in what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms & conventions of real media PRODUCTS?
Our forms and conventions help our audience to recognize what type of media product it is and these are the rules what make Movie posters, Magazine front covers and trailers. These things help the audience to decided whether they should watch it or not. In this question i will be demonstrating/ discussing the awareness of conventions in Teaser trailers, Movie magazine from covers and Movie posters and also the Horror Movie Sub-Genre that our movie belongs to.
An example of these media products is that on a horror magazine a barcode is used in a Movie magazine or a QR code. Other horror posters will be on the front cover or the main coverline can be related to horror magazine or a horror related media product. Another can be a Movie poster where there will always be credits are the bottom and company logos also. There will also usually be a release date and the main image will contain some sort of horror affect in it. Finally, the trailer will contain some quick cuts to create tension in the audience and eerie sounds.
Some of these conventions may be challenged and can either create a negative effect on the audience and decrease consumes or it can create a positive effect and attract more consumers.
An example of these media products is that on a horror magazine a barcode is used in a Movie magazine or a QR code. Other horror posters will be on the front cover or the main coverline can be related to horror magazine or a horror related media product. Another can be a Movie poster where there will always be credits are the bottom and company logos also. There will also usually be a release date and the main image will contain some sort of horror affect in it. Finally, the trailer will contain some quick cuts to create tension in the audience and eerie sounds.
Some of these conventions may be challenged and can either create a negative effect on the audience and decrease consumes or it can create a positive effect and attract more consumers.
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AS part of our A2 media Coursework we are required to create a teaser trailer and upload it onto youtube, along with other footage we may have taken such as behind the scene shoots. YouTube is highly used by large companies and aspiring film makes to distribute their teaser trailers. They do this to attract the attention of the audience because a large number of the population also used youtube as a source of discovering up coming movies.
When a large amount of audience view our trailer they can decide to view the whole of the movie, therefore youtube is a common convention that is followed by movie makers of all genres because it gains them audience. We uploaded our teaser trailer on to youtube so that it can be distributed to the audience and so that our teaser trailer can gain recognition. Uploading the trailer on to youtube is also convenient to the audience because it is free, therefore it is also convenient to the distributor because it is free to market the product. |
We are following the convention of creating a website for the movie like all companies would. When a film is released, a website will be created for the movie so that the audience can discover more about it and decide whether they should watch the movie or not. We put our Trailer, Movie poster and Magazine front cover so that the audience can see that we have different methods of advertising it. We have used Weebly because it is a simple website to use and it is free, It also accommodates our needs and helps us create the look for the website that we wanted.
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Conventions in media products
Magazine front covers
Conventions are used in media products and they are a set of things that may be included in such things as Magazine, Posters and Trailers. These conventions are followed so that the audience receive the necessary information to decided weather they want to purchase that product or not. Conventions in magazine front covers will show the audience what content it holds and what type of magazine it is. In horror magazines the colours may be quite dark but in other genres such as bridal magazines the colours can stand out and be bold. These types of conventions are used so that it is aesthetically pleasing to the audience and so that it attracts their attention but other conventions such as barcodes and date lines will inform the audience whether what they are purchasing is within their price range or if it is up to date. Below there are a few examples of magazine front covers and how every genre follows different styles of conventions to reach their target audience.
movie poster
Conventions in posters are much different to the ones in magazine front covers. Posters will have a distinctive type of layer, fonts, colours etc. Each genre follows the same conventions but differently. The horror genre that was have looked at will have dark colours or frightening images but films such as comedies or animations will have a different colour scheme. These conventions are important to follow because it informs the audience what type of movie they will be watching. Most poster swill have an age restriction because this way they will know whether it is suitable for them to watch or not but many may not have it due to it being a teaser poster. Apart from informing the audience what sort of product they will be purchasing, the way they create their poster and if it is aesthetically pleasing will attract audiences and make them want to watch the movie. The posters and magazines are usually linked, they will carry the same font or style of main image.
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movie trailer
Depending on the type of genre, conventions will be followed differently in each trailer. Trailers may follow conventions such as high/low key lighting or quick cuts. Each convention is used to make the audience feel a different emotion. When we are watching a trailer for a horror movie, there will be eerie sounds and quick cuts to create tension for the audience.
The conjuring shows a happy family at the beginning until everything goes wrong. The trailer uses music in the background to create a nice feeling for the audience but then the music stops and a tension is created that causes the audience to be frightened. The editing and the low key lighting contribute to the tension that is being created.
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Sinister jumps in quickly to make the audience scared by the quick cuts and the eerie sounds in the background. As the main character discovers more about what is going on in the house, the lighting seems to get lower and the disturbing images of the antagonist and his victims beginning to appear. As the trailer proceeds, it creates an uneasy feeling for the audience.
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Frozen is a disney movie aimed at children and toddlers. The conventions that are used in animated films are the same as the ones used in horror movies but they are used to create a different type of feeling. Frozen uses enjoyable music in the background and although there is a plot involving bad, the editing used and lighting would not frighten someone. Instead, they make the plot light hearted and show the playful side to the movie.
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Twilight is a romantic film incorporated with some horror however the trailer makes the audience see the romantic side to it more than the horror to it. The close ups of Robert Pattinson make the audience intrigued and Bella's interest in him can also reflects the one that the audience have towards him. The lighting in the trailer is a low key one creating a mysterious atmosphere and the sounds in the background create tension in an audience but not like the one in a horror trailer.
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Convention diagrams
Each media product follows a specific set of conventions so that it can appeal to their audiences. These conventions are mainly used in each product but some can be left out depending what it's aim is. Some of these conventions can be followed, developed or challenged and this is done to appeal to their target audience. Below i have soon some of the mainly used conventions in each product.
magazine FRONT COVER
Here we can see what conventions are used in real media texts. I use the example of Scream, the horror magazine, to show the typical conventions that are used. We have a Masthead, Selling Line, Main Coverline, Left third, Barcode/date, Price, Coverline, Colour scheme, Website Main image And smaller images. All magazines usually follow these conventions. Some magazine front covers may also include QR code as this was introduced in the last few years.
MOVIE POSTER
The conventions used in a Poster are always the same in every genre. The poster will always include a Movie title, Selling line, Credits, Release date, Main image, Colour scheme and some may or may not have an age restriction. On some movie posters, the names of the actors is also included or Review quotes. In the credits there is also Company logos so that the audience can recognize what company produced the movie. I used the horror movie Prom Night as my example, here we can also see the use of typography. The font of the movie title and release date are the same font and this shows continuity.
MOVIE TRAILER
In trailers they use these conventions to create a certain effect on the audience. These conventions may be used together, for example Tension/suspense and pacing were both used in Insidious on that particular scene. The demon appears behind the character really quickly then it disappears at the same speed. These two conventions were used to frighten the audience. The costumes and props are also used together, if the antagonist is masked then it will usually have a large or sharp weapon. These conventions also help us distinguish between genres.
Conventions followed
As we were creating our products we tried to follow as much conventions as we could. We took inspirations from real media products, films such as The Diary of the dead, REC and Shawn of the dead. These movies gave us ideas on what we should do with our Trailer, Movie poser and Magazine front cover and the conventions that should be followed in order to gain audience.
INSPIRATIONS |
These movies helped and influenced us on mainly how our magazine poster should look like. We liked Shawn the dead and The dairy of the dead because it showed more than one zombie and it show clearly to the audience what type of horror genre they are trying to promote. However, We decided to go with more of a REC look because it's much more subtle and and it does not give away the plot of the movie straight away.The Poster for REC helped us with the close up look that we wanted to go for because it gave us the idea of showing only one half of the face although on the poster not much of the persons face can be seen we wanted one side to be clearly seen and the other side to have a type of shadow covering it. We thought that this would go well because we wanted the main image to be the main focus and to capture the attention of the audience the most. |
trailer
We aimed for the trailer to consist of every convention that is usually followed by every trailer. Our main aim was to create a trailer full of suspense because if it appeals to the audience from the beginning then it would make them want to watch it more. The scene were we wanted this to happen was at the end and in the part where it is a security camera footage. Below are a few shots were we tried to create tension and we also used editing to make this happen.
