because, conventionally, films have a
protagonist that has to over come a problem or an
enemy/antagonist. So, as a result of this, we wanted to do the
same. We wanted a main character that the audience can
follow, empathise and relate to, hopefully making “One New
Message” more interesting for them. By using this frame I also
wanted to show that we have used a variety of different
camera shots in our production, which obviously real film
producers do.

9. 6th Frame
This frame is of two characters walking, the antagonist and a boy
(the protagonist’s ex boyfriend). I wanted to show this shot
because it highlights one of the problems that the protagonist
faces and has to over come. This is and important part of the
storyline because it is hard for the main character to deal with
and is also one of the reasons she is being targeted and
bullied. Like I mentioned before, films conventionally have a
problem or enemy/antagonist that they have to deal with or
eliminate, which is what we have replicated in our production.

10. 7th Frame
This frame is a close up of the antagonists face. I have chosen to
screenshot this frame simply to show that we have used a
variety of different camera shots, which I had previously
mentioned. A variety of different camera shots is important in
a film and even more important in a teaser trailer because
trailers are normally fast paced with a large amount of camera
shots, cuts and transitions to keep the audience focused and
interested in it. So for that reason I felt it was important to
highlight the fact that we had considered this and applied it to
our teaser trailer.

11. 8th Frame
This is one of the most important frames out of all nine and that is
because this frame shows that we have used new media and social
networking websites to promote/advertise our film to our target
audience. It shows that we have a Twitter account they can follow
and a hash tag that fans can use to start “trending” our film. It also
shows a Facebook page that they can “Like” and look on for more
information. This is an important and effective promotional method
in modern society due to the fact that most young people use these
social networking websites to communicate and find out
information. Using these sites to advertise is a positive idea
because it means our film is more likely to appeal to our target
audience because we are promoting it on a site that they regularly
use. As a result of this they are also more likely to find out about it
due to the fact that they are on these sites regularly.

12. 9th Frame
This frame shows another title shot however with the font in
“Steel Tongs” which is a font used conventionally by real film
producers to announce the production members of the film
e.g. Director, scriptwriter etc. We have also used this font to
announce our film producers because we wanted our trailer
to be authentic and believable.