In what ways does your media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
In my group we created a film promotion package with three products. Our main product was a
audio visual media which was a film trailer and two print based medias which was a film poster and
film magazine. These three products were to advertise our main film possessed which is a postmodern, post-apocalyptic dystopia film. The film trailer advertised our film by playing in cinemas, TV
and internet websites, for example YouTube and social networking sites. The film poster could be
shown on bus shelters, billboards and the magazine would be sold in shops around the world.
Another way how our products could be promoted would be by our own website page were we
would tell them more about the film. To show our film was a post-modern dystopia in our trailer we
gave clues in the narrative and our mise on scene. In our trailer to show it’s a post-modern genre by
our main characters. For example our main character is a post-modern cowboy who isn’t prepared
but forced to be the hero/leader. To show this by different camera shots like close up of his
confused face and shots of him running frantically. However we challenged the conventions of a
helper in our film as we used a strong, more knowledgeable woman who understands more what is
happening.
In our trailer we wanted it as real as possible so we used many conventions of a real film trailer. To
do this I studied three film trailers; IRobot, Insidious and 28 days later. One way we followed
conventions is by using Todorov’s theory of the three act structure of Equilibrium, disequilibrium and
new-equilibrium: Our trailer starts off as equilibrium of our main characters riding his bike along
Brighton sea front as a normal day. To show it was equilibrium we used long edits, non diagetic
soundtrack and brightened the colour to show the contrast before and after the disruption. We
chose to use our main character in our first seen as it tells the audience who is our main character;
we also did this for the other media products however we used our female
character. After that there was a loud bang which then people become
possessed, this is dis-equilibrium. To show there was a disruption we
drained and darkened the colour to cause tension and spookiness to the
shot. We also used fast edits of the clips to make tension. We don’t tell the
audience in our film trailer they reason why they get possessed because it
will make the audience want to watch the film. To also show the dis-equilibrium we used other
media conventions of titles of what the character says in the voice over. Using a voice over to show
narrative was another convention of a trailer, however normally they use a male voice for the voice
over, like 28 days later. We chose to challenge the convention by using the female characters voice
to contrast with the diegetic sound, this is a post-modern factor. We also put ‘BANG’ in bold, block
capital red font to emphasise that the bang was a disruption. We got this idea from one of the
trailers we studied; 28 days later as they added text to also show the narrative. Also to show the
genre of a dystopia we used black background and decayed font to make to create a sense of broken
and damaged. However we do challenge Todorov’s theory as we show no new-equilibrium as we
wanted the audience to be left on a cliff hanger and want to go see the film. I got this inspiration
from the last part of the film Insidious as you think that everything is fine but then they leave a cliff
hanger of a person who is still possessed, which they then made another film. At the end of our
trailer we layered and changed the opacity of the last scene to create a ghostly effect of the main
female character fading away. This gave the audience clues that there might be a death.
One big part of how we introduced our genre in the film is by the mise en scene. One way we did
this is by location. We chose spooky eerie places to shoot our film trailer. One location was a car
park where we shot the stairs and the elevator door opening on the characters. We did shots of the
stairs of the characters running up them away from the possessed person. This shows that they’re
trapped and hard to escape. We also shot at the top of the car park with nowhere to go, this create
unnerving feelings of being trapped and tension of if they survive. Another location was graveyards
we did this because they connote with death and is a stereotypical place in a film were people are
possessed. We did shots of them running and shots of them hiding behind gravestones. We also
shot in a spooky basement; we used this location for the possessed scene. This was a really good
location for the film as we didn’t need to do that much editing and it made it feel really confined.
The last location we shot was on the seafront, we did this for contrast of normality and then the
eerie places to show that it was a dystopia genre. However, the locations we chose gave a horror like
look as one of our inspirations was Insidious.
The choice of clothing we used for our characters were very important. We wanted our protagonists
in normal clothes like our main characters to make them look like normal people and fit in. The ways
we showed who were the protagonists is with make-up for example, in the basement scene the
possessed person made really pale face make up on to make her look dead and the scene when the
main characters are running away in the car park we get the protagonist to wipe her hand on the
wall and a blood hand print appears, which connotes death and shows the genre of the film. For our
main characters we wanted them to look like stereotypical teenagers to relate to the audience and
to make it more real.
One major film trailer convention that we found when researching having a green screen and
Production Company at the beginning of the trailer to make it more professional and to show we are
an independent film we used Miramax logo. We also included the directors and main characters
names. We followed a convention of a film trailer by having text of the character’s name over the
shot of them. Another convention is that they show if the film has been
nominated or won an award to make the audience believe that it is a good film to go see and makes
it look popular and professional. We added what producers produced this film as it could make the
audience more eager to watch it if they have already seen a film from the same producers. We
added the tagline in the trailer ‘who will survive?’ to make the audience question who will? and
want to see who does. Ur last part of the trailer we added the name of the film and when it comes
to cinema. We added the name of the film twice, once at the voice over and then at the end. We
chose to do this and put the date of when it comes out at the end because it will be the last thing
they saw and will remember it.
Our two print based products, a film poster and film magazine cover for our promotional package
were created to promote the film further. For the film poster we followed the conventions of
including all the most important information of the film for example main image, large titles,
reviews, actor’s names, billing card release times and production logos. We wanted the tagline of
the film in a red font and when it is coming out, different to the others to make the audience’s eye
catch it. We chose red as it links with the colours we used in the film trailer; it connotes danger,
death e.c.t. and it stands out. Another way of getting the audience interested in our film was to use
reviews. We did reviews from high up organisations because the audience will believe that it is film
worth watching. We used ‘The sun’ and the magazine ‘Empire’ for the reviews; one is a very famous
newspaper and the other is famous magazine that we used for a film magazine cover. We did this
because it anchors the promotion from the film to the magazine. We used our female character for
our main image using the gaze to attract the audience. For the film poster we challenged the
conventions of having the protagonist as the main image by using the female helper, this is to show
elements and hints of a post-modern film.
For the film magazine cover we used Empire magazine because it is one of the most famous film
magazines in the world. By doing this also we challenged the conventions by having an independent
film in a mainstream magazine. We used the same image from the film poster of the female helper
to anchor back to the poster and make the audience think back of where they have seen that image,
also we used this to follow the conventions of a female on a front cover of magazine using the gaze.
For the layout of the magazine cover we wanted to follow the conventions of a magazine cover so
the audience know what magazine
company it is. We added the price, issue
number and date information in the same
place Empire originally laid them out. We
also kept the magazines quote saying
‘world’s best movie magazine’ and website.
Like the poster we used the same fonts and
colours apart from a major important text
that we want to stand out, for the
magazine we did it for the name of the
magazine. We also did this for our tagline
and ‘exclusive’ parts to make the audience
draw to that word.
I think all of our media products follow the conventions of real media products as they have the
same high quality as real products; however we also challenged conventions to make our products
different from other peoples slightly to make us different from others and to show that it is a postmodern film.