Evaluation Question 1

In what ways does your media product, use, develop and

challenge forms of real media products?

I created three media products as part of my A2 course. The main product was a teaser trailer, and the two ancillary products were a film poster and a film magazine front cover. By creating these media products I have made a promotional package for my thriller film named ‘The Undecided Punishment of Grace Bennett’. My media product has used forms of real media products by following certain codes and conventions.

In terms of the teaser trailer, I was particular on my camera angles, as camera angles can determine who has control and power and who does not. In my teaser trailer I positioned the camera so that it was facing down on the victim to let the audience know of her lack of control. Another typical convention of thriller trailers is the music played over the top of trailer. This music tends to mysterious and creepy, therefore this is the type of music I used, making sure it was copyright free and fitting it to coincide with the events happening in my teaser trailer.

For the first ancillary task of creating a film poster for my teaser trailer, I also followed codes and conventions of typical film posters. To understand what the codes and conventions were, I researched several thriller film posters to get an understanding of the layout, colours used and the type of text they included. Two posters I looked at closely were the films The Roommate and Black Swan, these are shown on the next slide:

These posters tend have a main image filling the screen, with the name of the film placed towards the bottom of the page in the middle. Another conventions teaser film posters tend to have is the name of the actors and actresses starring in the film, this attracts individuals who enjoy films starring these stars, therefore will make them want to find out more about this upcoming film. Instead of putting a date on a teaser film poster it often says ‘coming soon’, therefore I have followed these conventions and reflected this onto my own film poster for my thriller film.

For the second ancillary task of the film magazine front cover I have again followed the typical codes and conventions. One of the most popular film magazines is Empire; therefore I have decided to use this magazine have my thriller film featuring on the front cover. On Empire magazines the main character of the film featuring on the front cover usually overlaps the masthead, this gives the magazine a 3D effect and looks as if the character is coming out the screen. Throughout all Empire magazines, the masthead is always written in red or black therefore I decided to carry this trend on. The film name is normally placed towards the bottom of the page in the middle. I also placed other films that are inside the magazine around the main image to follow the typical conventions.

In stereotypical thriller trailers, there is usually a scary part at the end of trailer. I have interpreted this by showing Grace’s face in the window watching her victims, as this is a typical convention to have a creepy part at the end of a thriller trailer, I have decided to develop this convention in my own trailer by repeating this shot of Grace’s face in the window after displaying ‘Coming Soon’. I feel like this was a good idea and was successful because it builds more tension within the audience making them feel almost scared. These shots are shown on the next slide: