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

Trailer

Trailer length:My trailer is 1.09 minutes long, the teaser trailers that I researched are all around that in length for example the Valentines Day trailer that I researched is 1.31 minutes long, The Twilight Sage Eclipse trailer is 1.33 minutes long. And the Love Actually trailer that I researched is 30 seconds long; this suggests that the majority of teaser trailers vary in length from 30 seconds to 1.30 minutes long. So because my trailer is 1.09 minutes long, this shows that this aspect of my trailer has used conventions of real media products.

Pace of my trailer:My pace of my trailer is quite slow, I used about 5 video clips and because I

wanted to use the majority of the footage in the clips, this made the pace of the trailer quite slow. When researching existing teaser trailer, I found out the majority of them are quick with lots of cuts and lots of small snippets of film. It is a common convention of horror/thriller trailers to contain short fast scenes to order to build suspense and add dramatic effect. Because my genre of my trailer is a Romantic Comedy I also researched the common pace of Rom-Coms. They too are quick, but they do not contain as many cuts and different scenes as horror trailers. Taking all of this into consideration, I am able to tell that because my trailer has a longer pace that conventional trailers, this means this aspect of my trailer, challenges forms and conventions of existing teaser trailers. But I still think the way the pace is long works well, because the use of lots of cuts in trailers is to make sure that not much of the story line is given away, making audiences want to watch the full film, but my trailer doesn’t give away much of the story line, the pace enabled me to show more comedy aspects of the trailer, to make it evident that my trailer is a Romantic Comedy.

Editing in existing trailerswhen researching existing trailers, I noticed that horror trailers contain a lot of editing,

with a variety of different cuts and edits. Horror trailers will contain a lot of different cuts and a lot of different snippets of film, this will make up the main content of the trailer, making the pace very fast. Horror trailers will also contain a variety of different transitions including a lot of ‘fade to black’ transitions this is a common convention of horror trailers such as ‘The Last Exorcism’ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yN9hY16Yg9M) in this trailer, many ‘fade to black’ transitions are used in-between scenes, this effect is used to emphasise the scariness and eeriness of the trailer.

In romantic comedy trailers, it is not a common convention for them to contain much editing as they mainly focus on showing as much footage as possible, to show the comedy/romance aspects of the film. The most editing that I have seen whilst researching existing rom-com trailers is the transitions between the scenes in the trailer, a lot of different transitions are used such as, fade in and fade outs and ‘flip’ and ‘slide’ transitions are used to show the actors at the end of the trailer and also any other relevant information at the end of the trailers, for example in the, ‘Love Actually’ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7b9LxJUAL8Q) trailer at the end a ‘slide’ transition is used to show photographs of the actors and actresses starring in the film.

Editing in my own trailer:In my trailer, I did edit parts of it, but I didn’t edit it very much, when

researching existing trailers, I noticed that horror trailers contained a lot of editing, with a variety of different cuts and edits. Whereas my Romantic Comedy trailer is more about showing the comedy aspect of my film. Therefore it contains more footage rather than editing.

Titles:Saying this I did use some editing when making my titles to go in my trailer.

When researching Romantic Comedies I noticed that they contain lots of fast transitions to display the title of the film or the name of the actors/actresses starring in the film.

Here are some examples of how I used transitions in the editing of my trailer:

Editing continued:I also added fade in and fade out transitions at the end of one scene and at

the beginning of another. I did this to make the scenes fade into the next, smoothly. This is a convention in all film trailers, no matter what the genre of the trailer. In horror trailers, the transitions are more jerky as each scene goes into the next, this is because of the genre of the trailer, the shots are going to be quick and jerky so the transitions between each scene need to be similar. In the romantic comedy trailers that I researched before starting my own trailer, I noticed that the transitions were generally fade in and fade out transitions. So this part of my trailer uses conventions of existing teaser trailers.

Sound/sound effects in existing trailers:In horror film trailers, it is a very common convention for sound effects to be

used to emphasise the horror. Sound effects such as, screams, doors slamming, creaky floorboards etc are commonly heard in horror trailers. These sound effects are used to add more suspense to the trailer and create more tension and scariness.

When researching Romantic Comedy trailers I noticed that they do not contain many sound effects only music soundtracks for the trailer. But I did notice that in one of the trailers that I researched (The Ugly Truth) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvsZtGxsvV0I) noticed that on some of the comedy scenes a sound effect will be used, for example the background music will be playing and then when a comedy scene comes on, the music will stop and a sound effect will play as if a record had been scratched, and then the soundtrack will start playing again, this is a common convention in some of the trailers that I researched as it emphasises the comedy aspect in the trailer.

Sound/sound effects in my own trailer:

I didn’t use any sound effects in my trailer as I didn’t think any would fit well into my trailer. The only sound that I included in my trailer was the background music as I thought that just the music itself was enough to portray the romantic side of the trailer. And there weren’t any scenes or shots in the trailer that would benefit from adding a sound effect.

So saying this I think that the way I didn’t use any sound effects in my own trailer, challenges conventions of real media products, because although the sound effects in rom-coms are limited, they still do contain a couple of sound effects to enhance the storyline.

