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

1. EVALUATION 1
IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR
MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP
OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND
CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA
PRODUCTS?

2. GENRE THEORY
 One of the first steps that we took was to look into
Genre theory. Our products revolve mainly around
the genre and therefore researching this theory
proved to be very useful.
 An audience knows what features are associated
with certain genres and they have a set of
expectations: for example, in a thriller film, an
expectation would be that there is a twist or turn in
the film that cannot be for seen.

3. REAL FORMS AND CONVENTIONS WE
USED: LIGHTING AND LOCATION
 Our media products consisting of a magazine cover, a
trailer and a poster all to promote a film can be
described in several ways in how they use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media
products. From our research we learnt the typical
conventions of media products in terms of films.
 We looked at the iconography of thriller films and from
this we got a sense of what our media product should
be. In terms of lighting we found that depending on what
kind of atmosphere that is wanting to be achieved, the
lighting will change, but typically a dimly lit setting shows
a negative situation which is often the case within a
thriller.

4. REAL FORMS AND CONVENTIONS WE
USED: LIGHTING AND LOCATION
 We have used this convention of real media
products in our film. Here you can see that we have
created a dark atmosphere through the lighting that
we have used. This also enabled us to show a
shadow of a hand which added to this atmosphere.
 In terms of location, thrillers often take place within
a city as it is closer to home, making it realistic, we
have used this convention as we set this plot at her
house. The setting is an isolated place along with
mental isolation of the character.

5. REAL FORMS AND CONVENTIONS WE
USED: CHARACTERS
 Characters were key and in real media products,
the conventional character we found for thriller films
were criminals, stalkers, assassins, terrorists,
psychotic individuals and many more.
 Our plot revolves around a psychotic individual and
this is really where are story can develop from. In
all three promotions we have displayed our
character in a way that reflects
her psychotic nature.
 In the poster we have just shown half of her face to
show her alter ego which is part of her medical
condition, we've also included an image of her on
the magazine cover where the costume and make
up really covey her struggle.

6. REAL FORMS AND CONVENTIONS WE
USED: CAMERA ANGLES
 Camera angles and movements can also be key within
thriller films as in real media products, commonly
used are jump cuts and quick camera angle changes to
illustrate a number of different things or problems which
are occurring within the film and build up the pace to
create tension.
 In our film, we used jump cuts to show the number of
problems our character is facing, We have her having a
child alone, her having nightmares, the death of her
baby and her illness. We have included all these
problems in our film trailer.
 We have also a number of different camera angles, like
extreme close-ups, mid shots, low angles and high
angles to show their status.

7. REAL FORMS AND CONVENTIONS WE
USED: THRILLER THEMES
 Probably one of the most import conventions in real
media products of thriller films are the edge of your
sit cliff-hangers that build towards a climax as the
character progresses through life threatening
situations.
 This in terms of our product is the loss of her child
but nobody knows who did kill the baby until
nearing the end where the revelation of who did kill
the baby is a massive shock and surprise.
 We have also used the convention of having the
story told from the point of view of the protagonist
(the main character)

8. REAL FORMS AND CONVENTIONS WE
USED: POSTERS
 In terms of posters also, it is typical of thrillers to have a
dark background which in fact is what we have, the title
of the film is in the largest font in comparison to smaller
fonts which represent the names of actors, directors etc.
 Also, it must have a focal picture and a tag line which
we have used. Also linking to posters a typical
convention of media products is to have multiple posters
for one film, for example shutter island had around five
posters to promote the film.
 Although our brief is only to make one poster, we made
multiple posters because we wanted a variety of ideas
to choose just one from however we thought they could
all be used for promotional purposes.

9. DIRECT COMPARISON TO THE
CONVENTIONS USED IN EXISTING
POSTERS: As you can conventions in our poster. film used the title, a section dedicated to
Have used
see, in comparison to the
We
poster for Shutter Island we
the main star Sophie Young similar to Leonardo DiCaprio. We have also
included our production company logo to display who produced the film, similar
to: ‘A Martin Scorsese Picture.’
We have also used the conventional font for
posters to show the details of production and
distribution: Bodoni MT Poster Compressed
Our poster has used the
same Convention as
Shutter Island by having a
tagline.
We have also used a main focal image that
takes a large proportion of
the poster to illustrate the character in the film.
Both posters have used close-up shots of
their faces to show their emotions.