We wanted the setting of the trailer to be related with the story line therefore, we chose to shoot it in a laboratory were the antagonist spends most of his time. By following this convention, the audience can know some of the plot of the movies because if we do not explain our storyline or link it to the setting the audience would not know what genre that film is.
A film who has also done this with their setting in their trailer was 28 Days later.
Zombies' costume and make up
When we were coming up with ideas for our trailer we looked at existing trailers and saw that in older movies zombies had a typical look such as of them raising from there tombs and looking dirty/dead. We wanted to go with a more modern look from more recent films because the type of looking zombie that is used has developed over the years. Zombies still come back from the dead but not from their tombs and look more scary. The make up that is used on the zombies looks much more real than it did in older movies. We chose to go with this more modern convention because we wanted our zombie to have an up to date look, like recent and newer movies.
Here is the kind of look that we wanted our zombie to eventually end up with in the movie and the trailer.
Wounds For our zombie, we wanted to create similar wounds to the ones in the slide show but in various places such as his arm and neck. We decided to follow his convention because wounds like these inform the audience that the movie is a zombie one. We chose to not include many of the wounds in the trailer because we wanted the audience to see more of it in the film it self. On the trailer we only show the transformation of the zombie. When he gets infected he slowly begins to mutate and towards the end of the trailer his mutation is becoming more server. At the beginning he has an arm wound, more into the trailer he has a neck wound because it begins to spread. At the end of the trailer his eyes have now changed colour and blood is coming out of his eyes. We made it a relatively slow mutation because we wanted to show the audience how slowly he became a zombie. |
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EYE CONVENTION
In almost every zombie trailer/movie the zombies eye colour changes as he becomes a zombie. In the movies they are usually white and glow. We chose to follow this convention of the eye colour changing and to show it in our trailer. When Krystian begins to change into a zombie, his eye colour also changes. First one of his eyes changed then the other one changes. When both his eyes changed colour it connotes that the infection has completely taken over him and from then on his body will begin to change more and he will no longer be Krystian.
OTHER POSSIBLE CONTACT LENSES
zombie type
Old or modern 21st century zombie
When we were Analising how to make our zombie we decided that we wanted him to be a 21st century kind of zombie. These zombies run more and are more viscous. In older movies such a dawn of the dead or zombie nation the zombies are much more slow.
We wanted to make our zombie this way because we believed that this would create more tension in the audience . This combined with our sound effects would make the audience want to watch the movie more.
This type of zombie can also lead to become more human like. Like in the land of the dead, these zombies become more human like and eventually learn how to handle a weapon, they also learned to think logically. This could also demonstrate how the human evolved.
We wanted to make our zombie this way because we believed that this would create more tension in the audience . This combined with our sound effects would make the audience want to watch the movie more.
This type of zombie can also lead to become more human like. Like in the land of the dead, these zombies become more human like and eventually learn how to handle a weapon, they also learned to think logically. This could also demonstrate how the human evolved.
This clip of dawn of the dead represents what kind of zombie we were going for.
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Shaun of the dead had rather slow zombies and here we can see the type of zombie we were not going for.
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This other clip from dawn of the dead also shows what kind of zombie we wanted to portray.
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Developed conventions
Plot
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The trailers of these films were fundamentally helpful when we were coming up with ideas for our own teaser trailer because it gave us ideas about how it should look and what the plot of it should be . In the REC trilogy we can see that the infection traveled through the vents and was believed to have a religious back ground. Unlike other zombie movies it did not occur when someone ate something contaminated etc. We wanted to show the audience a unique way of creating our virus and thought it would be a good idea to relate it to space and something coming from it because then it could attract more than one kind of audience.
Here there are two screen grabs of how our infection began in the trailer. The meteor that Krystian is examining is from outer space and it is what causes the infection. We chose to challenge this convention because we thought it would gain us more audience and attract the attention of the audience.
CHALLENGED conventions
Protagonist voice over
Although blade is the protagonist, the trailer for blade is a good example of the type of voice over that we were trying to go for.
