1. In what ways does your media product
use, develop of challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
Sam Huntington

2. Planning with Conventions
When first creating a plan for my coursework, I knew straight away that an initial task I would
have to complete is researching into real media products. I would have to look into film
trailers (or more specifically horror movie trailers) in order to see the conventions set by
them, and how I would implement them into my own media product. These are the
conventions I found:
- Fast and quick paced imagery, quick flashes with jumpy editing in order to create tension
and/or suspense.
- Very little storyline/plot is given away, thus preventing too much of the main action being
revealed. This helps create an unknowing for the viewer, which creates excitement and curiosity.
- An aim to shock, scare, alarm viewers - possible play on people's fears.
- Short bursts of horror, gore and/or violence to show a more graphic aspect of the film. Gives a
teaser as to what's to come in terms of horror.
- An antagonistic character, real or not, will be hinted/teased at in the trailer, usually have a very
small presence in the trailer in order to not give away the character properly.

3. What I decided
From looking at these particular conventions, I found that for the most part, I wanted to relay
these conventions within my own horror trailer. I did this in order to create a product that
would be professional and recognizable to the audience as a media production. Because my
particular film trailer was a "found footage" horror film, I researched and looked into film
trailers such as Paranormal Activity, which were of a very similar genre. When originally
planning my work, I analysed trailers, and made these initial plans:
From these trailers, I decided:
- My trailer would last about 1:00-1:30 in time.
- The trailer wouldn't feature a voice over
- The sounds within the trailer would be both natural and dubbed background music to cause
momentum and suspense.
- Several mismatched scenes with appearances of "ware" on the "tape" if possible.
- A very short scene at the end which includes the movies title, along with logo's etc.
- The opening featuring a very brief synopsis of the film, giving away the "found footage" genre
to the audience.
- More "horror" to the end of the clip, shows climax then cuts out.
In terms of my actual trailer, I feel I very much conform to the conventions set in professional
media productions.

4. Indepth Analysis
- Fast and quick paced imagery, quick flashes with jumpy editing in order to
create tension and/or suspence.
My trailer features a section with 4 scenes which are edited together in a fast, jumpy way, in
order to create suspence. I also was able to use music in order to add to the scene in order to
create a certain feeling for the viewer.
- Very little storyline/plot is given away, thus preventing too much of the main
action being revealed. This helps create an unknowing for the viewer, which
creates excitement and curiousity.
In the beginning of my trailer, there are 3 text scenes which give a very small indication of
the initial plot. It gives the storyline away as to the first part of the film, but does not speak
about the "horror" aspect; in this case, the hooded character.
- An aim to shock, scare, alarm viewers - possible play on people's fears.
I feel my trailer does play to this convention but in a weaker tone. The trailer has several
"jumpy" scenes along with a scene of "paranormal" where a draw opens "by itself", however
it doesn't really shock of play of fears.
".

5. Indepth Analysis
- Short bursts of horror, gore and/or violence to show a more graphic aspect of
the film. Gives a teaser as to whats to come in terms of horror.
My trailer features scenes of "blood on a hand" along with scenes of a body being dragged
away, with very short scenes of the hooded character and the protagonist running away.
- An antagonistic character, real or not, will be hinted/teased at in the
trailer, usually have a very small presence in the trailer in order to not give away
the character properly.
The antagonist character is in fact teased more than expected for a film trailer in my
opinion, as there are scenes of the character interweaved into the trailer during the jumpy
section. However, at the end of the trailer, the hooded character pops up onto the screeen
quickly. I feel this is a good way of teasing the character itself without giving too much
away.
Overall, I feel my media production conforms and uses the conventions of real media products
well, sticking to most of the conventions set by previous film trailers. With doing this, my
product could stand against other "found footage" movie's in a way, if not standing against
more independant amateuristic films. I feel like if I didn't stick to the conventions set, the
trailer wouldn't be as authentic towards the genre, and I feel that there wasn't a need to go
"out of the box".

6. Overall
Overall, I feel my media production conforms and uses the
conventions of real media products well, sticking to most of the
conventions set by previous film trailers. With doing this, my
product could stand against other "found footage" movie's in a
way, if not standing against more independant amateuristic
films. I feel like if I didn't stick to the conventions set, the trailer
wouldn't be as authentic towards the genre, and I feel that there
wasn't a need to go "out of the box“. My film trailer, from my
point of view, does develop certain conventions that are set for
generic film trailers. The trailer, while revealing the “antagonist”
and giving an overview of the beginning of the film, does leave a
lot to think about for the viewer, almost leaving unanswered
questions which they might want to find the answers to within
the full film.