1. In what ways will your
media product use,
develop, or challenge
forms and conventions
of real media products?

2. • My media product will follow real media conventions from the main product to both of
my ancillaries. I will also develop and challenge some of these conventions. First off, my
film trailer ‘Retribution’ is a horror film and the purpose of this will be to frighten or scare
my target audience which are teenagers. As I am targeting a teenage urban audience it
will mean I will have to challenge or develop some of the conventions to suit my audience.
Looking at other film trailers something which was important was the narrative structure.
I saw a lot of film trailers I saw followed the narrative structure of Todorov which takes
follows these steps; Equilibrium – Disruption – Resolution – Restore Order – New
Equilibrium.
•I thought that I should have a base in which my storyline will follow which
was this one. My storyline is about a boy, Tobi who is a gangster and just
lives that typical life which can be seen as equilibrium but that soon comes
to an end when he is killed. The murder can be seen as a disruption. Tobi’s
dad is a police offer and he wants the killer but he until he catches him
there won’t be a resolution and when he does order will be restored with
a new equilibrium which won’t be the same as the first one because Tobi is
not there.
......

3. • In a lot of horror movies there is often a scene with a woman who is seen as vulnerable
or weak. This can relate to John Berger’s ways of seeing where he stated that ‘Men look
at women and women watch themselves being looked at.’ I tried to develop on this
convention by incorporating a scene of a girl looking in the mirror before being murdered.
The mirror can represent a number of things when looking at this. It can represent the
actual theory of John Berger and it can also create a sense of mystery within the audience.
I developed it by showing her doing her make up as this creates a sense of weakness
through her femininity.

4. • I also followed common conventions of Propp’s Narrative Theory by exporting a couple
of ideas from it. It says that there is a hero and a villain. The villain in horror movies is
often masked and identity is hidden which I decided to follow even though target
audience research suggested that I should challenge conventions by using someone
innocent or sweet looking as my main villain. I also equipped my main villain with a knife
as I followed conventions of a lot of horror movies by using a sharp object.

5. • My film trailer is featured at daytime and here I challenged conventions as most horror
films are filmed at night. I thought it would be good to film at daytime and use a colour
corrector to edit it to the feel I want which was partly urban with a darkened mood.
• In most horror movies there is always a chase scene of some sort which creates tension
within the audience. I followed this convention with a more urban feel to it. With horror
films the chase can go both ways as the villain is probably out to kill but so is the hero as
well as there won’t be a resolution of the villain is not hunted down. However it won’t
show the villain actually being chased down because the villain is not supposed to be
scared as he is the one creating the horror so it will show brief shots of the hero trying to
kill someone.

6. • Sound is something which I have followed conventions to use in my film trailer. Trailers
often have similar spooky sounds and diegetic sounds which are made into selective
sounds to have more effect. For example a girl screaming is often featured in a film trailer
as it reinforces the weakness of women. The sound often follows a murder of the
screaming character or just them being scared. I decided to use a girl screaming in my
trailer so I could follow this convention and have an effect on the audience. Another
sound that I have followed is a footsteps sound where an image of the feet corresponds
with the sound. I believe that this sound along with the image creates a sense of mystery
as we wouldn’t know where or who he is going to. Footsteps are often used as a selective
sound to emphasize the mystery in this trailer.

7. • Editing techniques of a horror trailer are often presented in a number of quick cuts with
a minority of it being fades. The cuts which appear are put there so that the trailer is
effective for the target audience and the fast pace transitions will make sure that the
audience are entertained and kept alive by the trailer. The fades are often used in order to
settle the audience down to listen to an important part of the storyline. Retribution
attempts to use the conventions of a fast pace trailer however we made our trailer slower
than the usual fast pace transition, simply because of the fact that we didn’t want our
audience to be too confused with the characters but challenging this convention may not
be as effective as we thought.

8. • Designing a magazine cover for my AS production work I was able to easily adapt the
common conventions of a magazine cover to my A2 magazine. The following general
conventions were produced in my A2 production work; the barcode, the price, free
giveaways etc. I used these conventions so they could be easily identified by the audience.
• Also the price of my magazine is £2.50 as this is a suitable for my teenage audience, any
more and my audience would be put off by the expensive price. A majority of film
magazines with horror features decide to use a plain background and some don’t but I
decided to make my background a gradient of blue and black with a majority of the black
visible.

9. • I used a black so my magazine can create a sense of darkness; I wanted the mise en
scene of my magazine to just have a one simple connotation of darkness or evil. My main
image is a medium shot of my villain from my trailer as I wanted to represent my trailer in
my magazine.
• The image is posed as I wanted the audience to feel related to the character; most
magazine covers relating to horror are often posed of the villain, the hero or the victim.
Also the character is possessed with knife acting like he is showing it to the audience. I did
it like this so my audience can feel a sense of fear just by looking at the image. Also covers
who have the villain on the front often show the object which is used to create horror.

10. • Text on my magazine cover is in mainly white as this is a colour often used on magazine.
The colour white can create a sort of ghostly feeling within the audience so I decided to
use this for my magazine text of the film title. The film title also features a font
(‘Coalition’) which was used in my film trailer and this font has a horror effect on it with
some scratches on the letters. These scratches can create a sense of danger with in the
audience leaving gaps in their knowledge about the film. I made sure that on my magazine
I featured the special attractions as this is an important convention to follow when
designing a magazine as it is what draws the audience in.
Magazine Cover: Film Poster:
Film Trailer:

11. • My magazine cover features another image which represents my film trailer as it is a
shot from one of the most exciting scenes. I decided to develop on the convention of extra
images as magazines don’t really grab any shots from the actual film. However I thought
that it would be a good thing for me to do as the image can attract my target audience as
well as seeing characters that can relate to them also.
• My film poster contains a positive quote which is a convention of movie posters. Live
Magazine is an urban youth magazine in London which is well-known to my target
audience so a positive quote for them would be a good promotional strategy in promoting
my film. Teenagers from the urban background would be drawn in by this comment as it
uses words associated with urban. (Live magazine photo)

12. • The star of my film is supposedly meant to be a well-known actor as his name in the
credits is large and takes up the width of my poster. The image of him is a close up of his
face and is the largest image on the poster; this is a common convention on film posters as
institutions like to emphasize the main character that is usually an influence or can
identify with the target audience. My main character has a serious look on his face posing
and staring directly at the camera who is also the audience for the poster. The facial
expressions of him engage the character with the audience allowing them to feel involved
with the film. It also creates a sense of danger within the character he has got an evil look
on his face

13. • The title of my film follows film poster conventions in terms of size as the name of the
film has to be big and bold for the audience to be able to see it. My title Retribution is at
the bottom across the width of the page. It is positioned there to demand recognition
with the audience. Also the font used for this is ‘Coalition’ which is also used in my
magazine and my film trailer as it links my three products. The text has a scratch effect on
it and can be used to create a sense of danger. I challenge the conventions of using the
typical colours associated with negative views. I decide to use blue as blue is often
associated with neutrality however because I wanted my poster to have a unique selling
point I used the connotation of blue skin colour which is linked to death or serious illness
which also represents the genre of my film.