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

Three products that I have created

ADD OTHER TWO PRODUCTS

To get a better understanding of the typical conventions of film trailers, teaser trailers, posters and magazine I looked into real media products. I researched general and my chosen genre of film noir/neo-noir. I looked at some classic film noir’s such as double indemnity (1944) and some modern day neo-noirs; Drive (2011). This enabled me to find the typical conventions expected to be seen in trailers within old noirs and new ones. Also looking at teaser trailers, as I planned to create a teaser trailer. But also seeing if the trailers were challenging the conventions and helped me to understand how I could possibly subvert them as well.

The film poster.Looking at a range of film posters, with a vague idea in mind of what we wanted to achieve for the film poster. ‘The girl with the dragon tattoo’ was an influence to our final product. With the two main characters needing to be shown on the poster like this one, I wanted to create that unknowing feeling, that these two characters may not know each other but are still maybe connected in someway and suggesting the thought of conflict yet trying to present an enigma with the audience. I also liked the eye contact with both characters . I wanted to subvert the convention and to not have my characters giving direct eye contact to the audience, likewise with the girl with the dragon tattoo poster one character is looking in the opposite direction. Suggesting they aren’t as they seem or the unknown of what is to come from the film as I especially liked this factor as it helps with the my film trailer in being really mysterious and not giving too much away by not addressing my audience. Another thing with this poster was the black and white nature and how this accentuates the shadows, which is a convention I am following. I wanted my film poster to have a red tint to the images, this again emphasises the shadows which are a major part of my promotional package and help the audience with deciding the genre. Also with the red tint to the images, the colouring of the red could connote danger or it may be passion and love. Therefore connoting a few different thoughts, backing up the fact that the audience will be unaware of the relationship between these too characters and curiosity will be created and maintained throughout due to different aspects through the promotional package. With the poster images, the femme fatale is appearing slighting higher up and looking down onto the male protagonist/conflicted hero. Suggesting dominance that maybe she is the good one within the film and maybe that the he is the bad guy but the audience are unaware until they watch the full movie.

Another influence, although not from a film, is a screenshot from the ‘seven nations army’ music video. This became an influence due to the layout of it. With the formation of the characters in this screenshot and the triangle and the repetition. We took the idea of the triangle within the centre and turned it into our own idea involving the

silhouette and the shadow for our logo.

The logo is obviously a major part within the promotional package, as it helps to create brand recognition. Whenever the logo appears it will be well known to the audience and they will link the film ‘Flashbacks’ with this

logo. A typical convention of film noir is shadows, the use of the man’s silhouette with the shadow is made part of the logo. Following this convention can help the audience decide on the film’s genre. Trying to incorporate the logo

into each product, on the magazine front cover within the title flashback on the front, I changed the A into the red acting as the logo and linking the triangle ‘doorway’ but without the silhouette, so that the brand recognition is

through through out the whole package and creating synergy.

The magazine front cover

I wanted my magazine front cover to be quite simple but look quite busy at the same time, appealing to the audience by having a lot of content. However having it quite simple wouldn’t be conforming to typical magazine front cover conventions yet I think this has worked well for me. My major influence for the front cover is the inception front cover from empire. Although this cover is really busy and every space is covered I still wanted to keep this as a influence but keep in mind the simplicity aspect.

I wanted to keep the idea of having the background of the new York landscape, as the inception front cover the images has been manipulated and distorted. I think it works really well and works well against the text as it contrasts and stands out more. ADD MY OWN FRONT COVER.

We have also kept the house style throughout each product. With the magazine we have gone with red, yellow and white. This combination is different and grabs your attention. Keeping with the style of empire magazine, we have kept there pull quote ‘The worlds biggest movie magazine’ as this helps keep the brand recognition and attracts readers.

Another conventions of buzz words has been used such as ‘Exclusive’ to give the magazine something special and unique and also including names of famous stars within the magazine but also adding actors names who have previously started in noir films to keep that link to film noir, such as with Johnny Depp who I have included on my front cover and who has previously been seen in other modern noir’s like Public Enemies.

