IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND

CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?Zakirah MohammedA2 Media Studies

HORROR TRAILER My horror movie trailer mostly conforms to real conventions however it does have elements of creativity to act as a USP. I have similar shots and angles used in a horror trailer such as numerous close up shots to show the scared expression of a character. I also conform to real

media texts through characters such as the ‘final girl’ where the protagonist is seen as a brave, independent and young woman usually given a masculine name.

“Alex”

HORROR TRAILERI have challenged stereotypical real media texts in numerous ways. For example, the antagonist in most horror movies would usually be a intimidating male role where weapons such as knives would be used as phallic symbols for male genitalia. However, in my horror trailer I use a childlike girl as the antagonist which also handles weapons such as knives. I did this because I felt it would create an effective USP which differs from the generic, therefore, my trailer would stand out from other conventions.

I also differed from real media conventions as included a suspenseful royalty free music piece as the background sound for my trailer. This differs from real media conventions as in my research I noticed ironic lullabies and suspenseful sound effects rather than music were used. However, I felt my trailer in particular would benefit from suspenseful music to pull it together. I believe this was a successful decision as my target audience samples enjoyed this idea much more.

MAGAZINE FRONT COVERMy decisions made for my front cover were kept close to the stereotypical expectation. This was because I found the generic look of a magazine successful and effective. Elements such as the use of the left hand third for content as this is where the human eye naturally attracts to. I also conformed by using various size fonts to give the impression of a more interesting and informal view on the magazine cover which would appeal to my target audience as they would generally be a young adult audience. I exaggerated this by enlarging exciting pieces of information such as “She won’t rest until you’re in her hands” which would excite the audience and draw them to the magazine.

My magazine cover

Real media product

MAGAZINE FRONT COVERHowever, I also diverge from real media products I have researched before creating this piece. For example, I noticed most central images of many horror magazines include a close up of the villain and intimidating eye contact with the camera in order to allow the reader to feel included and fearful of the character. However, I found that showing the character in action within the movie may have a positive impact as this will allow the viewer more insight into what the movie contains. To do this I included a full shot of my villain in a dark background with a sinister expression. I believe this explained the abnormality of the movie and character more than it would with a close up of the villains face.

POSTERFor my poster I created a simple piece with little text to avoid overcrowding the page and distracting from the character. I researched into real media texts and found it was popular for promotional horror posters to include little text and sinister images such as unsightly villains. The real media products included a dark colour scheme with little bright colours of which seem to be used to connote relations to horror such as blood to indicate gore. I decided this was an effective way to promote a horror movie, therefore, my poster included a dark background with an intimidating image of my villain. This image included shadows and signs which indicate death such as dark eyes and pale skin. The colour scheme was limited to dark colours with a bright red to exaggerate the movie title and to signify blood. I found this to be a very successful decision as it appealed to my audience when gaining feedback.

Overall, I believe I mostly conformed to real media texts as I found the popular elements of the horror genre in film were very effective to the audience. I found that the generic ideas were popular as the audience like to enjoy films meeting their expectations which is what I intended to do. I decided to conform so closely to the generic as this would be seen as the safe choice rather than to diverse fully from what the audience expect as this may not appeal. However, I also believe a film cannot conform fully to another as this may be seen as tedious to the audience, therefore, I diverged from the norm to some extent to act as a USP. An example of this would the gender of my chosen characters as this would give a new element to horror which the audience may enjoy as this has been seen before but a limited amount.