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

2. THE TRAILER

3. Whilst researching the film noir genre, we came
across a film called ‘American Gangster’ which is a
subgenre from film-noir called ‘neo-noir’. In the
trailer we noticed a few things that we thought
would work really well in our own trailer for
‘FREEZE’. Firstly, there was a voiceover in American
Gangster where the main character explains what
he has to do as part of the job which we thought
worked effectively. So we used this in our own
trailer when there is a voiceover of the character
Selina saying ‘murder, extortion, bribery and
conspiracy. Its all part of what I do.’ This worked
effectively in our trailer as we didn’t want to give
away what Selina’s job was within the trailer and so
by listing some of the things she does, it gives the
audience an idea of how ruthless her character is.

4. We used the same concept that was in the film ‘Inception’. In
inception, there was a shift in pace and music after a fade to
black had appeared. This meant that the audience would be
left wondering what was going to happen next and so they
would be in suspense. Inception had a building falling down in
slow motion, then a black screen and then a man talking
explaining what was happening.
In our trailer, we used a fast paced pan around the back of
Selina, then the fade to black, and then a close up of her
eyes which introduced the audience to who she was.

5. THE TRAILER

6. We developed out final film title from the film
‘American Gangster’. In American Gangster, they
have put a silhouette of American buildings over
the films name. As we created a British film, we
decided to instead put a silhouette of London
over the title ‘FREEZE’. This worked extremely
well as it allowed the audience to realise that the
film was set in London, just by watching the
trailer.

7. THE TRAILER

8. When researching film-noir
trailers, it occurred to me that
there was never a lead female
character who was strong-
minded, determined and
assertive. In ‘The Black Dahlia’
the main character is a male
detective, in ‘Public Enemies’
the main character is a male
gang leader and in ‘Good Night
and Good Luck’ the main
character is a male reporter
who tries to expose the
corruption of president.
So, in our film ‘FREEZE’ we
challenged this idea and instead
made our main character a
female who had all the strong
qualities of a male and she
managed to run her own drug
business.

9. FILM POSTER

10. We decided to create a film poster that was similar to the movie
Lawless’ poster as we liked the design and shape of it and believed
that it would represent our film well.
In our poster we feature the three main characters, a quote from
the film and film awards that our film has won.

12. On our film poster we wanted to use the same idea as
the film ‘Lawless’ as we wanted to have all our main
characters featured, and we wanted our main
character to be at the front.
We placed the character of Selina in the middle in
order to highlight her dominant role that she has
within the film. We then had the other two
characters, Jacob and Vincent, holding different poses
and further behind Selina to show that they work for
her.

13. We again used conventions from the film Lawless’
poster when we created the three words at the
top of our poster. Lawless used the words
‘Brothers. Gangsters. Heroes.’ and we used the
words ‘Murder. Extortion. Bribery.’
We chose those words as they are a quote from
our film and we wanted to create a link between
the trailer and the poster, and we really liked how
Lawless had set their poster out and so we that’s
why we used their layout.

14. FILM POSTER

15. In film posters, a new way of printing actors and actresses
names is to have their surname either in capitals or
significantly bigger than their first name. This is because
most actors are more commonly recognised by their
surnames. The main actors name is also usually printed in
a much larger font so that the film can be easily linked
with that actor.
For our film poster, we originally tried making the
actresses name ‘Verity Penny’ bigger, however when it
was placed next to the other actors names it just looked
out of place and the whole layout was changed. So, we
developed this idea by instead just placing Verity’s name
first so that she is the first name you read and then the
audience can recognise she is the main character.

16. FILM POSTER

17. Stereotypical film-noir pictures show that the woman needs
to be looked after by the male figure and that she asserts
no dominance as she is gripping onto the male.
We wanted to challenge that role of the female, and so in
our film we made the female the ruthless leader of a drug
scandal. This came across in our poster as we positioned her
at the front with the men behind her showing that her role
is more important than the men's.

18. MAGAZINE COVER

19. We decided to use ‘W’
magazine as the brand
to use for promoting
our film.
‘W’ magazine is a
fashion magazine
which talks about high-
end fashion and
usually uses a celebrity
on their front cover.

21. We decided that in order to keep continuity over
all magazines, we should keep the magazines ‘W’
logo in the same place and font.
To the side of the main ‘W’
masthead, there is a phrase
that all the magazines use saying
‘Who, what, where, when and why in the world of
style’ and so we also decided to keep that the
same in our magazine to show we are marketing
the brand too.

22. In one ‘W’ magazine cover featuring Tilda
Swinton, the anchorage on the magazine says
‘the style icon talks about her most
controversial role yet’. We wanted to use a
similar idea on our magazine and we wanted to
incorporate both the marketing of our film as
well as the interview with our films main
character ‘Verity Penny’. In order to do
this, we too created an anchorage saying ‘in
her most daring role yet’.
Original Our magazine

23. In many ‘W’ magazines, we noticed that the
actress on the front cover is posing in a
modelling photo shoot which has been stylised
with full make-up and there is usually a
seductive element to it.
So, for our magazine, we used the same idea
and made our actress Verity wear full make-up
and look over her shoulder, directly into the
camera in order to create the seductiveness.
ORIGINAL
OUR
MAGAZINE

24. MAGAZINE COVER

25. A lot of magazine covers that we
researched focused mainly on the actress
herself and the headlines weren’t about
a new movie, but instead a personal
issue. For example, in one cover of
‘Vogue’ magazine, there is an article on
the actress Kristen Stewart and the flash
simply says ‘on love and living
dangerously’ which doesn’t promote her
new film.
We therefore challenged this convention
and made sure that every flash we
created had something to do with the
movie such as ‘how to revamp your work-
look’ as Verity’s character owns her own
business and women may be able to
relate to her. We also kept our films name
‘FREEZE’ in the same font that is used on
the other marketing products in order to
create continuity.