Also with the title flashbacks, we have that as the biggest in the middle of the page to act as the main focal point, helping to market the film. But also with this the ‘A’ is in the red, this is acting as the A which in the other products is the logo. I thought that if the whole logo was on it was be too much and would spoil the rest of the front cover. By doing this the brand recognition is still maintained.

The image is an important aspect as it’s again the main focal point. Like wise with the inception and public enemies front cover, we will have just the main character wearing the typical noir suit. Standing strong connoting the dominant character, I wanted his head looking downwards but his eyes looking towards the camera. So there’s still that direct address with the audience but in a way that its still subverting the conventions, yet still isn’t giving too much away and is creating that enigma I wanted to achieve.

Also I didn’t want to involve the typical iconography

of the gun which appears within both of these front

covers, my trailer is very mystery and with having the

murder weapon on show within my front cover.

The setting for our film was New York, although we couldn’t film our film trailer in there I took advantage of a trip I had already planned to take photos for our film magazine for the background. Following the convection of noir being typically shot in cities, I took a range of photos around New York to help decide which one was best suited for image manipulation into making it more noir style and to act as a good background for the film magazine, just like the empire inception cover. The images below are ones that I myself took and could have been potentially used. Looking at the inception cover, it really represented the film and the noir style well which I also wanted to achieve. The background image was distorted linking to the film itself but also it connoted the neo-noir film feel. After manipulating the image, I felt it really gave that noir feel with the dark tones, shadows and the blurred effect, yet still being able to identify the setting of New York.

Chosen image for front cover

Through the trailer what is seen is all fragmented, like what would be seen in a typical trailer and especially teaser trailer. If the narrative was shown in order this would give too much away for the film and not create enigma or any mystery.

I wanted my trailer to be really mysterious and create a lot of curiosity leaving the audience with no clue as to what is going to happen with the film, creating maybe a cliff hanger effect. My trailer’s narrative also shows a lot of conflict through out and a real sense of mystery.

I wanted the trailers soundtrack to help the mysterious aspect , therefore I included contrapuntal sound through out creating that real contrast. This also relates throughout the whole three packages with the contrasting colours, characters and other factors. The contrasting soundtrack is a piano playing, it’s a quite eerie and unnerving sound but is also a rather faint sound and I think it really works well with the whole trailer. Especially with the American voiceover talking over too during parts.

ADD SOUND OR VIDEO PART

The trailer

This screen shot from the trailer of a bird eyes view of the male protagonist lying at his desk, looking uneasy. The papers are spread all over the table suggesting this characters state of mind in this shot and make you question; why is he like this or what is happening? Within this shot we also see the cigarettes on the table and the whisky, helping to assume that this is a noir film. As through previous researching I found that target audiences expected to see the typical conventions of smoking, drinking etc involved, therefore by showing these conventions within this trailer helps the audience.

Likewise in the noir film ‘Shutter island’ where this influence has came from. Within the screenshot, the men are in the room and it shows you all of what’s going on so you get the whole picture, the men are looking confused suggested from the body language much like in the shot from my film trailer. Another convention of film noir is the obscure angles and within our trailer I wanted to show this by adding a few canted angled shots. This screen shot is following this and gives the idea of something being wrong potentially.

Although there isn’t much happening in the shutter island shot it still gives you that idea, and you can clearly see typical conventions of noir, from the fedora, the trench coat and the suit from the male protagonist and also there is the lighting and shadows used well. In my trailer we have that one light in the bottom corner helping to light the whole frame and create a shadow effect. My trailer shot is a lot darker, but this is because I wanted to express the emotions and the feelings in this shot at the time. But also the darkness of it could suggest that the male protagonist/detective may be bad after all.

