In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The following conventions are based on ones that can be seen in media products of the same genre as own media products. Therefore, the conventions demonstrated are leaning towards that of the teen drama.

Format conventions – Teaser TrailerA teaser trailer is a short trailer with a duration between 30 and 90 seconds. Its main purpose is to ‘tease’ the audience with short clips from the up coming film, but without revealing too much of the plot. This is also related to the fact that they are released up to a year in advance to the official film release. Teaser trailer also have many other conventions, especially in terms of editing style, sound, narrative and key information.

Our Teaser trailer for Unrevealed

Format conventions – Teaser TrailerDuration Teaser trailers conventionally last for between 30 and 90 seconds. This is so that enough of the story or plot can be given in enough detail that enables the audience to understand the basics of the film, but it is limited in terms of duration in some ways as it ensures that not all elements are revealed. Therefore, leaving the reasoning for going to see the film, as they want to find out what else happens within the film, especially the ending. Another reason for this duration is because a teaser trailer is released around a year before the official release of the film, which may mean that the final cut of the film may not have been completed. Therefore, the hype of the film can start early and this then gives the marketing side of the film an early foundation to build up on upon throughout the year until the release date of the film. As the teaser trailer can only be made up of early footage, this would be followed by a full theatrical trailer that would contain more recent footage with a longer duration.

The total length of our teaser trailer is 67 seconds/ 1 minute and 7 seconds

Through comparisons of many other teen drama teaser trailer durations, with the exceptions of some, our own product does if fact fit in within this convention. This is because our product’s total duration is 67 seconds.

10 Things I Hate About You A Girl Like Her Cyberbully Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging

Means Girls

Editing Style The editing style convention within teaser trailer is normally montage or short parts of continuity. Therefore, the audience is given a brief overview of the storyline with various clips taken from various parts of the film. The majority of the shots will be taken from before the turning point within the film. However, it tends to end in a climax to almost frustrate the audience into wanting to find out what happens. The teen drama genre tends to have a mixture of both types of editing, but majority is montage as the shots will be taken from different times throughout the film. The fact that the average shot durations are only a couple of second results in a quick cutting, fast paced trailer. The fast pace heightens the action throughout the trailer and creates an intensified mood for the audience.

Therefore, as our teaser trailer is within the teen drama genre we made sure that we included a mixture of both editing styles.

Below are screenshots taken from our own product that demonstrate the use of montage editing throughout our product .

Also below is a demonstration of the example use of short continuity within our product.

Below is a demonstration of the use of montage editing from a real specific example of a teen drama teaser trailer for A Girl Like Her

Within the teaser trailer for A Girl Like Her there is also the demonstration of the use of short continuity.

The use of cross-dissolve results in the symbolisation of the feeling of isolation for the teenage protagonist. The speeding up of this shot connotes the passing of time around the teenager.

This medium long shot continues to demonstrate her feeling of isolation as she is always seen as separate to all of the other people shown in the shot. However, this shot also has the use of the establishing shot for the college setting of teen drama genre film.

This shot of the protagonist’s Facebook page provides the audience with more information surrounding her character. It also demonstrate the importance of social media in teenagers’ lives as it is there main means of communication within the generation.

This shot gives the audience a unusual point of view for the audience on the narrative of the film. To the audience it could also portrayed as a warning of the potential dangers of the online world.

The demonstration of setting is portrayed within the shot. The setting of a teenagers at home increases the sense of realism throughout the trailer as the setting is familiar to the target audience of teenagers.

This is again, is used as an establishing shot to demonstrate the setting of the teaser trailer of a school as well as connoting the style and genre of the film.

Sound

The use of non-diegetic sound of a soundtrack being played all the way through out the teaser trailer and results in the increase emphasis on the only word of dialogue that is spoken. The soundtrack introduces the audience to the plot of the film, which involves a potential relationship between the protagonist and the antagonist. This soundtrack is a sound bridge between the opening sped up shot and then into the rest of the teaser trailer shot.

