The document discusses how the media production group used and developed conventions of real media genres in their mystery/thriller trailer. They researched conventions like editing techniques and soundtracks used in movie trailers like Inception. Their trailer used conventions like fade to black cuts and syncing visuals with music to build tension. They also challenged conventions by using a non-white lead actor to diversify typical genres. The group felt their trailer effectively used key conventions seen in real media to engage audiences.

1. Evaluation
Vaneesha, Rushik & Yannis

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

3. Our genre is mystery psychological/thriller/action, to get an
idea of what key conventions these genre use in real media, we
had to research into it. For example, we looked at movie trailers
such as Inception, Looper and I Am Legend to find the common
conventions used for these trailers.
In the three trailers we observed, we found that it was essential
that the editing technique of fade to black had to be used. We
used this typical film convention in our trailer many times as it
helps our trailer to build up the tension of the story line. This
could also refer back to Roland Barthes ‘enigma code’. To make
our trailer conventional, we used multiple soundtracks for our
trailer to exaggerate the build up of tension, which we also
found in common in the real media products that we watched
which helped draw the audience attention. (talk about inception
soundtrack)
We also followed the conventions of an action sequence, by
syncing the visual text with the soundtrack. By doing this we
build up the anticipation of the trailer as the audience eager for
more and to also inform the audience about the content of the
trailer.
(COMPARE THE
INCEPTION
TRAILER TO OUR
OWN TRAILER IN
A SHORT VIDEO
CLIP)

4. During the process of the trailer, we remembered that it was vital to keep
the conventions of a mystery-thriller psychological trailer to make it
obvious to the audience that this hybrid genre. For example, we kept typical
conventions such as fast paced-editing, fade to black. We have met these
criteria's as we used all the listed conventions in our trailer. Conventions
such as an establishing shot and jump cuts were a common convention used
in the trailers we looked at. So we decided to include this by having several
establishing shots of London to base the setting for the audience to
familiarise themselves with the setting. By using this convention, we made
it possible for our target audience to instantly pick out the key elements
used in the trailer.
Other typical conventions used in the trailer are the title cards used, we done this by using fonts
which stand out and the plain black background. The reason why we chose to do this is because
it indicates what the film is about and who are the main characters.
We noticed that in professional trailers their typical convention is using white characters as a
main role was common. To challenge this stereotype of the hero being white, we decided to use
a different ethnic actress/actor in our trailer. The reason for this is because we wanted to
challenge the stereotype to show that real media doesn’t always have to use the same ethnic to
be successful in their movies. This is also a reflection of our own ethnic backgrounds as being
based in London, we feel by using a main character from an afro-Caribbean background, is a
more realistic reflection of 21st century London, and we knew our target audience would also be
able to identify this and would enjoy a change to typical genre conventions.

5. The common convention in a
real media text and our poster for
the ancillary task are circled. The
common conventions we saw
throughout the posters was a
bold large front for the title
which stood out. We decided to
also use this as it is one of the
main conventions of a action-
thriller movie poster, this is
because our audience needs to
know the name of the movie and
also the actors involved.
In the Inception poster, below the title it says ‘From The Director Of The Dark Knight’, we
chose to develop this by writing ‘From The Award Winning Film Of ‘The Unknown’. This
convention helps to draw audiences in as they have seen the Directors previous movie, and
they will be able to know whether the movie will be good or not.
A difference between the two posters is that in the ‘control’ poster the only give away is the
setting. This differs from the ‘Inception’ poster because you can clearly see a mystery figure.
You cant make out if the mystery figure is either good/bad. But in the audiences perception of
the poster, the character could be bad as the mise-en-scene around the picture is dark. He has
a gun in his hand, he’s wearing a black suit and his face is turned away.

6. We decided to follow the colour scheme of the inception website because Inception have used
the same colour scheme for their website and poster, and as we already had the blue colour
scheme for the poster, we decided to keep some consistency and make parts of the website
blue as well.
On our website, we decided to include
the film title and release date in bold so
its in the audiences’ face and it makes
them aware of the name and release
date, so it is easy to remember.
On The inception website, their
homepage has white and red text font
and also they have the Movie title at the
back of their website linked with their
image. Also from what we have noticed
is that they have include/ placed the film
title in between their characters to give
the blending effect.

7. Question 2
How effective is the combination of your main
product and ancillary tasks?

8. • As we have a well known brand identity, reflected within our indent/logo, we felt that
this would help in mass production, as we are easily recognisable and have our product
speak for itself; just as if people were to see a ‘castle, they would know it were a Walt
Disney product. Our indent of (insert indent here) will allow people to know of
TheUnknownProductions’.
• We wanted to keep synergy the same throughout our production piece, so we kept the
same colour scheme between our ancillary tasks (show poster and website). By doing
this, our target audiences are able to identify that the poster and website and the main
task (the trailer) were linked and were made by the same people.
• A way in which we can link our product to a real media product is by the way our
poster and website intertwine. During the research process of this task, we were able to
pin point what we wanted to create and how we wanted to reach the target audience.
We chose ‘Inception’ as the main inspiration for our task. This is because the way they
sold the product to the core fans was well done. Everything linked and worked well
together. (show poster, website and bits of the trailer). The colour scheme and how the
characters were placed in the poster and website. However, we didn’t want to follow
that same scheme. In our ancillary tasks, instead of placing the main character in the
poster and the website, we only placed the location. By doing this we followed Barthes
‘Enigma Code’.
• TALK ABOUT THE SAME THING AS QUESTION 1(POSTER AND ACTORS)

9. Question 3
What have you learned from your audience
feedback?

10. • TALK FREELY!
• Show audience feedback for most of the tasks we done –
rough cuts and drafts)
• Show Mustafa’s feedback about the second draft of the
poster and then show the final poster.

