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

TRAILER

After the research we completed, we realised that most trailers feature this style of “Preview screen” which makes them appear official, and also provides a sense of professionalism.

This links to the research we completed about Classification, and making trailers suitable for all audiences.

We used our own production company name, to allow us to create this ourselves, and this is a typical convention of a trailer. The production company video is a typical convention of a trailer, and from our research we noticed that they last only 1-2 seconds, so carried this through to our own product.

We used two news stories within our trailer, both are establishing shots of the location, similar to some trailers which introduce the audience to where the film is set, if this is necessary to the plot.

We used only locations, as using another person in the trailer would distract from the plot/disorientating feel of it.

Unlike most trailers, you don’t see much of the characters in the trailer, but the pace is quick, and uses a lot of jump cuts, which is something which appeals to a young adult audience.

The handheld “REC” style of this image adds to the realism of the trailer, the filter added is similar to the one used in REC, and Quarantine. And the handheld, cinema verite style is one of the common uses in modern horror films, with films like Paranormal Activity, and the Blair Witch Project adopting these techniques to make the audience fully aware of the realism.

Most trailers we researched had a very short credit sequence, and because our film had no one that could be classed as a “star” we have made the credits on the same sequence as the title. The title is something which must be added to the trailer, so the audience is aware what the film is called.

MAGAZINE

Through the early development stages of this magazine, and research stages I took influence from the science fiction magazine, “SFX”’s special edition horror issue.

Keeping horror as the theme of the magazine made it link appropriately to the trailer and poster.

Example from Total Film magazine

Using a banner at the top and bottom of the cover adds more information on the content of the magazine. The top banner is more of an attraction to the audience, as the consumer will be able to view this on a newsstand before the rest of the information on the cover.

Using a main image on the magazine puts this as the main focus, and enables the magazine to be advertising “Indignation” more than any other films listed on the magazine cover.

I took influence from the Total Film cover, of the Green Lantern, similar to ours the main image is edited quite a lot to bring across the genre of the film, this one being sci-fi.

The magazine title is placed behind the character, as a symbolism of importance, this puts the characters of the film before the magazine, making it appear as though this is the main focus of the magazine.

I added the blood splatter to the top left of the image for the aesthetics, as it is not a typical convention of a magazine, and adds something to the horror theme of the magazine. However, the SFX Horror edition which I looked at used this, and therefore I was slightly influence by some of the techniques on their cover.

Magazine selling line- typical of all magazine genres

The barcode was added to the magazine, to make it professional, as a magazine can only be physically sold by the seller by using the barcode system. This is a typical convention of a magazine.

Total film lists the date of the issue, and the price elsewhere to the barcode, however, because of the layout of our magazine I felt it was important to keep them together, making them easier to locate to the audience.

To add to the aesthetics of the cover, I used a similar idea to the headings on the “SFX horror” issue, which used red squares with scratchy style white fonts.

Listed information in the style of Total Film magazine, a typical convention of using different font styles and “lists” to give information on the content of the magazine.

POSTER

To achieve the aesthetics of a professional poster I created a set of credits for our film, which included information on the cast and crew, as well as logos of companies like “Dolby Digital”, and “Sony digital dynamic sound”

The tagline is a typical convention in the marketing of a film, ours being “Justice won’t be witnessed..” we have used this in the poster, but not in the trailer because we chose we liked it without.

I liked the style of the font and colour of the “One Missed Call” (American version) and the way it was simple yet quite eerie. The use of red connotes blood, and danger, which is the same in our poster, to symbolise the horror conventions of the film.

To create the title for the poster, I have used a similar style to the trailer, making the themes continuous. The poster has a filter to make it appear more hand-held, gritty and this is used to provide a sense of realism. So to keep the distortion, creating a sense of disorientation, I put the same filter on the text.

This is similar to the blurred style of the “One Missed Call” poster, which I felt was similar to the tagline of our poster.

A lot of horror posters use simple images, and simple layouts, we did ours using a simple background image and edited filters, and other images to create a layered effect. This makes ours different to other posters, and breaks out from the typical conventions. I have used these effects on the poster to simply add to the sense of disorientation and the “fear of the unknown” which comes across in the trailer.

As with most films, we have used a recurring font style throughout our trailer, magazine and poster. This creates an element of continuity, adding to the level of professionalism to our project.

The series of “Paranormal Activity” films, and posters used the same font style, in a variation of colours for their marketing, and this influenced our continuity for each product.