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

I think that my media product uses and partially challenges the codes and conventions of an action or thriller movie film trailer. I have used fast cuts in the second half of the trailer, to work with the soundtrack, which also uses a convention in trailers of this type as the audience associates high tempo music with fast and furious action on the screen.

My soundtrack challenges the codes and conventions of my chosen genre as it begins slowly and is constant throughout the trailer, building to a crescendo. I feel that my footage, which works with the pace of the music, suits the music and the music with the footage. It took a few attempts at different styles of music to find one that created the atmosphere I wanted. 

After watching a number of trailers, the use of titles and text during the trailer was a common theme. It may seem obvious to put these things in but sometimes an image can tell a great number of things and also leave the audience to their own interpretation of an image. I deliberated with this thought, as I am looking to embed an enigma into the audience’s mind. In the end, my decision was to conform to the codes and convention of using the text within the trailer to help the audience understand and gain an amount of knowledge as to what may be held within the plot of the film itself.

The inclusion of the date of release was something that does not always appear in a trailer. Various trailers use “Coming Soon” or “This Summer”. Others provide a month, without being precise with an exact date. This led me to toy with using a “Coming Soon” or provide an actual date. I chose to provide a date as it would help raise expectancy and excitement levels as the date draws closer. When a big movie is released, everyone wants to know WHEN it will be in cinemas or on DVD. As the date approaches, film fans will gradually get more and more excited about the release of the film. A very good example of this is the Harry Potter series, Star Wars films and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy.

Whilst carrying out my research on Film Trailers, the use of the name of the company who had produced the film was found every time. For this reason, I used the convention and had to include it into mine.

I have conformed to the codes and conventions of Action/Thriller film trailers by using a variety of camera shots. I have at the same time challenged it though by using many longer shots in my CCTV style footage. I have also challenged the codes and conventions through electing to not use dialogue in my trailer. I felt this as it would interrupt the smoothness created by the soundtrack.