This document discusses how the media product, a teaser trailer for a comedy film, uses and develops conventions of real comedy film trailers. It summarizes that the trailer uses conventions like upbeat music, slapstick comedy scenes shown in full rather than just snippets, and punchlines or funny dialogue. It also discusses how scenes depicting rivalry between characters both fit genre conventions but also challenge conventions by subverting expectations of character roles.

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

2. Comedy Trailers and their Conventions First of all a teaser trailer is ‘a short version of a movie trailer which is designed to pique the interest of the audience, getting them excited about an upcoming film’ I spent quite a long time researching into general teaser trailers and i found something that was common in all of the teaser trailers and that was they all had a good soundtrack to create the tempo for their trailer. The conventional features of any movie trailer are things such as titles, fast paced clips with quick cuts, a soundtrack of some sort and existing films made by the same company or producers. And more specifically to the comedy trailer, the conventions that were used were; slapstick comedy, One line jokes and punch lines, short and funny clips from the film and in particularly up beat music

3. Trailers that influenced my work Firstly the trailer for ‘step brothers’ was a massive influence on my trailer, i used some quite similar conventions for example, the immature humour of the main characters. Also some of the mise-en-scene from the trailer i used in my own, in step brothers there are two ‘nerdy’ characters and i used some of the conventions from them and put them into my ‘nerdy’ character. Another trailer that influenced my work positively was the trailer for ‘Due Date’ which involves quite a lot of funny punch lines which i tried to incorporate into my own. For example when one of the main characters is riding on his bike and he waves and says ‘hey guys’ i feel that it has a good comedy effect. And also from my audience feedback i have found out that they find that clip in particular quite funny. This shot from step brothers gave me the idea for my own scene

4. Soundtrack/Music A typical convention of a comedy trailer when it comes to sound is that it is always usually something that is pretty upbeat and light-hearted. It needs to suit the genre and make people happy rather than being dark and mysterious like a horror film. I feel that it needs to be quite a fast beat to keep you interested and keep your attention fully on the teaser trailer. I chose the song ‘LCD Soundsystem – North American’ as i felt especially at the start as it slowly builds up that it was perfect for my trailer. The sort of quiet start worked perfectly alongside the introduction of my characters and then that helps me when it comes onto covering other comedy conventions like punch lines because its a song that you can easily vary the levels of sound without it losing its effect. The good thing about this song is that it isn’t a particularly well known song so its not going to distract peoples attention away from the characters, its kept well as a background sound. I feel that i have challenged a convention of comedy trailers by having my music start about 5 seconds in to the trailer because they usually start right from the onset. But i feel like the awkward silence at the start of mine adds to the comedy effect very well.

5. Slapstick Comedy I have incorporated this convention of comedy massively into my teaser trailer, Two of my main scenes involve a misdemeanour for at least one of my main characters. But i feel that i may have gone slightly against the normal convention of slapstick comedy and gone slightly further by actually showing the whole sequence rather than just a small snappy scene of the incident, on a couple of occasions i have shown what happens in the build-up and i think that this helps build up the expectation and comedy effect. The people who have watched it have laughed everytime so thats very encouraging and boosts my risk in going slightly against the normal conventions I got inspiration for this shot in particular from a blink 182 music video, i thought that it would work very well with the type of comedy i was looking to create

6. Punch-lines/Funny Dialogue This is the opening scene of my teaser trailer. Although the dialogue used isn’t actually a proper full on joke, i still feel it works well enough to make people laugh. Its quite simple and then the awkward silences in between each ‘hey’ adds to the comedy effect and portrays almost the shy nerdy nature of one of my main characters. HEY HEY BANTS Shot 1 Shot 2

7. I really like this clip, i feel that it covey's the rivalry between the two characters. Not in a sinister way but in a comical way as the mise-en-scene of both the characters is so different. For example the character on the left is meant to be the nerdy one and from the way he’s dressed you can immediately tell this, and him facing off with the ‘cool’ character has really quite a good comical effect i feel. Also i have had verbal feedback from a few people who have watched my trailer with me and they have all picked up on the rivalry between the characters but have all found it very funny at the same time. So i feel that this clip fits in with the conventions well and has a very positive impact on the whole sequence of events. I feel that it fits in extremely well with the whole genre of the film. But it also goes slightly against normal conventions as the ‘nerdy’ character is bigger than the ‘cooler’ character. I feel that this adds to comedy effect.

8. OHHH YEAH