Evaluation question 1

Evaluation: question 1 – in what ways does your media
product use, develop, or challenge forms and conventions of real media
products?

The genre of my
product is horror, there is also an element of it being a thriller as well. I
have used some conventions of typical horror films in my trailer as I wanted my
trailer to be instantly recognisable as a trailer for a horror film, however I
have used some fairly unique features as well. The things that I have used that
are similar to other horror films are, for example, the music in my trailer, it
is typical of a lot of horror film trailer as it is slow paced and eerie, it
creates a scary atmosphere and adds to the mystery already created by the
actual scenes of the trailer, this is a good example of typical conventions of
a horror film trailer. Another example
of conventions of other film trailers I have used is the slow pace of the
trailer, the transitions are quite slow, and at times the camera movement, this
helps to add to the suspense of the trailer. My magazine and film poster use a
lot of conventions of other media products of their kind, all magazines have
very similar features and I felt that trying to be innovative with the magazine
cover would have been risky as it could have looked tacky, instead I used
features that are common on all magazines, a large title, and a main picture in
the middle with little bits of key information around the edges, however I did
try to make the cover stand out by using eye-catching colours. My poster is
similar to other film posters in terms of the positioning of the text on the
poster and also the style, I did not make my poster too busy, which is common
for film posters, as I just wanted the film title to stand out therefore people
will be certain of what it is advertising and they will definitely see what I
want them to see rather than being distracted by other parts of the poster. I have also done some things differently, I
think it is important for a trailer to have some individuality so it will stand
out in people’s minds. An example of this is that I have filmed the trailer
from a first person point of view, this adds to the reality of the trailer and
makes it seem real rather than just like a normal film. It also makes the
trailer unique and therefore it will help people remember it, although other
people have done this before it is still fairly rare for a film to be made like
this. Something that I did differently with my poster was that there were no
people on the image that I used, there is just a picture of the forest, I did
this because I wanted it to create the same sense of mystery as the trailer
does and also give people an idea that the film is in a wilderness. I think that it was important to add something
new to the genre as a lot of horror films are made that are very similar and
therefore are not that successful, I felt that it was important to make
something that would stand out so I considered filming in a different way and
decided to film form a first person point of view. I think this was a good idea
as my trailer seems to stand out to people more than others; it makes the
trailer more interesting and therefore will encourage people to view the film
that it is advertising. I think that my innovations work effectively because of
some of the feedback I have received from the viewers, people who viewed my
trailer said that it stood out in their mind from other trailers after they had
viewed it, they also said that the trailer seemed unique and was very good at
creating a sense of mystery which made them want to see the full film, it was
very pleasing when they said this as it was what I had wanted when producing
the trailer. They also commented on the magazine cover and film poster,
regarding the magazine people said that it looked professional and that the
colours used made it stand out, they also said that the text on the front
cover, such as “exclusive reviews” was interesting and that it would make
people want to read the magazine. When asked about the film poster people said
that it was eye-catching and that the image used created a feeling of mystery.
I personally believe that my product is effective because it does everything
that I wanted it to do during production, from the feedback I received I feel
that I have achieved my goals in terms of making this media product especially
because viewers have commented on the mystery created by the product, this is
vital when producing a horror film trailer.