In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real life media products?
The brief for my A2 media coursework was to create "a promotion package for a new film" this included:
A film trailer
A magazine cover
A film poster
Narrative:
For my A2 coursework I wanted to create a promotion package under the social realism genre. However throughout the research and planning I began to more away from social realism and more into the drama/romance genres, finding that is more suited to my ideas. The narrative of the trailer is a girl running away from home, no longer being able to face her degenerative brain disorder (dementia). She then meets a boy, who overtime fall in love with each other and she begins to start getting her life to where she wants it to be but doesn't tell anyone about her illness.
I
didn't know a lot amount about degenerative brain disorders, but I knew a little bit as I know of people who
work for charities that help people with memory disorders and Scarlet who worked with me on this project knew people with the disorder. The
unique selling point (USP) of this trailer and film is the twist that the boy doesn't know of her illness, falling in love with a girl who isn't exactly what she appears. I think this will help to attract different type of audience along side the drama/romance audience I wish to target.
I researched my genre to research the typical codes and conventions of real media texts to then experiment with them to make my trailer individually unique and creative. Some codes and conventions of the drama/romance genre I kept such as: soft non diegetic soundtracks reflecting the tone of the film and having a heterosexual love interest. My
research lead me to films based on runaways such as 'Safe Haven' (a young woman running from her horrible past), memory loss 'The Vow' (a woman who looses her memory in a car crash) and other teen romantic dramas with the subject of serious diseases such as 'Fault In Our Stars' (where a boy and girl fall in love but both struggle with suffering from cancer). There are also films such as 'Still Alice' (linguistics professor who becomes diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease) which are more recent films I have gone to look back on throughout the process as it wasn't released at the beginning of the researching stages. This film I also looked at due to it being produced by an indie production company, which is the kind of production company I would be designing.
The narrative to these films all contributed to the creation of 'Forget Me Not', however I wanted to make sure that mine was different in some way, standing out from the rest. I did this by making the main protagonist a runaway, adding to the layers of the plot and making it more interesting and gripping for the audience, also making them sympathise for the protagonist that she feels so lost that she feels she needs to runaway from her family. This made sure to not keep to the obvious romance main focus 'boy meets girl, they fall in love' - that is only a part of our story.
This element of the plot was inspired
by 'Safe Haven' wanting my character to run from the past in the same way the main protagonist in that film does, thinking
it would be more effective and suspenseful for the audience if the male protagonist didn't find out
about her disease until the end of the film.
Montage Sequence:
In my trailer I used a montage sequence to add excitement which is very typical of trailers as they get to summaries the plot line and tone of the film without giving too much away and show bits of the film which they think will convince audiences to watch the film. My montage
sequence does exactly this in order to highlights key parts of the narrative in a
particular suspenseful scenes. This is what I hope will captivate my
audience and seems to have done as audience research responses have said 'it's interesting and different, I would watch it' and 'it has definitely caught my attention' when asked would they watch it. The montage is used during the middle of the trailer and highlights the main conflicts and problems shown in a fast 'out of control' pace.
My montage
sequence uses layering, every shot blending in to another with a low
opacity which is a unique post production technique challenging the
conventions of a montage sequence as I
have never seen this being used in a trailer before. I
think it is really effective as it reflects her mind state and memories blending together, becoming lost and that the montage sequence looks creative and professional making it memorable to the audience.
Voiceover:
Female Protagonist coping with terminal illness:
Flashbacks:
I used flashbacks within my trailer (shown through the cross-fade transitions) creating a disorientated effect, reflecting the protagonists confused, jummbled up thoughts. I think this challenged the conventions of the romance/drama genre film trailers as I have never seen flashbacks used in them before, however they don't use shots in chronological order which is similar, however our flashbacks would only be in our film as flashbacks like in the trailer. I think this was effective, as it gives the audience an insight into the protagonists past and encouraging the audience connect with and sympathies for the character, which in turn should encourage them to go and watch the film.Titles and Font:
After having researched
romance/drama film titles in my planning and research (presented in a PowerPoint on my blog) I decided my Forget Me Not title fitted the
genre and narrative of my film. 