10. DIRECT COMPARISON TO THE
CONVENTIONS USED IN EXISTING
MAGAZINE COVERS:
Again, we have used
the convention to
have a section
dedicated
to the film, including
The first convention we used was to the title, a tag line
display what reviews we have this
week, we have also made the word and the name of
LATEST in capitals to link to the title who stars in the film.
along with emphasise the exclusive
nature of these reviews.
The film magazine title is placed at the top of the
magazine in large bold writing. As you can see we
have included the website, issue number, date and
price near to the title so they will be seen: this has
also been done in ‘Total Film’ magazine. Along with
this, the convention of having the main image either
in front or behind the text has also been used to
show how everything has been integrated together.

11. REAL FORMS AND CONVENTIONS WE
USED: MAGAZINE
 Along with this, in terms of the magazine cover,
a feature is normally used to grab the readers
attention. For example, in our magazine 'Top 10
films this Christmas inside!' is our feature which
also includes our film. This exclamatory syntax
also relates to the time of year that the film is
released.
 Also reviews, the barcode, the date, a website,
a main image, the title displayed in large fonts,
the issue numbers and many more are
conventional of real magazines. We found that
the most effective way to make a realistic
magazine cover was to use these typical forms.

12. REAL FORMS AND CONVENTIONS
THAT WE CHALLENGED:
 Interms of challenging typical conventions
of real media products, we have not used a
voice over which is usually used in trailers to
explain the story. However we felt that in
terms of our media product it was more
effective to just use the music and image
frames of the trailer to convey this plot and
film. The music centres around the nursery
rhyme 'twinkle twinkle little star' and we
wanted this to come across in our trailer.

13. REAL FORMS AND CONVENTIONS
THAT WE CHALLENGED:
 By doing this we make the story even more
emotional and heart breaking because of the child
like and innocent nature. Also the increase in pace
as it continues really adds to the suspense and
atmosphere therefore we felt it was best to use a
sound track.
 Along with this, although voice overs are helpful in
expanding on the story we felt that because of the
silence of any diegetic sounds like the voice of
characters, we felt it represented the silence of our
main character's alter ego. Her alter ego has killed
the baby and is not saying a word and we wanted
to convey this.

14. REAL FORMS AND CONVENTIONS
THAT WE CHALLENGED:
 Thrillers are also a combination of good vs evil
which in this way may challenge the typical
convention of real thriller films. They often have a
clear divide between the evil character and the
good character and good normally triumphs evil.
However, as the our character is both good and
evil, she is really battling against herself and in the
end.

15. REAL FORMS AND CONVENTIONS
THAT WE CHALLENGED
 In terms of our magazine cover, it is typical that the
front cover is to have a clear image of the main
character, often looking towards the camera,
however our main image is our character looking
away from the camera, in order to convey her
feelings.
 We've also challenged the typical convention of
media products as there is not a particular hero
 Typical props in thriller films are weapons like guns,
swords, bombs etc however in our film the main
weapon seems to be her mind and her state of
mentality. Her psychotic nature is the main
weapon.

16. REAL FORMS AND CONVENTIONS:
POSTER
 In terms of the poster, we did not particularly
challenge any of the traditional forms and
conventions as we felt that the most effective way
to construct a poster and was through the typical
means of including a main image, a website,
production and distribution details, actors names
etc.

17. REAL FORMS AND CONVETIONS THAT
WE DEVELOPED:
 We developed conventions of a magazine cover
through the use of both pictures: we have used a
fashionable shot but emotional pose for the main
image where the character is almost portraying how
upset she is that she cannot look at the camera.
However this is in direct contrast with the other
image of the character who is directly looking at the
camera in a threatening way which shows how
much she changes within the film.
 We have started to display the story just in the front
cover which not many magazines can do. but also
included an image of the character.