Evaluation Question 1

1.In what way does my media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Teaser Trailer

In our teaser trailer, we developed and challenged the forms and convention of existing media products by not using a voice over in our teaser trailer. As a collective group we decided not to use a voice over, as we believed that it would reveal too much of the narrative. This is similar to the teaser trailer 'A nightmare on elm street', this teaser trailer did not use the convention of a  voice over, and we found that it was effective, as it kept the audience in suspense and craving to know more about the narrative. The conventions of a teaser trailer is to tease the audience and also to market the title of the media product via word of mouth or through the internet. In the teaser trailer 'A nightmare on elm street', the tease is not being able to see the protagonists face, which entices the viewer into wanting to see the killers face and what he looks like. As a group we decided to incorporate that convention and not show our protagonist face from the beginning of our trailer. For example, our first shot is the back of our protagonists head, which is consistent until you see the first victim in the trailer.

In further research of teaser trailers, we found that most of the killers were potentially male killers and wore masks or had some kind of deformity, such as, Freddy kruger (a nightmare on elm street) and Jason (Friday the 13th), and we decided to follow this convention and give our protagonist a hidden identity by using a mask. 

Film Magazine Front cover

Our film magazine front cover develops the conventions of existing film magazines by using our protagonist as the main image for our front cover. After researching into exsiting film magazines such as, Emipire and fangoria, these magazines influenced our film magazine front cover greatly. Conventionally, a film magazine would have a mid shot or a close up of the main image, but we decided to use a long shot in order to have the full view of our protagonist; following the convention of the empire magzine.

Film Poster

We also looked into horror coventions of a film poster, and the main convention that captivated my attention was the protagonist in an establishing shot, such as standing outside a creepy looking house or a dark forest, such as, friday the 13th and a nightmare on elm street. This contrasts to our film poster, we decided to challenge this convention by placing our protagonist on a plain black background with blood splattered on the wall; this highlights our movie genre as well as sticking to horror conventions. We also found that the most conventional colours of a film poster is red and black, as it signifies blood and darkness.