1.

In what ways does your media products use, develop

or challenge forms and conventions of real media
products?


My research at the start of the project of recent products allowed me to identify the typical forms
and conventions of real media products. The Strangers is a typical thriller film which we chose to
analyse. Independently we all looked through various thriller films trailers including Devil, The
Uninvited and Stalingrad. Analysing these trailers we found typical conventions:

As a group and independently we have looked at real media products in order to understand the
conventions of thriller film trailers, this has given us better knowledge and experience of what a
thriller trailer is supposed to look like stylistically. Also the research has suggested common
conventions that are associated with the majority of thriller trailers. The Strangers is a typical
thriller film which we chose to analyse. Independently we all looked through various thriller films
trailers including Devil, The Uninvited and Stalingrad. Analysing these trailers we found typical
conventions such as :

Enigma Codes - used to create suspense for the audience
Slow paced editing (for suspense)
Fast paced editing (To excite audiences)
Voice overs
Eerie and sinister music
Sounds that compliments action shown on screen
Cuts and transitions
Sinister fonts for intertitles with effects such as blood and fog

During the development there were certain times when we had differing ideas such as trapped film
sub genre. However as things progressed we all came to the conclusion that we wanted to use the
thriller sub genre of portmanteau films with element of entrapment. We chose a Portmanteau
thriller narrative as the genre films are often dated such as Dead of Night and we wanted to make
more current and contemporary version.

We decided that in order for our product to be distinctive we would have to challenge and as well
as develop some of the traditional conventions. This would make our product less formulaic and
obvious and allow the audience to experience new conventions that are less associated with many
real media products. As our chosen sub-genre is Portmanteau it came to our attention that the
characters are very important so the amount of characters and their purposes were going to be
taken into consideration.

For the making of our trailer we were drawn the film Devil because it contains the estimated
amount of characters we wanted to use in our trailer of about three to four people. This trailer
includes some flashing lights creating panic and wonder for the audience due to the sense of
mystery. Also the antagonist is shown on the trailer but the identity isn't revealed. This is a
convention in our own trailer as well as it creates a sense of suspense and draws the audience in
making them want to watch the film to find out more about mysterious figure, this is also a enigma
code which is often associated with thrillers. In Thrillers men are commonly used as the antagonist,
despite this Devil used a woman, this is another convention we have used challenge convention
that are majority of the time associated with thriller films. However while we challenge this
convention the audience cannot distinguish if the black figure is a woman because her identity is
hidden with a black cloak. Our desire here is to trick the audience in order to create more
suspense. We have imitated aspects of the lift scene from this trailer where people enter a lift, for
example the camera techniques used are similar however for our trailer we wanted the audience to
wonder what's behind the character creating a eerie and sinister impression for the audience.



our three protagonists support the conventions of thriller because they are normal people who are
unexpectedly put in to mysterious situation while they are doing their day to day activities. This is a
characteristic shown in real media texts such as The Strangers where a couple are trapped in their
own house by a group of strangers. As a group we thought this was a good idea because as it
grabs the audience's attention as it shows mysterious events happening in real life situation that
the audience can relate to. Furthermore the antagonist identity won't be revealed unless the
audience watch the film and find out for themselves.


Poster

For the development of our poster we decided to follow the conventions of a thriller with the
influence of The Tall Man and Devil film posters. In both posters the image is the centre of
attention and the most important part of the poster, in the The Tall Man poster a hooded figure is
wearing a hoodie which clearly doesn't reveal his identity and is standing behind a women, this
forms suspense for the audience. In our poster we have used the same conception of including the
antagonist but not revealing their identity as well as having her behind a character. In contrast to
The Tall Man, The Devil film poster has no characters the focus is on a lift we liked the conventions
i this poster such as the darkened tones and the use of the lift. Due to these characteristics we
have used aspects in our own poster to create a effective poster which bares similarities to real
media texts.











Magazine

The layout of our magazine has an influence from the cover of the magazine Total Film. As you
can see we have developed the majority typical conventions within our magazine cover. We


decided to support the conventions of typical covers as these Magazine are made for mainstream
audience and follow a design that has been made to attract and draw people in. Another way we
have developed magazine conventions is revealing parts of the black figure face as it look
athletically better than having fully covered image which would potentially be jarring for the
audience. As indicated before we also followed a similar layout such as the position of our cover
lines, bar codes and masthead.

Overall our main product and ancillary texts have largely developed conventions that are
associated with thriller and Portmanteau trailers. While we have partly challenged some aspects
common in real media text our research has shown other real media texts that have already used
these aspects.