IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS? 

EVALUATION 1

GENRE THEORY

One of the first steps that we took was to look into Genre theory. Our products revolve mainly around the genre and therefore researching this theory proved to be very useful.

An audience knows what features are associated with certain genres and they have a set of expectations: for example, in a thriller film, an expectation would be that there is a twist or turn in the film that cannot be for seen. 

REAL FORMS AND CONVENTIONS WE USED: LIGHTING AND LOCATION Our media products consisting of a magazine cover,

a trailer and a poster all to promote a film can be described in several ways in how they use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products. From our research we learnt the typical conventions of media products in terms of films.

We looked at the iconography of thriller films and from this we got a sense of what our media product should be. In terms of lighting we found that depending on what kind of atmosphere that is wanting to be achieved, the lighting will change, but typically a dimly lit setting shows a negative situation which is often the case within a thriller.

 

REAL FORMS AND CONVENTIONS WE USED: LIGHTING AND LOCATION We have used this convention of  real media

products in our film. Here you can see that we have created a dark atmosphere through the lighting that we have used. This also enabled us to show a shadow of a hand which added to this atmosphere. 

In terms of location, thrillers often take place within a city as it is closer to home, making it realistic, we have used this convention as we set this plot at her house. The setting is an isolated place along with mental isolation of the character.

REAL FORMS AND CONVENTIONS WE USED: CHARACTERS

Characters were key and in real media products, the conventional character we found for thriller films were criminals, stalkers, assassins, terrorists, psychotic individuals and many more.

Our plot revolves around a psychotic individual and this is really where are story can develop from. In all three promotions we have displayed our character in a way that reflects her psychotic nature.

In the poster we have just shown half of her face to show her alter ego which is part of her medical condition, we've also included an image of her on the magazine cover where the costume and make up really covey her struggle. 

REAL FORMS AND CONVENTIONS WE USED: CAMERA ANGLES Camera angles and movements can also be key

within thriller films as in real media products, commonly used are jump cuts and quick camera angle changes to illustrate a number of different things or problems which are occurring within the film and build up the pace to create tension.

In our film, we used jump cuts to show the number of problems our character is facing, We have her having a child alone, her having nightmares, the death of her baby and her illness. We have included all these problems in our film trailer.

We have also a number of different camera angles, like extreme close-ups, mid shots, low angles and high angles to show their status.

REAL FORMS AND CONVENTIONS WE USED: THRILLER THEMES

Probably one of the most import conventions in real media products of thriller films are the edge of your sit cliff-hangers that build towards a climax as the character progresses through life threatening situations.

This in terms of our product is the loss of her child but nobody knows who did kill the baby until nearing the end where the revelation of who did kill the baby is a massive shock and surprise. 

We have also used the convention of having the story told from the point of view of the protagonist (the main character)  

REAL FORMS AND CONVENTIONS WE USED: POSTERS

In terms of posters also, it is typical of thrillers to have a dark background which in fact is what we have, the title of the film is in the largest font in comparison to smaller fonts which represent the names of actors, directors etc.

Also, it must have a focal picture and a tag line which we have used. Also linking to posters a typical convention of media products is to have multiple posters for one film, for example shutter island had around five posters to promote the film.

Although our brief is only to make one poster, we made multiple posters because we wanted a variety of ideas to choose just one from however we thought they could all be used for promotional purposes. 

DIRECT COMPARISON TO THE CONVENTIONS USED IN EXISTING POSTERS:As you can see, in comparison to the film poster for Shutter Island

weHave used conventions in our poster. We used the title, a section dedicated to the main star Sophie Young similar to Leonardo DiCaprio. We have also included our production company logo to display who produced the film, similar to: ‘A Martin Scorsese Picture.’

We have also used a main focal image that takes a large proportion of the poster to illustrate the character in the film. Both posters have used close-up shots of their faces to show their emotions.

We have also used the conventional font for posters to show the details of production and distribution: Bodoni MT Poster Compressed

Our poster has used the same Convention as Shutter Island by having

a tagline.

DIRECT COMPARISON TO THE CONVENTIONS USED IN EXISTING MAGAZINE COVERS:

The first convention we used was to display what reviews we have this week, we have also made the word LATEST in capitals to link to the title along with emphasise the exclusive nature of these reviews.

Again, we have used the convention to have a section dedicatedto the film, including the title, a tag line and the name of who stars in the film.

The film magazine title is placed at the top of the magazine in large bold writing. As you can see we have included the website, issue number, date and price near to the title so they will be seen: this has also been done in ‘Total Film’ magazine. Along with this, the convention of having the main image either in front or behind the text has also been used to show how everything has been integrated together.

REAL FORMS AND CONVENTIONS WE USED: MAGAZINE

Along with this, in terms of the magazine cover, a feature is normally used to grab the readers attention. For example, in our magazine 'Top 10 films this Christmas inside!' is our feature which also includes our film. This exclamatory syntax also relates to the time of year that the film is released.

Also reviews, the barcode, the date, a website, a main image, the title displayed in large fonts, the issue numbers and many more are conventional of real magazines. We found that the most effective way to make a realistic magazine cover was to use these typical forms.

REAL FORMS AND CONVENTIONS THAT WE CHALLENGED: In terms of challenging typical

conventions of real media products, we have not used a voice over which is usually used in trailers to explain the story. However we felt that in terms of our media product it was more effective to just use the music and image frames of the trailer to convey this plot and film. The music centres around the nursery rhyme 'twinkle twinkle little star' and we wanted this to come across in our trailer.

REAL FORMS AND CONVENTIONS THAT WE CHALLENGED: By doing this we make the story even more

emotional and heart breaking because of the child like and innocent nature. Also the increase in pace as it continues really adds to the suspense and atmosphere therefore we felt it was best to use a sound track.

Along with this, although voice overs are helpful in expanding on the story we felt that because of the silence of any diegetic sounds like the voice of characters, we felt it represented the silence of our main character's alter ego. Her alter ego has killed the baby and is not saying a word and we wanted to convey this. 

REAL FORMS AND CONVENTIONS THAT WE CHALLENGED:

Thrillers are also a combination of good vs evil which in this way may challenge the typical convention of real thriller films. They often have a clear divide between the evil character and the good character and good normally triumphs evil. However, as the our character is both good and evil, she is really battling against herself and in the end.

REAL FORMS AND CONVENTIONS THAT WE CHALLENGED

In terms of our magazine cover, it is typical that the front cover is to have a clear image of the main character, often looking towards the camera, however our main image is our character looking away from the camera, in order to convey her feelings. 

We've also challenged the typical convention of media products as there is not a particular hero 

Typical props in thriller films are weapons like guns, swords, bombs etc however in our film the main weapon seems to be her mind and her state of mentality. Her psychotic nature is the main weapon. 

REAL FORMS AND CONVENTIONS: POSTER

In terms of the poster, we did not particularly challenge any of the traditional forms and conventions as we felt that the most effective way to construct a poster and was through the typical means of including a main image, a website, production and distribution details, actors names etc.

REAL FORMS AND CONVETIONS THAT WE DEVELOPED:

We developed conventions of a magazine cover through the use of both pictures: we have used a fashionable shot but emotional pose for the main image where the character is almost portraying how upset she is that she cannot look at the camera. However this is in direct contrast with the other image of the character who is directly looking at the camera in a threatening way which shows how much she changes within the film.

We have started to display the story just in the front cover which not many magazines can do. but also included an image of the character.