The only other use of diegetic sound is the background noise of the shot in the college corridor to increase the sense of realism throughout the teaser trailer, especially with the setting of the film and the intended created atmosphere. The fact that there is only one word actually spoken throughout the teaser trailer is unconventional, but also could stand out as our USP of the film. By doing this, the audience is subjected to an heighten element of mystery and enigma throughout the teaser trailer. However, I feel as if the use of almost no dialogue results in the shots used being more powerful and containing more relevant and valid information that the audience will need to pay more attention to.

Text/graphic elements A Girl Like Her Idents Our idents

The use of idents within teaser trailer for films is used to help recognise the supporting genre of the film. . These idents also suggest the narrative theme and genre of the film it associates with, but also assisting in the creation of the relevant tone to appeal to the relevant target audience.

The use of a hand demonstrates how powerful and dangerous the use of our hands can be on the keyboard in terms of the online world especially when it comes to cyberbullying and being targeted by fake online profiles. The fact that it is a silhouette of a hand and it looks like a shadow, which suggests there is something hidden, like a person’s identity that is easily hidden behind a digital device screen. Therefore, all of the elements of the ident fit into the theme of our film and hint at underlying points within the film.

The reason behind creating another ident is because most teen drama teaser trailers, such as A Girl Like Her, have two idents. Therefore, by doing this we are creating a sense of realism with our trailer as it will cover another convention of a teen drama trailer. When it came to the text we decided to go with a similar text as the first ident to ensure that some sort of continuity is ensured throughout the two idents so that it is obvious to the audience that they are linked in some way.

Narrative Genre conventions – Teen drama

The main narrative comes from the protagonist, Jessica Jane. This is because most of the information has come from the protagonist’s point of view, in terms of her emotions and what she is thinking at different points throughout the film. Through this use, the audience has an increased creation of empathy for Jessica as the whole story has been told from her point of view and therefore, narrowing the audience’s view of the story from the eye of the protagonist.

The potential of a new loving relationship is common in teen dramas and therefore, increases the representation of genre throughout our teaser trailer. This potential of love is presented to the audience through the continuous conversion of texts and conversations between Jessica and ‘Alex’.

Format conventions – PosterText/graphic elements

Format conventions – PosterText/graphic elements

The billing block at the bottom of the film poster is for the observant and attentive people, but conventionally is on all posters. This block of text contains all information about important aspects of the film. This includes names of the actors, directors, the name of the soundtrack and screenplay.

Conventionally, the title of the film is carefully placed three-quarter of a way down the poster, which tends to result in the title being at eye level for the audience when the poster is blown up in size.

The main focus of the poster is the protagonist, which is an important aspect as this is the element that the audience’s attention will be focused on and the element that may possible the element of the poster that the target audience remembers. By having detailed, clear and obvious images of the protagonist and antagonist, it demonstrates the genre of the film. This is because of the how the character is represented; a stereotypical teenage girl that many members of the target audience will relate to. The placing of the character of Jessica, in front of the masked person, highlights her importance in the film. However, the fact that the two characters overlap, not only within the image, but with the title of the film too, suggest their crossing of paths in their lives as well as them being linked in some way.

The use of a tagline, especially in teen dramas, emphasises particular elements of the film and our tagline is used to hint at a twist in the film, but also an underlying element of the brand identity messages as well as the genre. In teen dramas, the use of taglines make the film memorable for the target audience and ours was intricately intertwined into the film to give the tagline context.

Format conventions – MagazineLayout conventions/house conventions

Format conventions – MagazineLayout conventions/house conventions

We took inspiration mainly from the Launch issue as we liked the overall colour scheme and layout, which slightly differ with every issue. Although, some elements of the other issues worked better with the placing of our main focus, the still image of the protagonist.

The house style of this magazine Studio includes having the tagline at the top of cover, which says ‘Britian’s first women’s film magazine’. With our teaser trailer we decided to go with a simple white text. The next element of the magazine is the name. This is displayed very clearly and draws the reader’s attention to the name. The colour of the title depends on the other colours used on the cover so that aesthetics and the sophisticated style of the magazine are ensured. The gaps and spaces between both the tagline and the name were achieved through the use of a character tool to increase the gap in between to fill out the space at the top of the magazine.