Many drama/romance films such as The Vow use different
colours/fonts/sizes in the text, to make one specific word
stand out. I have done this
with my title as "Forget Me" is blue and "Not" is white with a sparkle
that fades. This titles font also matches the 'coming soon' font which
appears throughout the trailer. 
Titles from the romance/drama have specific conventions that they follow. Only pale calming colours are used, connoting the romantic, supposedly peaceful tone. The
fonts are always simple. I decided to have a font that was large which would
stands out and be memorable to the audience.While watching the Vow trailer, I repeatedly found that the title itself was actually quite hard to see due to the white of the font as well as the light, soft tones in the backgrounds, so personally I wouldn't
choose this colour scheme. Instead I decided on a light blue, relating to the colour of the 'Forget Me Not' flowers, fitting with the title.
Shots:
While
researching film trailers there were certain shots that stayed in my
mind from Fault In Our Stars and The Vow which I wanted to incorporate
into my own trailer. This blog post is to show the shots which I liked
from the trailers, how and why I used them and how they are similar and
different.
From
the Fault In Our Stars (FioS) trailer there were a lot of close ups
used on the main protagonists face which I liked to show their emotion
in more detail and depth.
These
are some screenshots from the trailer to give examples of the close
ups. I liked these as they are quite emotionless reflecting that she is
almost numb, fed up, done with her illness and no longer feels anything.
Here
is a shot which is a close up on the protagonists face, which is of a
similar closeness to the one used in the FioS's trailer, however from a
slightly different angle. I prefer this as for this particular shot as
in the trailer a tear is rolling down her cheek which you can see more
defining from this angle than you would straight on.
However, I
do use more straight-on shots when she lies on the bed as you can see
her smile, showing her happiness a lot more clearly. It is also similar
to the FioS's shot as they are taken of the protagonist lying down
looking up, like our shot which I have a screenshot of below.
Another
shot which I really liked from the Fault In Our Starts trailer was
where the main protagonist was where she was reading a book by the
window. I like that it is by the window as she is almost looking out at
the life she could have had, free from illness and able to do what she
wants. The bright blue sunny sky outside could also be connotations the
happiness that is about to be in her life and in the film.
In
reflection of this shot, I then got Chrissy to sit by a closed window
to shoot a couple of shots as I really liked the composition of the
FioS's shot. However, our window was closed to connoting the sadness of
the ending of our film.
From The
Vow trailer the main thing I took from it and wanted to use in my
trailer were the ways the actors were introduced from previous films of a
similar genre. However due to our actors not actually being
professional actors, therefore having not featured in any films I
couldn't use this exact introduction format. To then find a introduction
format that I could use I did some more trailer research, finding the
Pan introduction such as the one to the left exactly what I want. 
To combine the two I used the layout of the Pan introduction, with the plain background in the location of The Vow introductions and I really liked the outcome, thinking that it looks neat and professional.
There
are many shots in the Safe Haven which stood out to me and I thought
were especially effective, especially the running feet shot, as I like
the angle of the shot as well as the darkness of it with the reflection
of the feet on the floor.
Soundtrack:
The
chosen soundtrack for my trailer is John Mayer’s ‘Say’. I chose this as it
fitted the conventions of a drama/romance trailer well and fitted well with the
shot sequence as well as the tone I wanted to portray in my trailer. The lyrics
of the song were very suited to my narrative explaining the storyline. I think the
emotional soundtrack adds another dimension to my trailer and effects the
audience in a more personal level.
My
trailer has definitely challenged the typical conventions of a romance/drama
trailer due to there being no dialogue used (as well as a voiceover) in my
trailer as often dialogue is used to support the soundtrack. Also as we didn't
have professional actors not using dialogue prevented the actors and the
trailer looking awkward and uncomfortable. It also challenges the conventions
of a romance/drama trailer because I discovered while researching, most
trailers from this genre of dialogue (as well as many other genres) start with
dialogue from one of the main protagonists or voice over, however my trailer
starts with the soundtrack before it dips to let the voiceover join in over the
top. I think this is effective in my
trailer as it sets the tone and the soundtrack fits well with the initial
sequence of shots.