11. • TALK FREELY!
• Discuss how we changed the rough cut to match the
audiences feedback and then show the improvement as a
comparison.
• Discuss how you changed it in your group – e.g. as a
director/editor/producer/cinematographer blah blah
blah.............

12. Question 4
How did you use new media technologies in the
construction, research & planning, and evaluation
stages?

13. • Below are some of the new media technologies which we have
used throughout the construction, research & planning and
evaluation stages:
• YouTube
• Search engines – Google
• iPads
• iPhone’s
• Blog – WordPress
• Premiere pro
• After effects
• iMacs
• DSLR
• HD Camcorder
• Social Network Sites – Facebook, Twitter & YouTube

14. Research & Planning
• We decided to use YouTube to distribute our rough cuts, Final cuts and Vlogs because it was simple to
upload them on the internet as well as it being easy to embed the videos onto our blogs
(www.theunknownproduction.wordpress.com) with the embedded code given (show how easy it can be
done). It is also clear to see that the current digital youth and many older generation are used to the newer
technology, such as Vlogs and other new media; therefore making it an easier way to view our process. By
us doing Vlogs we were able to update the audience on the current situation and locations. And also give
them updates on when we would release the product to them. We also notified if we had any technical
difficulties or absence in the group.
• By using WordPress it gave us the upper hand because of how easy it was to use and manage. As we
learned how to use WordPress properly (because we used in for AS), adding and amending (editing) pages
and post in WordPress is as easy as opening a word document. As previously stated, adding images and
videos became extremely easy and adjustable.
• A way in which WordPress is manageable is because its an online blog, which means its easy to access
once you have internet. This then made it easier for us to update the blog when we needed to at any stage.
• Another observation is the use of Apple products in this current technological age, thus using iPads, iPods
and iMacs, it was a trusted method for availability on smart phones and products worldwide.
• We used the search engine, Google to find out more about our genre and find out what types of
conventions to use for the trailer, we also found our 5 different movie trailers for our research.
• Social Networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter were used to keep our audience updated with
notifications and allow them to view our product, which will also benefit us because we can obtain their
feedback and use it to improve our overall product.

15. Production
• We used websites like YouTube and WordPress to distribute our product. We used these two websites
because firstly, YouTube will allow us to dispense our final product to the public as YouTube is very well
known and our production name is not. WordPress was used to organize research & planning and also to
help us to manage our time effectively. Additionally, WordPress would allow us to add or change things if
we needed to.
• Social Networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter were used to keep our audience updated with
notifications and allow them to view our product, which will also benefit us because we can obtain their
feedback and use it to improve our overall product.
• We used DSLR cameras and also tripods in order to keep the quality of the filming exceptional as the
DSLR cameras allowed us to film in HD and also gave us full control of the focus, so we could get more
dynamic and a variation in our shots. The tripod was used to keep our camera still so there would be no
jerky movements while shooting, and also it was used to get some decent close up shots as there was no
movement and make the shooting more smooth. Having said this, we also used handheld shots as our
genre was action based and we could get shots that would leave the audience unsettled.
• Adobe Premiere Pro was used to edit our footage. Using Adobe Premiere Pro for the first time was
relatively easy as we easily found transitions and cutting tools which helped us cut the footage and when
needed, the soundtrack too. Furthermore, it helped us slow down and speed footage up easily.
• After Effects was used to create our ident for the beginning of the trailer to promote the production.
• Adobe Photoshop was used to create one of our main ancillary tasks, the poster. Photoshop took us away
with using standard cropping and colour tools, as it allowed us to use brushes and layering to create the
action-mystery effect we did with the poster.

16. Evaluation
• Prezi was used for question 2 of the evaluation, this is because it is a more entertaining and interactive way
to present our evaluation. It is a visual way of engaging the audience because of the ‘cool’ transitions and
the different multi-media activities you can add for example you can add flash and YouTube videos.
• YouTube was used to publish the evaluation on the blog and distributed to the public. This is because its
easy for everyone to access as it’s one of the most visited website in the world as 60 hours of video are
uploaded every minute, or one hour of video is uploaded to YouTube every second.
• Premiere Pro and iMovie was used to edit different evaluation questions depending on what tasks we
decided to do for each question. For example, for question 1, we decided to do a podcast. It was easy to
use Premiere Pro as you’re in control of what you are doing and also it is easier to add videos onto the
editing sequence and to also remove initials sounds that you do not need.
• PowerPoint was used to structure our evaluation to map out all the visual presentation and then in order to
post it on the blog, it had to be converted into slideshare. They were both easy to use and converting the
PowerPoint to slideshare was not particular hard.
• Social Networking sites were used to publish our evaluation for the target audience to see our work and
obtain feedback from them. The Social Networking sites that we used were Facebook and Twitter. By
using Facebook, we were able to post statuses and images to the public to publicize our work. Twitter was
also used because many people use it so therefore we can get more people to view our work and gather
their feedback and make great use of it.

17. What we found difficult?