• Throughout the trailer the male character is always wearing the same suit, helping distinguish himself and giving that noir feel. The colour of the suit is grey, as the male protagonist is a conflicted hero and is being potentially framed for murder he is innocent. If he had wore the black suit the colouring would have connoted death and danger much like with our femme fatale where as this isn’t the type of character he is. The colour grey connotes a dull, isolated vulnerable and a weak character.

We wanted to show the detective actually smoking as most film noir’s involve smoking and when looking at audience feedback when asked what typical conventions they expected in film noir smoking was one of the top answers.. These are the three shots within the same scene of him smoking.

In the first shot we had no natural light, and the cigarettes was the only thing that was lighting up the characters face. This works really well, as it shows the shadowing and when lit up, the face becomes the main focal point of his facial expressions. In this shot we also see the typical noir male costume of the suit. Again we have a slightly canted angle shot, as we don’t see his eyes so he isn’t addressing the audience so also subverting the conventions as well. Looking at film posters I found the shutter island poster quite useful when thinking about this shot. As it’s the dark background and lighting contrasting with the warm glimpse of flame from the match strike.

In the second shot after the match has been struck. It goes back to plain black with all that is viable is the end of the cigarette, just a faint light which is quite effective.

Third shot is when he exhales. And then we have the light turned on which gives a dramatic feel. In this shot we see the smoke from the cigarette which blurs and some smoke appears in the shot which works well. This shot is also a canted angle, focusing just on the mouth in which the smoke appears giving that noir feel.

With in the trailer we have a classic noir femme fatale. Through the trailer she is always wearing the colour black. It symbolise death, danger and evil which in fact our femme fatale is. We also have her in front of a black background, this helps create good shadowing with the lighting emphasising that noir convention but also this helps her stand our a lot more on the screen. I wanted the character to have long blonde flowing hair, and to be attractive and create that sex appeal the male audience and be just like a femme fatale should. With the big red lips and the red lipstick it’s again following the noir femme fatale style and convention. But also the red colouring, links to the red tint to the film poster and the red house style on the magazine. But also the red is really the only bright colour so it’s contrasting against the black and white dull tones, so grabs your attention. Again the colour red connotes passion and evil, both of which are took on by the character. The low angle close up shot of this helps suggest to the audience that this character is maybe the dominant one and she is looking down on us. Her head is also angled so again we have that obscure canted shot, noir convention to maybe suggest something is wrong.

Also in the shot we don’t have an eye line match again either. The character is looking straight past the camera, as if she is looking at something or someone else making us think as to what is it. This shot focuses in on the characters face and her facial expression helping on suggesting to the audience what she is looking at. Her face doesn’t really give off much emotion, it's quite a straight face but still looks quite evil and sinister and as she’s meant to be looking at a dead body, this suggests that this character has no guilt and is a typical femme fatale and always gets what she wants.The lighting is an important convention with in film noir as it can suggest to the audience a lot about a character. Such as in this shot of our femme fatale we have small light behind her head which just illuminates her hair and slowly comes through as just the right amount of light in creating a good effect contrasting with the darkness. But the lighting also helps to develop a shadow on the characters face, suggesting their mood and personality.

Keeping up with conventions, this wide shot is of the males feet walking through a puddle. As I wanted to film part of it with him being stressed out walking through the rain in the dark, as rain wasn’t guaranteed, I then took a shot of this. This suggests his messed up and stressed state of mind as he stiffly walks through the puddle creating splashes. But also as he’s walking he’s creating a shadow in the puddle which I what I really wanted to emphasis. As the shot is low and the camera was on the ground it enables us to see the shadow and the puddle more andit works quite well on this aspect and the shadowing links to the logo maintaining that brand recognition and the noir style. You can also see a small bit of the setting of old trees and a potentially abandoned location, could help suggest his state of mind or conflict with himself. Similarly to a shot in the neo-noir Drive where we have a wide shot of the femme fatale with the water next to her and the wet floor creating a subtle shadows effect, simple yet effective helping to create that noir feel.