1) The film poster and magazine cover created by the student follow many conventions of real media products in their genres. Both utilize a limited color palette, minimal fonts, and emphasize key visual and textual elements like the title and credits. 2) However, the film poster challenges some conventions by having a landscape orientation rather than portrait. The magazine cover is also missing smaller supplementary images around the border. 3) Overall, the student was successful in researching conventions from example media and incorporating many of them into their own designs. Some small adjustments could better align with traditional formats.

1. Evaluation question 1
In what ways does your media product use,
develop or challenge forms and conventions
of real media products?
Film poster and magazine cover
Emily Moseley – A2 Evaluation

2. Film posters- what were their
conventions?
When designing my film poster and creating my film trailer, I looked to other social realism films
and posters to try and pick out certain conventions of that genre that I could use in my own
work. ‘Fish Tank’ was the film I took most inspiration from, and here is its film poster. So what
were the conventions of a film poster?
Logos of film
festivals that • Very few fonts used (2 in this
have credited case) in complimentary colours
the film in the
top right-hand
• Minimal amount of different
corner
fonts used, keeps the poster
Main looking tidy and professional
character at
the edge of • Quite an amount of empty
the poster, lit space on the poster
from the side
• The title is the largest part of
Reviews from different the poster, helps attract an
Tag line companies/organisations audience
Large title in ‘Credits’, including with star ratings, and
the middle of immediately producers, director’s important, eye-catching
the page underneath and actor’s names words in larger font
the title

3. My film poster
So, how far does my own film poster match the conventions discussed earlier in the ‘Fish Tank’ trailer
Reviews from
different
companies/organ Logos of film
isations with star festivals that
ratings, and have credited
important, eye- the film in the
catching words top right-hand
in larger font corner
Main
character at
Title is
the edge of
largest text
the poster, lit
from the side
Tag line and
‘credits’
underneath
the title
As well as these points, I have stuck to using a very restricted colour scheme of blues and black, which compliment
each other well I feel, and also a select few fonts. Both these ideas follow the conventions of the ‘Fish Tank’ trailer.
There is also quite a bit of empty space on the poster. This was done to reflect the genre of the film, as social
realism is known for being very empty and hollow.

4. What about different genres of film?
As well as social realism, I thought it would be a good idea to look at the wider picture
concerning film posters, by looking at different genres of film.
Thriller
War film
Rom-com

5. From looking at these posters from 3 different genres of film, I can see there are
considerable differences.
Firstly, these poster are in portrait orientation, whereas mine is landscape. In that sense my poster
challenges the conventions of a ‘traditional’ film poster. This may be due to that fact that the ‘Fish Tank’
poster was meant to be displayed in a different place to the other posters, for example, it may have been
meant for a large billboard on the side of the street, which are usually landscape, rather than at a bus stop
for example, in which the orientation would be landscape. Distribution companies aim to get their film
recognised by as much of their target audience as possible, which involves creating supporting media
products such as film posters available in a range of environments.
Secondly, there is much more emphasis on the actual picture than much of the supporting text to try and
attract an audience, contrasting to my film poster where the picture I feel isn’t as necessary in attracting
an audience; that is left to the reviews at the top and bottom of the page. Again, that is another
difference in conventions to the wider spectrum of film posters.
There are some similarities however: both my poster and 2 of the 3 other posters have ‘credits’
underneath the heading, and use a minimal range of fonts and colours. The rom-com film poster uses stars
and reviews to attract potential audience members, much the same as I have done in my own work.
Altogether, my film poster does challenge most conventions of traditional film posters, but seems to fit
quite well with my main inspirational text. If I knew what I know now, I would have probably orientated
the poster to portrait, in order to match more conventions of traditional texts, but I feel my creation
works quite effectively for the genre, as it implies the main figure is looking outwards an putting her past
behind her, which is much a core theme in my film trailer. It also fits with a stereotype that society has of
young people which is often portrayed through the social realism genre, the idea of ‘troubled and
troublesome youth’.

6. Magazine covers – what were their conventions?
When designing my magazine cover, I again needed some inspiration, so I turned to a popular film magazine to
give me some ideas of what the conventions were. These were the 2 posters I analysed in the research and
planning stage of the course, and here are the conventions I found.
Title of magazine
behind the
character, also
largest font on
page
Issue number and date
of publication near
title
Single large
image as the
main focus of
the page
Supporting stories
at sides of the
cover, with larger
title and smaller
supporting text, in
complimentary
colours
Barcodes at the bottom Smaller images relating to other Limited range of colours and
of the page stories around the rest of the page fonts

7. My magazine cover
So, how far does my own magazine cover match the conventions of traditional magazine covers?
Title of
magazine
behind the
character, also Issue number and
largest font on date of publication
page near title
Single large
image as the
Supporting stories
main focus
at sides of the
of the page
cover, with larger
title and smaller
supporting text, in
Limited range of colours and complimentary
fonts colours
Additional offers/
supporting material to
encourage readers to buy
the magazine Barcode at the
bottom of the page

8. From comparing my magazine cover with that of published magazines, I
have noticed that it fits in particularly well with the conventions
discovered
From analysing the conventions of traditional media, I feel that I can confidently say that my
magazine cover fits in with these conventions quite comfortably. Technical conventions such as the
placement of certain objects on the page has been met, for example the large title of the magazine
behind the main character’s head, and the title of the film it is promoting in front of the character.
I have also used a limited range of colours and fonts. I stuck with a pale, dark blue and white colour
scheme, so that it was also correspond with my film poster, giving the two works continuity, and
hopefully this comes across.
The stories around the outside of the character are there to try and entice readers to buy the
magazine, which is why I added the ‘free stickers’ section in the bottom corner.
One convention I did miss out on however was the additional smaller photographs surrounding the
main image in the centre of the page. If I was to go back, this is something I would’ve definitely
added, to make my cover look more realistic.