2. In what ways does your media
product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real media
products?
3. As I had already created a trailer in the generic form of horror for my coursework last year, I decided to
do something different this time round and instead attempt a Drama genre. Due to the alteration, I
had to research this new genre and find out what exactly engages the audience the most when
going to the cinema to watch a Drama-generic film. My planning and research of analysing three
different teaser trailers with the same genres allowed me to understand the way in which I had to
create my very own teaser trailer in order to undergo specific conventions that capture the
audience. My chosen teaser trailers were: ‘True Grit’, ‘The Last Fall’ and finally ‘Immortals’. Looking
at these three teaser trailers in depth gave me the ability to understand what exactly makes them
fall under the category of ‘Drama’s’.
4. I decided right from the beginning of the planning process that I wanted to use the music from
‘The Last Fall’ teaser trailer. This is because it went with my narrative very well and the lyrics
also portrayed my protagonist’s feelings towards love. The teaser trailer’s lyrics consist of:
“Told myself that this would be the last time that I ever fall in love again
... Ever fall in love again “
I ensured that as in the ‘The Last Fall’ teaser trailer, the cuts went well with the beat in the music,
I also did the same effect too. Right at the end of the trailer is when the pace of the cuts
increase as so does the music.
5. With my knowledge of mise-en-scene from last year, I understand
that props, lighting, costumes and locations give off many major
conventions in the ascertained genre. For example in my teaser
trailer, I gave off hints about the character being broken and hurt
with the clothes she was wearing. She was wearing a jumper in
the fashionable style with rips in it. This shows her inability to
cope and her overall depressive state. She also had her hair out
and has a diary in her hand to portray her femininity.
Time of day I intentionally filmed during the day as I
wanted to avoid filming when it became dark. Filming in
the dark is a typical convention of horror movies.
Therefore I filmed during the day when it was still bright to
make clear that the genre is most certainly not horror.
I filmed in the park where no one was to portray the girls
loneliness in life and also in her certain situation as she has
no one to support her in her pregnancy which therefore
leads to her disconsolate demise.
6. When researching and analysing drama teaser trailers, I realised that a wide range of
various camera shots were used. There was no specific one that was continuously shown
within the trailer. Therefore I also varied when considering what camera shots to use. I
used a close-up to show the characters face when she was crying. This was to make the
audience sympathise with her. I also used an establishing shot for the audience to establish
where the scene was set and who is around. In this case she was all alone to depict her
loneliness. I also had low-angle shots to show the characters superiority, especially her
superiority in her decision to jump off a cliff.
7. I put special importance on the effect ‘fade’ when editing my teaser trailer. I believe the
fades were very useful in the last few scenes when we were not sure whether the girl was
going to jump or not. This slowed down the whole process putting much tension on the
audience – exactly the mood I aspired to create.
Also, I made the pace of the cuts increase when the notes in the girls diary were shown, to
give the viewer a blink of what her notes read. Especially the ‘How do I tell him I’m
pregnant?’ comment. These are typical doodles of a teenage girl’s diary content.
8. Whilst carrying out my film poster, I decided that I wanted to
use ‘Salt’s poster as a style model. This eased my attempt to
imitate conventions that Salt has in that poster. For example,
I only have my main character on the page to signify her
importance to the teaser trailer.
I also have the background black and the character very
white to make her stand out from everything else and
therefore put the importance on her once again.
Just like the credits in ‘Salt’, I also have my credits in white.
This is for a number of reasons: firstly to make the title stand
out. Also, in order to portray the characters dullness and
emptiness in her life and finally to portray her innocence.
I have also imitated the Salt poster’s release date style. Many
poster have a certain date, however I wanted mine to be a
little different and so I left it at just ‘Summer 2012’
9. The first text I wanted was the tag line. This is in order to engage my audience and capture
their attention. ‘Silence is a Girl’s Loudest Cry’. This is written in capitalisation to show the
importance of it and the relation to my main image of a girl who is crying. I found the tag
line effective because it is an oxymoron as ‘silence’ and ‘loudest’ have opposing
denotations.
I copied the conventions of a typical Hollywood poster by having the credits written in this
specific font. Written here are the names of all the cast which makes the poster seem a lot
more authentic. I didn’t want to mirror the convention of having the most significant
character’s name at the top because I wanted my poster to have some sort of distinction to
it which will make my audience satisfied to see something new.
To make my poster a little more different the typical posters currently out, I had my
release date as less ‘Summer 2012’ instead of a specific date. I did this just to ensure that
my poster was not mirroring exactly what is already out there.
10. I decided to use the magazine ‘Sight & Sound’ when creating
my magazine cover. This is because it is a successful magazine
and is read by a vast majority. When analysing this magazine,
I discovered that the logo and date issue/price/ barcode is
always in the same place. This makes it a convention of the
magazine which is the reason I decided to retain this aspect.
The magazine cover also tends to have minimal information
with an enlarged title. I too carried this out. In my magazine
cover.
The image is usually the same on all ‘Sight & Sound’
magazines in the way that is takes up the whole page rather
than just a small segment. I did this as well to make my
magazine seem as if it was a real ‘Sight & Sound’ magazine
which people will pick up and purchase. The background of
my magazine cover is black to relate to my poster and the
dullness of my main character’s personality.
11. The masthead stands out from the rest of the text as it
is red and is larger than the other text. This shows that
it is the most important thing on the page. I wanted to
make sure the audience understood that my masthead
was also the most important text on my page and so I
made it larger than the rest of the writing.
We can also see that the word ‘Vengeance’ plays an
important role in this sentence as it is in red when the
rest of the text is in white. The font size is also bigger
than the rest of the text further portraying its
significance to the sentence and therefore to the
poster itself.
The ‘PLUS’ section is a reason for the target audience
to purchase the issue as it is saying that there is more
information than expected... Giving the audience a
wider read and more entertainment.
