This document discusses how the media product (a teaser trailer) uses, develops, and challenges conventions of real media products such as films and trailers. It analyzes the teaser trailer's editing style, duration, graphics, narrative information, shot types, music/sound, props/mise-en-scene, text use, poster, and magazine cover in comparison to conventions in similar genres. Many elements conform to conventions while others develop or challenge them, such as using unusual shot types like stop motion, or presenting narrative information in a mysterious way rather than revealing details. The goal is to create a cohesive promotional package that is consistent yet brings something new through conventions that are developed or challenged.

1. In what ways does your media product use,
develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
I will use this question to cross reference what I have
made/researched, with other real media products in film

2. Teaser Trailer
The video to the right is our final cut teaser
trailer. We are happy with its design and
consistency with our other advertising
formats, and believe it conforms to
common teaser trailer conventions, as well
as the rest of our promotional package
that develops and even challenges some
of these conventions.

3. Editing Style
The editing style is important, as
it dictates whether your teaser
has good continuity, and what
the narrative is trying to portray
(e.g. specific genre). Our editing
style is fairly slow in pace and
follows that of the trailer
annabelle, however where our
teaser develops coincides with
the film The Shining, as it has
scenes that overlap the feelings
in our montage of psychological
terror, which are some of the
main themes of our film. We
went even further in challenging
this through keeping the theme
of red, by tinting shots in the
colour, to give a form of
foreshadowing, and why that
may be significant later in our
film.

4. Duration
The duration of a teaser trailer is usually between
50 and 70 seconds, however this convention is
one that does not have to be followed to class a
trailer as a teaser (e.g. the durations of Alice
Through The ..., Deadpool, and Scott Pilgrim ...). All
three are classed as teasers, even though they do
not fit the normal convention of the duration limit,
but we felt that we would follow this convention, as
it is our first time creating a teaser trailer, and the
method is likely to bring success. In our pitch and
first draft feedback we were told we gave too much
away. To combat this we made a trailer fairly short
in duration, so not to tell too much of the narrative
and to develop it in a way that inhibits reaction to
audience feedback.

5. Idents
The text we used in the two idents in our teaser are different
from the rest of our fonts/art style, as the production title’s
are unique and are made to be that way so the audience
can recognise the ident and what kind of film they would
make. H.T.B.W Studios was crafted after the ident Focus
Features and Columbia picture due to the light flecks used
in both idents. This gave us almost a template when looking
at the conventions of creating an ident, as many styles of
idents are used similarly (e.g. the flecks of light in the idents
shown to the right) because they work well in capturing the
audience's attention, yet each similarity is done differently
(e.g. the metaphysical light productions ident). It uses the
same idea of using light to grab attention, but has been
developed in its own unique way to be different from many
similar idents.

6. Narrative
Information
Our unique selling point of the film is the twist in which the
character (the audience all believe to be the villain of the story)
is actually the victim, and this information is hinted at in our
teaser, but not blatantly told, as that is what holds the audience
with a feeling of pure curiosity, and we developed on this early
on in our first draft (shown bottom left), as our narrative
information was challenged in previous feedback (shown top
right). Also by giving less away we challenge some conventions
of the narrative information expressed in teaser trailers, as
more and more teasers are beginning to divulge their audience
in more storyline in the hope to interest more people (e.g. the
warm bodies advertisement). This campaign
released a lot of information pertaining towards
its story line, and although it is crucial to give
the audience some understanding of story, we
decided to leave it to with some mystery.

7. Shot Types/
Genre
conventions
Our teaser trailer develops upon and
challenges the stereotypical teaser trailer
design when looking at its specific genre
conventions (e.g. thriller/horror). It does
so by first utilising general shot type
conventions of the genre (e.g. POV/
handheld camera/travelling shot/close up
in the ‘running scene’, and a POV/ crane
shot/close up of the ‘bloodied hands
scene’, shown mid-bottom with similar
scenes from the thriller the Girl with the
Dragon Tattoo), and then uses
unusual shot types to develop and
challenge the shot type and genre
conventions of the teaser trailer. One of
these unusual shot types is the stop motion
sequence in our teaser (shown right), which
is unlike the normal shot type/genre
conventions, as it has been filmed in a warm
light, which is unlike a horror/thriller, as they
are normally filmed in much colder light
made up of blues, browns, and greens
(shown below). In addition to this the stop
motion sequence itself is unusual of these
genres, and shows how
we have challenged and
developed the shot
types/genre conventions
of our trailer.

