In what ways does your media product use, develop, or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Before I could create my media products, I had to outline and design these products. In order to do this I had to understand the conventions and details that go into creating a poster, trailer, and magazine cover. In order to do this, I had to research what makes these media products, and how to go about creating a realistic set of media products.
Firstly, I had to research films and magazines and their conventions, and then I narrowed them down to suit my genre:
All this research on these media products gave me the perfect preparation and ideas for my own products. I now knew how these media products were created, and why they were created in such a way, and I was ready to set my own ideas in motion. To do this I had to prepare layouts for my poster and magazine cover, and come up with ways in which I could create these products based on my research:
While I was doing this, I was able to research the little details that would make my media products look like the finished article, such as font, name of magazine and film, taglines, certificate of the movie, billing, and cover lines. These are all important, because, although some of these are more noticeable and important than others, they are all necessary an required in the media products I created. My research and effort in being as prepared as possible was rewarded as I was able to make changes to my tagline or cast names if I felt I needed to in order to make my product better. In the end I made a last minute change to my tagline as I felt it didn't suit my film plot and poster.
While the above is important for the poster and magazine front cover, the teaser trailer requires completely different preparation for the filming. Once I decided upon the plot of my movie and the name, I had to prepare a shot list for the filming of the trailer. This had to be presented in a way that made it easy to follow and keep to. A shot list was necessary because it is an important guideline for the plot of the movie, and also made sure that I did not lose track of what I was required to shoot.
Doing the above gave me the perfect preparation to create my real media products. When doing so, I was always aiming to make my products as realistic as possible. Now I have created the final products, it is necessary to compare my poster, magazine front cover, and teaser trailer with existing media products, to see whether or not my products make a feasible marketing campaign.
Poster
My poster is realistic in the sense that it uses all the conventions; Title is the biggest font on screen, includes billing, production company logos, an image, review and ratings, release date etc.
These two posters are both posters designed for films for the thriller genre, and there many differences and similarities between them. It is very clear that both posters have dark tones and use very little colours, with the majority of the poster being in darkness. Regarding the positioning of the text on the posters, again there are many similarities between the posters. Firstly, the title's are the biggest text on the poster, and are positioned at the bottom of the poster, directly above the billing. Under both billings, are the date it's due (my poster does not give a confirmed date) and either side of it under the billing are production company logos, although the production company logos on my poster are separated from the billing whereas they are not separated on the Batman poster.
Differences between the two posters are infrequent, but a noticeable difference is that in the Batman poster, the main and supporting characters are listed at the top of the poster, whereas on my poster only the main character's name is present. I have also decided to include reviews and ratings on my poster because I felt that my movie was a movie that, although it may have already had a previous fan-base due it being based on a book, it could not rely on them just to be successful. The successful ratings are a ploy to attract more people to see the movie than already would. The Batman poster does not have ratings, and for good reason; it does not need them. The Dark Knight Rises is the final film of a hugely successful trilogy, and does not need to fill its poster with reviews and ratings in order to attract fans when it already has a huge fan-base.
Ultimately, my poster follows the conventions listed as being common in film posters, and therefore would pass as a real film poster.
Magazine Front Cover
My poster follows the vast majority of the conventions of a magazine front cover; Masthead is the biggest text and is at the top of the cover, a dominant central imagine, main cover line (bigger text than cover lines), cover lines etc.
The two posters look very similar. The mastheads are both at the top, are very similar fonts (I used Bureau Eagle Bold), and both have part of the magazine name inside the other part of the name (101 in the 'M' in Film). The dominant central image is also the main image as expected, as is the main cover line, and the cover lines are beside the dominant central image in both. Both posters also include banners, barcode, a web address, and a slogan that is consistent on their magazine covers every week/month.
There are not many differences between the other posters, apart from the fact that you can distinctly tell that a lot more time, effort, and money has gone into the Total Film magazine due to the quality of the imagery and background. This shows that, although it is not of the quality that a magazine like Total Film can produce, it still contains all the conventions of a magazine front cover that are present in real film magazines.
Teaser Trailer
Before I could create my media products, I had to outline and design these products. In order to do this I had to understand the conventions and details that go into creating a poster, trailer, and magazine cover. In order to do this, I had to research what makes these media products, and how to go about creating a realistic set of media products.
Firstly, I had to research films and magazines and their conventions, and then I narrowed them down to suit my genre:
While I was doing this, I was able to research the little details that would make my media products look like the finished article, such as font, name of magazine and film, taglines, certificate of the movie, billing, and cover lines. These are all important, because, although some of these are more noticeable and important than others, they are all necessary an required in the media products I created. My research and effort in being as prepared as possible was rewarded as I was able to make changes to my tagline or cast names if I felt I needed to in order to make my product better. In the end I made a last minute change to my tagline as I felt it didn't suit my film plot and poster.
