EVALUATION: Question 1

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: 

Voice overs are often used in drama-romance trailers, which I had discovered while researching, as they introduce a love theme however I decided I wanted to use a voiceover for a different reason. I wanted to get a doctors diagnosing the protagonist as it helps explain the plot of the film without using dialogue. It was very challenging to write the script for the voiceover, due to not knowing how to word it in a way that sounds like a sympathetic doctor as well as then finding someone to sound like a sympathetic doctor. However I felt it was essential in order to help the audience understand the narrative.

Female Protagonist coping with terminal illness:

I think that I have challenged some conventions of the Drama/Romance genre by having my main protagonist suffering from a disease it shows what its like to suffer with that disease and that being shown directly to the audience. This could link to audience members on a very personal level meaning we have to think about this while giving it an age rating as it may cause distress.

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.