Evaluation 1

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

(Text does not include theories)

USE
At the beginning of the process of creating our trailer we researched the forms and conventions of other real trailers. We deconstructed several films with the same genre as ours and this gave us an inspiration in to what we should include in our trailer. The films we deconstructed included Quadrophenia, Fish Tank, The Weekender and a short film RGB. Our teaser trailer, Fluoxetine, uses forms and conventions in several ways. The genre of our trailer is Youth Culture and some conventions of this genre include the portrayal of males and females and how real issues are depicted.

In most Youth Culture films the portrayal of males and females is different, for example the males are usually the protagonist and tend to be rebelling, whereas the females are seen as ‘lovers, who are alluring for the male characters. This can be seen in films such as Quadrophenia, a popular Youth Culture film where the male, ‘Jimmy’, is the protagonist and is rebelling against his work, family and friends. However the female, ‘Steph’, is an attractive, charming character who tempts Jimmy into falling for her. In our trailer we have used these conventions, the male is the protagonist, featured throughout the trailer, and is seen rebelling in shots such as the ‘smoking’, or the ‘running’ scenes. The female is briefly shown in the shot where the male protagonist and she are in bed together, this portrays a sexual aspect to our film and gives the audience insight into what they will be seeing. For reasons such as this we have given our film an 18 certificate which can be seen on our film poster.
Real issues are usually depicted in Youth Culture films, such as drugs, partying and sexual relations. An example of this is in ‘The Weekender’, scenes of drug taking and selling, partying, sex and hypocrisy are depicted throughout. We have shown these ‘real issues’ in our trailer so that it becomes more relatable for the audience. This makes the film more attractive for younger, teenage viewers as they can relate to the topics represented. An example of how we have shown this in our trailer is through shots such as drugs being taken and sold, smoking, the girl and boy in bed and running away, symbolising him running from his troubles.

Another common convention of a Youth Culture film is teenagers rebelling. They may be rebelling against their parents, the law (police), education (school), or society. A film which shows this is Fish Tank, the protagonist is a girl who is rebelling against her mother and uses dancing as an escapism. In our trailer we have shown the boy defying his father and acting out in ways such as smoking, drinking and drugs. At the beginning of our trailer he is shown in an isolated location and the voiceover tells the audience that his mother has recently died ‘I lost my mother, I lost my home, I lost my mind’. This gives the audience an insight into why he is behaving in these ways and draws in their attention. Another way of insuring the audience do not become uninterested is by using a slow beginning and a fast pace middle and end, this builds tension throughout the trailer. We were inspired to use this convention by the trailer for Electrick Children, starting with a slow paced insight into the film and then going onto faster paced action shots from the film.

DEVELOP

Mise-en-scene is the arrangement of everything that appears in the framing of a shot. In our trailer we have used the mise-en-scene of the film to represent the characters feeling and temperament. An example of how we have done this is through the weather and location. At the start of our trailer the setting is at sheppy, an isolated place with dull weather. This represents the boys emotions as his mother has just died so he will be feeling upset and lonely. The location then changes to Brighton, and as shown by the voiceover, the boy is following his mother’s aspirations of becoming a mod. The mod era is commonly linked to Brighton and we used the ‘MODS!’ book by Richard Barnes to represent the mod aspects. This location represents a fun, new and interesting time for the boy and this is shown through shots such as him on Brighton pier and him gradually changing into Mod clothing, such as a suit and parka coat. The weather in these scenes is bright which represents a joyful time for the protagonist and also shows a transition of time in the trailer. The location and weather then changes as we see the boy revisiting his mother’s grave, through the shot of the boy at the gravestone. We then see the boy acting out in ways such as knocking things over, throwing a bottle and running from the police, shown in the shot of the boy running in the dark with flashing lights on him. All of these scenes are set in a village, where his family and he lived before his mother’s death when he then moved to Brighton. The weather in these shots is snowy with represents coldness in his emotions, it also shows another transition of time in the trailer as the weather has changed from sunny, in Brighton, to snowy, in the village.

One way in which we have developed conventions of most films is by having two target audiences for our film. A way we have determined this in the trailer is through the reviews. The reviews in the trailer represent the two audiences of our film, the older audience who would be watching to see the mod aspects and recollecting, and the younger audience who are watching to relate to the issues depicted and protagonist of the film. The review which will relate to the older audience says ‘THE BEST MOD FILM SINCE QUADROPENIA- THE GUARDIAN’, the link to Quadrophenia is likely to catch the audiences attention as it is a respected film about the 60s. The Guardian is also a very valued newspaper and webpage people are likely to believe reviews by it. The other review, which is likely to attract the younger audiences, is ‘A GENUINE REPRESENTATION OF TODAYS YOUTHS- THE DAILY MAIL’. This review is likely to draw the younger audiences attention in as it directly refers to them, the daily mail also covers and reviews recent topics, such as films and celebrities and is a largely respected newspaper.

A convention which we have developed in our trailer is the common representation of youths. In our trailer we have shown the boy with his hood up in the scenes when he is misbehaving, a common impression that all teenagers wear hoods and rebel. We have conformed to this stereotype in these scenes as it represents his behaviour and hides his identity while he is taking part in the antisocial activities, such as kicking over bins and throwing things. This convention can be seen in films such as Kidulthood and 8 mile.

CHALLENGE

One way in which we have challenged the conventions of a teaser trailer is by using shots from an actual media product. We have used pages from the ‘MOD!’ book, by Richard Barnes, in our trailer to represent the boy’s actions. Firstly we show the boy looking through the book and then we have shown pages from the book throughout the trailer. The pages shown represent what the protagonist in doing, for example, a page of mod clothes is shown and then a shot of the boy getting changed into mod clothes is shown, or a page of vespa’s is shown and then a shot of the boy on a vespa is shown. This portrays how the protagonist is basing his life around the elements in the book and also represents how he is attempting to become a mod. This challenges conventions of a typical trailer as we are using intertextuality to demonstrate the mod era in our film. We have also interlinked the ‘starring characters’ headings into these pages. To do this we created our own pages which have the text wanted on, for example, starring Harry Littlefield, and then put these into the page turns and filmed them individually.

By using a black and white effect over our trailer it symbolises nostalgia, by doing this we are challenging the forms and conventions of many teaser trailers as people may possibly believe that black and white films are always from the past. However our film is set in the present day but represents aspects from a different era, the 1960s. We have used colour in the title and reviews of the trailer, this shows the audience that it is a modern film as the technology used is displaying recent skills. The title includes the Royal Air Force roundel in the ‘o’. We have used the intertexuality of this symbol, which commonly represents mod’s, to show that the boy is fighting a battle in life, much like the soldiers in the RAF would be.

Another way that we have challenged the forms and conventions of real trailers is through the voiceover. We chose to have the protagonist telling the story over the trailer, “they say in order to gain something you must lose something”, this is representing the boy gaining happiness through the loss of his mother. “I lost my mother, I lost my home, I lost my mind”, this is giving the audience an insight into the potential problems the protagonist will face in the film. “I followed my mother’s footsteps, they took me to Brighton”, this is telling them why he has moved to Brighton and enables them to understand the trailer more clearly. At the end of the trailer he says “in order to find who I was, I had to lose who I was”, this tells the audience that the reason for the boy rebelling is to allow him to rediscover himself after the bereavement of this mother.