Emily Read Media A2 : Evaluation - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Film trailer
There are many conventions of film trailers, although all trailers are different, they stick to general set of rules because they have been tried and tested and equal a successful trailer if followed. However over a number of years film trailers have changed and evolved, as have their films and audiences.

The rating card

Rating cards are used at the beginning of every single film trailer, the rating card shows what kind of audience the film/trailer is suitable for. A green rating card means that it is suited for any audience, so it is Universal. Our fillm/trailer is Universal because it does not contain any violence, discrimination, sexual scenes or anything else that could potentially cause distress to the viewer.

Film production logo

Usually within the first part of the trailer, the film production logo will be shown. A reason for this is because the film productions reputation can benefit the film trailer, as if the audience enjoyed another film produced by Touchstone pictures, then they will be interested in our film. It also creates an idea of the type of film that is trying to sell, for example if the film was produced by dream works, then it will have a big budget and its main aim is to suit the whole family. We chose touchstone pictures as our film production as this company is usually associated with emotional films, such as the last song. I think it suited our film and its genre perfectly.

Introducing characters

Every film trailer introduces the characters in a scene that best represents their personality and interests. At the beginning of our trailer there is a few quick scenes in black and white displaying a voice over, but this scene is when the audience really gets to know the characters. In this scene the two friends are getting ready for a night out, they are wearing fashionable clothing which suggests that they are trendy and care about their appearance. In this scene Emily is laughing at Frankie, which shows their strong friendship and suggests to the audience that this film is about two best friends.

Reviews

The majoirty of film trailers contain a quoted review from a popular institution. These reviews are often included in trailers to ensure the audience that this film is very enjoyable. Due to our film being a drama, we chose the quote "emotional from start to finish" and quoted it by the independent. The independent is a very well known institution and would be instantly recognised by the audience and could influence them to go and see it at the cinema.

Music and voice overs

Music and voice over are always used in film trailers, there isn't a single film trailer that does not have one or the other. Some of the music used is discrete and digetic, where as some is non-digetic. At the beginning of our film Emily says "Someone once said that friends never compare to family, but what happens if your friend is your only family." Instantly this shows the audience that the two characters have a very strong friendship and Emily could potentially be from a troubled background with no parental figures. We got inspiration to do this quote from the film trailer 'Remember Me.' We also use three choices of music, that all contrast each other. The first piece of music is upbeat which suggests a positive lifestyle, where as the second piece brings the story line down to earth, and the third piece is dramatic to show the crisis within the plot.

Captions and quotes

All films contain captions and quotes to give a more depth explanation of the story line to the viewer. In our film trailer it contains quite a few captions and quotes, this is to erase any confusion that the audience may have. It also makes the film trailer look effective, the caption "A story of two young girls..." is obvious yet effective. The audience know the story is about two young girls because they would have by this point identified them as the main characters.

Establishing shot

From viewing other film trailers, it came to our attention that the majority had an establishing shot, whether the actual scene was relevant to the film or not. For this reason we decided to include an establishing shot. This is from the scene that Emily tells Frankie she is pregnant, it is an emotional scene and we thought it would be good to include this as the establishing shot, especially as it is gloomy and sets a dramatic mood.

Film poster

When we were creating our film poster, we reviewed many other film posters in order to ensure we followed media conventions. By following this, we were able to create a professional looking poster. We started off by using a scene in which we had in our footage, when Frankie is comforting Emily. However, in film posters they usually only contain one character, so we challenged media conventions in that respect. We then added faded headshot photos of Emily and Frankie at the bottom of the poster. This followed media conventions as in the Last Song's poster, there are faded images of Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth whilst there is another image of them at the bottom of the poster. We also included a big bold title, which every film poster includes. We wanted to insure that the first thing the viewer sees is the title, so it sticks in their head. We also included above the title 'Touchstone pictures presents' as it is conventional to do include the production company.

Another media convention that we found whilst reviewing other film posters, was that they sometimes include a type of catch phrase to give a little insight into the film. For this reason we included 'With only one to depend on', we took this from our film trailer as we thought it was an effective quote.
We also included a billing block. however, we couldn't get the actual font used for billing blocks therefore this could be seen as challenging media conventions. But we did follow the content template for billing blocks.

Film magazine

For our magazine we used a well known magazine producer for film, Total Film. This magazine is recognised by many and therefore it would attract more of an audience than an Unknown one. On our magazine we followed media conventions very closely. The characters on magazines usually have a expression-less face, therefore we chose to have Emily on our magazine cover, with an straight face. Magazines also only have one character on the front, so it was conventional to have just Emily as the story line revolves around her. We also contained different front texts on our magazine, as no magazine has the same font throughout. We also put text in shapes such as circles, and a square. We also included social media, such as website address. This a modern convention for media texts, the majority of new films would include social media.