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For our trailer, we decided that we were not going to show out protagonist but instead he had her narrate the story and for the audience to have to watch the movie to find out her fate. We thought this would be a good idea because it could make the audience want to watch the movie. Although she is not seen in the trailer, the audience know that she plays a big part in the movie because whether she dies or not is shown only in the movie. We decided to challenge this convention because we wanted our protagonist to be heard instead and for all the audiences attention to go to our antagonist. |
Zombie genre
blood convention
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The images to the left show the appearance of zombies and portrays the make up effects they have in movies dramatized with extra blood..
Blood is often used in horror movies but it is specific to zombie movies because there is often blood around their mouths because it symbolizes that they are constantly feeding. The wounds that zombies have are filled with blood and it is often excessively shown. There may also be blood on their close or around their body also connoting that they are constantly feeding. Below is a clip from Shaun the dead showing the blood effect they use in movies. |
Skin convention
All zombie films give a special effects on skin to their zombies. Depending on the movie, they can give a mild or an extreme effect on them. To the left the first image is from Snow dead, the zombie is has white skin that seems to also be cracked. The other two images are more extreme where they use a lot of cuts and blood. This convention could be used to connote that the zombies are dead and that their appearance it drastically different to a human one. |
colour scheme
When it comes to movie posters and magazine front covers the zombie genre uses a specific colour scheme which is dark. Some posters such as 28 weeks later used a red dominating colour scheme to represent blood. In the poster we can also see blood around the mask so it is connoting that there wil be a lot of blood. The magazine front cover also shows a mainly red colour scheme representing the zombie genre. This convention is follow by the zombie genre so that the audience can distinguish products that are a different genre.
zombie apperance
Costumes
Depending on the storyline of the movie, each zombie will have a specific costume and appearance. In zombie land, we saw that as each person got infected they seemed to be dressed in ordinary clothes. Their costumes were also covered in blood and sometimes torn. This convention connotes that the zombies are no longer aware of their appearance therefore they may look like the people in the image to the left. This convention is also important so that the audience can see that the zombies are no longer in a human state and have transformed into something that no longer cares about what they look like.
Make up/wounds
Each zombie film will go for a different kind of make up effect on the their zombies. In older examples such as dawn of the dead (1978) the zombies have a bloody effect but not as extreme as in more recent films such as REC. This effect has developed over the years as the use of make up have gotten better and better. The make up is also used to create the effect on the wounds. This has also developed over time and had gotten better to the point were it looks extremely real. This conventions helps create fear in the audience.
Depending on the storyline of the movie, each zombie will have a specific costume and appearance. In zombie land, we saw that as each person got infected they seemed to be dressed in ordinary clothes. Their costumes were also covered in blood and sometimes torn. This convention connotes that the zombies are no longer aware of their appearance therefore they may look like the people in the image to the left. This convention is also important so that the audience can see that the zombies are no longer in a human state and have transformed into something that no longer cares about what they look like.
Make up/wounds
Each zombie film will go for a different kind of make up effect on the their zombies. In older examples such as dawn of the dead (1978) the zombies have a bloody effect but not as extreme as in more recent films such as REC. This effect has developed over the years as the use of make up have gotten better and better. The make up is also used to create the effect on the wounds. This has also developed over time and had gotten better to the point were it looks extremely real. This conventions helps create fear in the audience.
characters
The characters that are used in a zombie film can be different in every movie. Some moves such as Warm bodies and Zombie land have a variation of ages and genders that they have used. Other movies such as The crazies and Zombie nation use a an older age range of actors. Zombie nation also focuses on females gaining revenge on someone that has hurt them.
It may be stereotypical to believe that the younger you are the more likely you are to survive a zombie apocalypse. In zombie land we can see this in the protagonist because he is young and fit therefore more likely yo survive. This convention is followed by some movie to appeal to a younger audience and with older characters in other movies that can be used to appeal to an older generation. |
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conventions followed in Trailers
Editing and sound effects play a big part in Zombie trailers usually. In editing, things such as quick cuts can be used to create tension within its audience. The sound effects in the background help the editing be more effective because eerie sounds are used or loud and unsettling sounds as well. These and other conventions such as camera techniques and pacing can be combined to achieve the feeling that they are trying to give to their audience. Following such conventions is important for film makers so that their audience can be made to want to watch their movies. Two good example of follwing these conventions are The crazies and 28 weeks later.
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