8. Music and
sound
Music and sound was crucial in
the creation of our teaser. We
used it to keep continuity in our
teaser and was great in
conveying the narrative through
diegetic sound and through
producing ambience. We utilised
the conventions of our teaser
trailer through genre specifics by
deciding against a voiceover, as
we felt it was unlike many
horrors (e.g. Saw), and diegetic
sound seemed to suit our trailer
narrative the best.
Our teaser’s audio then
developed ideas from Shutter
Island’s, as we felt the
conventions that followed that
thriller were perhaps different to
ours. In doing so we created an
audio piece that started off fairly
quiet and the began to deepen
through getting louder. We
challenged the horror side of our
teasers audio by not utilising a
voiceover, as this is common in
horrors. In doing so it makes our
trailer unique in that sense.

9. Props, Setting, and
Mise En Scene
I researched a lot into props, setting, and mise en
scene, looking at what other films used depending on
their genre (shown by collage in top right). We wanted
to make these three elements as believable as
possible, so not to break continuity. This is why we
used conventions of real media products to aid us in
creating this believable reality. We developed upon
these real media products by adding our own ‘flair’ to
props, setting, and mise en scene, after discussing
with the group (shown bottom right). We challenged
real media products through the mise en scene of our
characters, as we have portrayed them as something
they are not, which is not done in this genre often.

10. Use of Texts
We used the font birch std for nearly all our text
throughout our advertising campaign to keep
continuity between the poster, magazine cover and
teaser trailer. However we did not use the theme of
red in our text for the magazine cover, as we had to
stay in the house style of the magazine we used,
however we incorporated the red theme in the
slogan and other text. We also made sure the house
style of our magazine cover was in coherence with
previous issues of sight and sound, through following
the same template illustrated above in the top right,
but instead of challenging what sight and sound have
made house style wise, we developed on what we
had seen beforehand with this magazine through the
use of colour continuity.

11. Poster
Our poster followed similar conventions to
Jacob’s ladder, which is also a psychological
thriller/horror, as well as the Girl with the
Dragon Tattoo, which uses similar text design
(e.g. ratings/awards) to entice the audience.
Each colour scheme is similar following a
rudimentary monotone background and foreground
design, using a splash of red in the mix to connote
sinister themes perhaps. We used this to connote
the same theme with our marketing scheme, which
created a good consistency between each
advertisement we had made for the film. We
developed on the tone of lighting used in the two
posters shown left and right, by putting the
character of our poster in a warmer lighting (e.g. by
saturating the image and using warmer
lighting to take the photo),
unlike the colder lighting made
up of cooler colours (e.g.blues,
etc). We have challenged
conventions by doing this, as a
thriller’s/horror’s poster is
normally more like the posters
shown below.

12. Awards and nominations
Titles
Colour scheme
Tagline
Main subject
Billing block

13. Magazine
Our magazine cover was created
using the magazine Sight&Sound
as our template. We felt it fit our
film the best, as ours is a British
indie film, and the magazine is
run by the BFI. we developed
upon Sight& Sound’s house
style, while trying to utilise our
own brand identity, without
compromising the magazines
house style. We managed to this
fairly well (one can see this to the
right), as without our own brand
identity in the mix there would
be no
consistency to our promotional package. We did
challenge this convention though, as most of the main
subjects in their magazine are posed head on whereas
we chose to use a side profire to accentuate the light
exposure we captured, this in itself also challenges
Sight&Sounds conventions, as they normally publish
front covers with less effect to the artstyle.
Name and house style
Border and barcode
Publisher
Tagline
Main subject
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