Evaluation of my media products

Evaluation question one

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products ( i.e of teaser trailers/ poster/ magazine)

In answering this question I am going to break it down into 9 separate areas that I will look at individually whilst linking them to my final production.

The title of the film

Setting/ location

Costumes and props

Camerawork and editing

Title font and style

Story and how the trailer set it up

Genre and how the trailer suggests it

How characters are introduced

special effects

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products ( i.e of teaser trailers/ poster/ magazine)

The title of the film

The title of my film challenges conventions of most trailers as the text is quite simple. I did this because I wanted all the viewers attention to be focused on the text for as long as possible, as the name of my film is quite important to how the rest of the film works together. In my actual trailer this shot left is on screen for 4 seconds but then immediately goes into the next shot. I also positioned this at the beginning of the film though as with most trailers I did this so immediately the viewer knows they are watching a trailer for the film “life”.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products ( i.e of teaser trailers/ poster/ magazine)

Setting/ location My location and setting for my film trailer also challenges a lot of media conventions. This is because I filmed most of my trailer in a skatepark and relitively urban areas. I did this because it suited my film, but it was also the way that I filmed these areas that made them different. As I filmed them in pov it gave them a new perspective to the viewer. This meant that the viewer would feel like it was them in that area or situation. This I think helped to create a bond between the viewer and the characters in the film. I think this worked well because of the settings, as if it were any other environment I don’t think It would not have had the same effect.

Skate park location

Urban area location

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products ( i.e of teaser trailers/ poster/ magazine)

Costumes and props Within my film I decided to use quite normal Clothes based on the actors ages and appearance. This lead to me letting the actors choose what the wanted to wear, they then showed me and I told them if it suited the image I was trying to create. This is different from the way other films are created as in them there would be a set wardrobe and the actors would be dressed, this wasn't a problem in my film because the actors I was using

were already the same type of people as the characters in my film, so the Clothes they wore already suited the image I was trying to create. Throughout the film I didn't have to tell anyone to change these as they were all suited to the settings that they were in. The props within the film were slightly different. When organizing the props the only real problem was trying to get props that suited the film, as the film is about Bmxing so It would have been confusing to the viewer if there was a different type of bike being shown. This was also a problem as if one of the bikes got a puncture it had to be fixed before filming could start again as we couldn't use a different bike, and having duplicates would have been too expensive.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products ( i.e of teaser trailers/ poster/ magazine)

Camerawork and editing

Camerawork and editing this was quite important within my trailer as I used the cuts and transitions to create the effect that time was jumping and moving around. I think I have done this quite well within my trailer. This was also very different to how most other films use the cuts and jumps. I think this made my trailer quite different. I also used the cuts and jumps to show a passage of time within the trailer. When doing this I had to make sure that the jumps lead into different shots that started similarly.

An example is above is of two similar shot I linked together really quickly to show a jump in time. This convention worked well in my trailer I think.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products ( i.e of teaser trailers/ poster/ magazine)

Title font and style

The texts and fonts I used within my film trailer are quite bold. I did this because within my trailer they are only on screen for a couple of seconds so they needed to be easy to read. I also used the text in a specific way when doing the quotes, I did this text so that it fades in and out from left to right. I did this so that the text can obviously be linked to time jumping around.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products ( i.e of teaser trailers/ poster/ magazine)

Story and how the trailer set it up

The way I set up my trailer definitely challenges the conventions of normal film trailers. It does this because in most film trailers the trailer is revolved around making the viewer want to see the film by showing best bits from the film. Mine doesn't do this, my trailer creates a story and makes the viewer want to know how it ends. I think this has worked well. The story told within my trailer is also quite different as it is telling the story of someone who otherwise would’nt have been heard (a young drug addict). This has also worked well because within my trailer I purposely didn't show a any drugs actually been taken but just flashing images of the drugs themselves.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products ( i.e of teaser trailers/ poster/ magazine)

Genre and how the trailer suggests it

My trailer is within the genres of drama and also biography. The way my trailer suggests its genre is by showing a small part of the story rather then a over view of the entire film. For example I chose that within my trailer I wasn't going to have any dialog between any of the characters, this lead to me deciding that what you saw on the screen would have to tell the story very well. This is also another reason I chose not to show the entire story through my trailer and just concentrate on the aspect of the film. This was the ‘drugs affecting the main characters perception of reality as things jump and move around within my trailer’ I think I portrayed this well by using cuts and fades into different shots and images.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products ( i.e of teaser trailers/ poster/ magazine)

How characters are introduced

My characters introductions within my trailer are very different to how most films introduce there characters. This challenges the conventions of most trailers. I did this within my trailer because I didn't want the audience to concentrate on who the characters were just yet as that would be revealed within the film its self. The way I set this up within my trailer is by only showing on character that would have been in the actual film. He is shown below and throughout my trailer there are a number of sections where he pops up in a similar way to the drugs flashing up. I think this has helped to create a air of mystery and confusion around my trailer.

The shot below shows one of my main characters from a high angle and purposely avoided showing his face. This is one of the ways I introduced the character without giving away a total portray of them or there role within my film trailer.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products ( i.e of teaser trailers/ poster/ magazine)

special effects

My film trailer doesn't contain any real special effects as all of the fazing in and out of reality I shown by the cuts and jumps between. This is quite common within the genre that I was aiming for. This means my trailer is similar to them in this respect and therefore uses conventions seen within film dramas and biographical film trailers.