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In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop or Challenge Forms and Conventions of Real Media Products?

The document discusses how the student's media product uses and challenges conventions of real horror media. It analyzed existing horror trailers, posters, and magazines to identify conventions. The student's trailer follows many conventions, such as an eerie soundtrack, disequilibrium, and vulnerable characters. However, it challenges the convention of having a vulnerable female by using a male character instead. The student aimed to make the trailer and other media look authentic by adhering to researched conventions.

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chloeedwards93
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32 views

In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop or Challenge Forms and Conventions of Real Media Products?

The document discusses how the student's media product uses and challenges conventions of real horror media. It analyzed existing horror trailers, posters, and magazines to identify conventions. The student's trailer follows many conventions, such as an eerie soundtrack, disequilibrium, and vulnerable characters. However, it challenges the convention of having a vulnerable female by using a male character instead. The student aimed to make the trailer and other media look authentic by adhering to researched conventions.

Uploaded by

chloeedwards93
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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In what ways does your

media product use,


develop or challenge forms
and
conventions of real media
products?
• Before we created our horror trailer, we decided to research
existing films, posters and magazines so that we were aware of
the typical conventions of our media.

• We watched a range of trailers such as ‘30 Days of Night’ and


‘The Blair Witch Project’ on YouTube, and also looked at film
magazines including ‘Total Film’ and ‘Empire’.

• We found a range of conventions in each trailer including:


 horror trailers feature more disequilibrium than equilibrium.
 an attractive vulnerable female character.
 an eerie soundtrack which compliments the shots.
 fast, sharp edits towards the end.
 a scary cliff hanger to finish the trailer.
• After researching trailers, we also decided to analyse print
work, as for our ancillary tasks we were expected to create a
poster promoting our film, and a film magazine cover.

Typical Horror Poster Conventions


 a member of the cast, or a prop from the film on the poster.
 a bold, prominent title.
 tagline from the trailer.
 special effects such as black and white image.
 release date and website.
 red text.
 credits at the bottom.
 minimum age for the film.

• In order to make our products look authentic


we decided to follow those conventions.
• I modelled my magazine cover from ‘Total Film’ and found that
conventions include:

 The use of a maximum of three complimenting text colours.


 The use of no more than three fonts.
 A bold title at the top.
 A promotion.
 A magazine background, suitable to the main film genre.
 One character from the film being promoted.
 Adverts for other films.
 Magazine website.
 Issue number/Date/Price.
 Barcode.

As these conventions are clearly successful,


I decided to follow them when creating my
own magazine cover.
Our trailer follows most of the conventions of existing products, for
example:

 we have not edited all of our shots in chronological order as this would
reveal too much.
 our trailer features a much higher proportion of disequilibrium, compared
to equilibrium.

I found this particularly difficult as the purpose of a trailer is to


entice the audience into going to see the film; therefore we were
unable to fully reveal the murderer, as this would ruin the storyline.

However, we clearly challenged conventions by:

 having a vulnerable male cast, as we wanted to reverse the stereotype,


and therefore decided to have a dominant female.

I believe this is successful as it makes our trailer unique, which


will help to make it appeal to a broader audience.
• Since the purpose of a horror trailer is to advertise a film that
will be exhibited in the future, it cannot give too much of the
storyline away.
• Therefore I do not believe our trailer follows Todorov’s Theory
of Narrative Structure exactly.
However, I am able to see elements of Todorov’s
theory in our trailer:

 Equilibrium – the establishing shot of the house.


 Disruption – the hanging legs.
 Equilibrium – two girls happy in the park
 Recognition – girl in graveyard.
 Disruption – bullying/ forest scenes.
 Repair – kissing shot.
 Disruption – forest
 Possibility for new equilibrium – bathroom scene.

Clearly, for the purpose of our media, we are not able to reveal the
killer at the end of the trailer. Therefore the possibility for new
equilibrium is very short for impact.
Uses and Gratifications
• The theory is a popular approach to understanding mass
communication.
• It places more focus on the consumer, instead of the
actual message itself by asking “what people do with
media” rather than “what media does to people” (Katz,
1959) .
• It is assumed that the audience take an active role by
interpreting the media in their own way.
• ‘It is suggested that people use the media to fulfil
specific gratifications.’ (Katz, E., Blumler, J. G., &
Gurevitch, M. 1974)
• I believe this theory exists in our trailer, as the audience
must be active in order to interpret events. It is then up to
the viewer to make a decision whether or not to go and
see the actual film.
• To engage the audience we included a wide variety of locations
in our trailer including:
 Forest
 Beach
 Park
 School
 Riverside

• For the backing track of our trailer we decided to use ‘Space


Dementia’ by ‘MUSE’, as we felt it was very fitting to our genre.
• We decided to arrange our shots to suit the soundtrack:
 for example at the beginning during the equilibrium the music is
eerie but is slow paced and ominous, alerting the audience for
future events.
 yet when the disequilibrium begins the pace of the music
quickens, adding suspense.
• For our flashback shots we decided to use a black and white
grainy effect.
• This would made the audience aware that they were looking
back on events.
• This follows and anachronic narrative, as the audience are
being invited into the characters thoughts.

• Lighting in particular was difficult for our film, as we had to film


a large proportion at dusk, to ensure the shots weren’t too dark
and unclear.
• As my role included lighting, I decided to research into
techniques which other crews have used whilst filming trailers.
• Although we tried filming in the dark, the resolution of the
camera was too unclear and therefore we decided to darken the
shots during the editing stage.
• To provide an eerie effect we also used
industrial torches and car lights to
illuminate certain shots.
• As another of my roles was filming, I researched into existing
conventions and decided to include some in our trailer.

• I think one shot in particular, when the camera is positioned at a


high angle over a tortured male actor is very effective as it
portrays the characters sense of vulnerability.

• Another significant shot is when the camera is positioned


behind the trees, to make is appear as if someone is watching
the car and the male. I found this was a commonly used angle
in horror trailers.

• Therefore, in filming aspects, I believe our trailer does use


conventions of existing media products.
• Overall, I feel that in terms of both my
major project and ancillary tasks that I
have used and developed conventions
of real media products.

• I also believe that our horror trailer


challenges some conventions of
existing products, especially as we
have a vulnerable male cast, opposed
to a stereotypically female one.

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