While the above is important for the poster and magazine front cover, the teaser trailer requires completely different preparation for the filming. Once I decided upon the plot of my movie and the name, I had to prepare a shot list for the filming of the trailer. This had to be presented in a way that made it easy to follow and keep to. A shot list was necessary because it is an important guideline for the plot of the movie, and also made sure that I did not lose track of what I was required to shoot.
Doing the above gave me the perfect preparation to create my real media products. When doing so, I was always aiming to make my products as realistic as possible. Now I have created the final products, it is necessary to compare my poster, magazine front cover, and teaser trailer with existing media products, to see whether or not my products make a feasible marketing campaign.
Poster
My poster is realistic in the sense that it uses all the conventions; Title is the biggest font on screen, includes billing, production company logos, an image, review and ratings, release date etc.
These two posters are both posters designed for films for the thriller genre, and there many differences and similarities between them. It is very clear that both posters have dark tones and use very little colours, with the majority of the poster being in darkness. Regarding the positioning of the text on the posters, again there are many similarities between the posters. Firstly, the title's are the biggest text on the poster, and are positioned at the bottom of the poster, directly above the billing. Under both billings, are the date it's due (my poster does not give a confirmed date) and either side of it under the billing are production company logos, although the production company logos on my poster are separated from the billing whereas they are not separated on the Batman poster.
Differences between the two posters are infrequent, but a noticeable difference is that in the Batman poster, the main and supporting characters are listed at the top of the poster, whereas on my poster only the main character's name is present. I have also decided to include reviews and ratings on my poster because I felt that my movie was a movie that, although it may have already had a previous fan-base due it being based on a book, it could not rely on them just to be successful. The successful ratings are a ploy to attract more people to see the movie than already would. The Batman poster does not have ratings, and for good reason; it does not need them. The Dark Knight Rises is the final film of a hugely successful trilogy, and does not need to fill its poster with reviews and ratings in order to attract fans when it already has a huge fan-base.
Ultimately, my poster follows the conventions listed as being common in film posters, and therefore would pass as a real film poster.
Magazine Front Cover
My poster follows the vast majority of the conventions of a magazine front cover; Masthead is the biggest text and is at the top of the cover, a dominant central imagine, main cover line (bigger text than cover lines), cover lines etc.
The two posters look very similar. The mastheads are both at the top, are very similar fonts (I used Bureau Eagle Bold), and both have part of the magazine name inside the other part of the name (101 in the 'M' in Film). The dominant central image is also the main image as expected, as is the main cover line, and the cover lines are beside the dominant central image in both. Both posters also include banners, barcode, a web address, and a slogan that is consistent on their magazine covers every week/month.
There are not many differences between the other posters, apart from the fact that you can distinctly tell that a lot more time, effort, and money has gone into the Total Film magazine due to the quality of the imagery and background. This shows that, although it is not of the quality that a magazine like Total Film can produce, it still contains all the conventions of a magazine front cover that are present in real film magazines.
Teaser Trailer
Both teaser trailers have similar structures, as they are split into two parts. The first part of the trailer is set up to inform the viewer of what is going on, although as a teaser trailer, it does not give too much away. This part is longer than the second part, which is the montage. The montage is a fast-paced sequence of shots at the end of the trailer which are not placed for any meaning, but are there for the quality of the shots. They are used to excite the viewer and make them want to see more. Due to the genres of the films, both trailers use action shots in the montage as this is what the audience wants to see,
Both trailers include taglines. Taglines are shots that contain writing that are used for a few reasons. One of the reasons are to inform the audience. This may be to add a bit of context to the movie, for example, the first tagline in the Mad Max trailer contain the words "A world without hope". This gives the audience a bit of context about the film, but only four words worth of context, it does not reveal key plot lines. Another way taglines can be used are to fill the spaces in the trailer. Taglines are not just informative, they are carefully placed in between certain shots so as to add effect to a trailer. It is as much of a shot as any other shot in the trailer, even if that shots is to only tell the audience who the director is.
Both teaser trailers contain billing and a release date at the end of the trailer. Both are conventions of a teaser trailer so it is no surprise that they are included in the trailer.
Both trailers contain non-diegetic music. This is music that the audience can hear, but the actors cannot. Non-diegetic music is used in order to set the tone and to ccause tension amongst the audience.
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