Music

All romantic comedy trailers contain background music being played through the duration of the trailer, it is usually only one song throughout, but on some occasions parts of different songs can be heard. The music will generally be fast and upbeat to go along with the fast pace of the trailer, the music will usually be a ‘cheesy’ song that helps to show the romantic side of the trailer and also the comedy side.

In my own trailer I used the song ‘This Will Be’ by Natalie Cole. I choose to use this song as it is an upbeat ‘happy’ song. I cut the song down when I was editing it so I could use the parts of the song that I thought would be appropriate for the parts of my trailer. I think this part of my trailer uses conventions of real media products. As it is a common convention for romantic comedy trailers to contain lively upbeat music.

Mise-en-scène in existing trailers:CostumesCostumes- in existing romantic comedy trailers, the costumes that the actors wear have a huge

influence on the storyline of the film. For example in Love Actually, the storyline doesn’t have one particular style. So the costumes that the characters wear are casual. Whereas in ‘The Proposal’ the storyline is more smart and set in an office so the characters wear smart ‘office’ clothes.

I have also noticed that in horror films, if the storyline is focused around death or murder then the characters will wear dull, dark clothes which also relates to the emotional state of the characters. This is a common characteristic of horror films, for the mood of the film to relate to the clothes that the actors wear.

Props- Props- In some trailers that I have researched, I have noticed that props are used within some of the shots, these props are used to enhance and ‘push forward’ the storyline, the props used can be anything that the producers feel will help to push the storyline on, for example, food, paperwork, make-up etc.

Setting-Setting- The setting that trailers are filmed in can also be used to enhance the storyline, it is common for romantic comedies to be set in a variety of different locations, for example, restaurants, parks, shops etc it depends on the storyline and title of the film where the scenes and shot. Whereas in horror/thriller trailers then the variety of places they are set, is limited, they can commonly set in dark settings, such as the woods, a haunted house, an alley way etc.

^ The Ugly Truth costume- smart office wear ^ Love Actually costume- casual

Mise-en-scène in my own trailer:Costume:Costume:In existing romantic comedy trailers, I noticed that the costumes the actors wear, depends on the

storyline of the film, for example ‘The Ugly Truth’ is based in a work place so the costumes the actors wear are smart ‘office’ clothes. My trailer has more of a casual storyline so I got my actors to wear smart/casual clothes. This means my costumes I choose, uses forms and conventions of existing media products.

Props:Props:In the trailers that I researched props were used to enhance the storyline, certain props are used

in romantic comedy trailers to emphasise the comedy and the romance within the trailers.In my own trailer I did not use any props, as I didn’t think props would work well with my trailer

as it has quite a basic storyline with basic scenes.Setting:Setting:Where trailers are shot, also helps to enhance storylines, in the trailers that I researched they all

had different storylines which means different sets and locations are shown to emphasise and enhance these storylines.

For my own trailer, I used 3 different locations to enhance my storyline:

Indoors-staircase In the street In the woods

Camera work in existing trailers:

In existing romantic comedy trailers, the camera work is very steady but there are also a few different shots used, zoom shots, over the shoulder shots, high angles, low angles, close ups and extreme close ups are a few different shots and angles that can be commonly seen in romantic comedy trailers.

Also in horror or thriller genre film trailers, it is common for the camera work to be unsteady and jerky, this is to portray a sense of panic and rush which then enhances the scariness of the situation within the trailer, in horror films the camera work will also use a lot of different zoom ins and zoom out effects, commonly on character’s faces, this is used to show the fear on the faces and again to portray more or the horror aspects of the film.

Camera work in my own trailer:

In my own trailer I used a few of these camera shots and angles for example, zoom ins, zoom outs and over the shoulder shots. I used a couple of over the shoulder shots to create an effect of the camera viewing what Joe is seeing in the trailer, I think this is effective and it almost involves the audience by putting the audience in the same position as Joe which can also be seen as making the audience relate to Joe’s life.

This aspect of my trailer uses the same conventions as existing media products.

Zoom in and zoom out sequence

Over the shoulder shot

Voice over

It is a very common characteristic, that romantic comedy teaser trailers usually have a voice over, narrating the storyline, this is only common in romantic comedy or comedy genre of films. It is not usually heard in horrors or thrillers, voice overs can be used to emphasise the comedy aspect in trailers or to just help tell the storyIn my own trailer I used voiceovers in almost all of my different scenes, I used them to help show the comedy, and also to make the film sound appealing to audiences. So again this is another convention that my trailer contains that existing trailers contain as well.

Information in addition to trailers:(existing trailers)When researching trailers I realised that all of the trailers I watched all has a

green banner at the start of the trailer, this is a legal requirement for trailers. It is also common for trailers to list the production company at the start of the trailer and any other organisations that are involved in the making of the film these print screens are of the organisations that are featured in The Ugly Truth trailer:

Information in addition to trailers (my trailer):

Producers: , so because having a green banner is a common characteristic I thought it

was best to add this at the beginning of my own trailer, to make it look more conventional:

It is also common for trailers toInclude ‘from the producer of...’Somewhere in the trailer, this is used to attract audiences. I didn’t include

this in my trailer but instead I showed who the producer is, this aspect of my trailer challenges the conventions of existing trailers

I also added the name of my production company half way through my trailer, I added this as I thought this is a common convention of trailers so I thought I would include ‘Dyer Productions’ to make my trailer look slightly more conventional.