The website address and the date of release are evenly placed below for reference that maybe only really observant readers would notice. This information is still featured as this information is important, but it has been written in such small text that it does not get in the way with the other information that it displayed as well as the overall design of the magazine cover.

Format conventions – MagazineLayout conventions/house conventions

The image conventionally takes up most of background so that it is a main focus of the magazine cover and ultimately draws the attention of the reader. The removing of the background results in the ability of the magazine having a darker background. This is a convention trait of this magazine as it gives a contrast between the lighter toned colours to make the writing stand out and increases the ability to clearly read the writing on the cover.

The use of italics and simple font on the magazine increases the flow of layout of the product as increases the quality of the look of the magazine.

As this magazine is a British Independent media product I personally would expect it to be unique and follow its own conventions within the layout. This is because it has its own target audience and motivation behind the media product. Therefore, I would expect the information to be presented sophisticatedly and mature, as this would make it very obvious that the information and reasoning behind the magazine is skewed towards female entertainment and awareness that they made need more information on.

Format conventions – MagazineLayout conventions/house conventions

Format conventions – MagazineLayout conventions/house conventions

Format conventions – MagazineLayout conventions/house conventions

Format conventions – MagazineLayout conventions/house conventions

Genre conventions

Characters

The use of characters within our teaser trailer conform with the conventions of a teen drama genre, as apposed to challenging them. The representation of the protagonist, Jessica Jane as an average teenager who is a constant users of digital technology and social media. These are all common characteristics of female protagonist within a teen drama genre. The use of the characterisation of a typical teenage girl results in the increased association and relation of important members of the target audience as well ensuring a sense of realism. Her character as sensitive and submissive as well as representing her as a girl struggling with everyday issues that every members of the 16-24 year old target audience. The majority of female protagonists in teen dramas are based around the stereotypes.

This inspiration was taken from the character Jessica who is featured in the film - A Girl Like Her. The characterisation of Jessica represents her as a shy, stereotypical good girl in school who gets targeted. Therefore, she was a prefect fit for the inspiration of our protagonist.

Jesscia Jane – the protagonist within our teaser trailer Unrevealed

Our inspiration – Jessica from A Girl Like Her

Genre conventions Setting and locations

The use of a college/school and home setting increases the familiarity to the target audience’s everyday life, which links to ensuring an increased sense of realism within the film. This is because they are used to these locations in particular and this could result in the relativeness of certain situation within the college life that the target audience would be able to recognise. and relate to. These issues include the struggles of fitting in within the society and conforming to the typical stereotypes as well as college life. Therefore, increasing the representation of the teen drama genre and potentially increasing its appeal to members of the target audience.

Genre conventions Iconography

When it comes to teen dramas there are a few visual elements that are associated with this genre of film. This includes certain areas, like a school building, in particular the canteen or the hallway, alcohol, parties, books, the latest phones or technology. The iconic sound of this genre include; school bell, phones ringing, house party atmosphere with music.

Therefore, we took this into consideration and ensured that the areas used were conventional. This includes the corridors of the college as well as the technology that the target audience would be familiar with and the sounds like the school bell to ensure that the conventions are met.

Genre conventions Style

The camerawork commonly used in teen dramas, consists of medium to close up shots while characters are talking and then establishing shots of the location like the school or house as well as long shots to show a group of people and to demonstrate the current situation within the film. In term of lighting, it tends to involve a more realistic tone to create a sense of realism throughout the film. However, the intensity tends to change in conjunction with the mood of the film, so then it would be expressive lighting. Editing is kept to the simple use of continuity with the use of straight cuts to ensure that the film is easy to follow.

Therefore, we took all of this style information into account while planning and filming this teaser trailer. We combined two elements together and used medium long shot of the protagonist to show her walking but also this was used as a establishing shots of the setting of the film. With the lighting, we did not edit any of the outdoor lighting to ensure a realistic tone of the situation, but having said this when it came to the turning point as well as shots that contain the antagonist we decreased the brightness to heighten the intensity of the mood.