In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real 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
I decided that for my A2 film coursework I wanted to create a trailer from the drama genre with an element of romance. The trailer is based on a boy meets girl narrative with a twist, the twist being that the main protagonist is struggling with dementia, a degenerative brain disorder. I already knew a substantial amount about degenerative brain disorders, as I know family friends with the disease and also know of people who work for charities that help people with memory disorders, such as the forget me not centre. Having a twist in my romance drama trailer is my unique selling point (USP), as I think it will help to attract different type of audience along side the romance drama audience I wish to target.
I throughly researched my topic and genre to make sure that although I was being individually creative, my trailer still worked with codes and conventions of real media texts. My research has shown me there are a few films based on lost memories such as "The Vow", in which a woman looses her memory in a car crash (however this isn't caused by dementia). The Vow is produced by Spyglass Entertainment. There are also films such as "Still Alice", which is a film about a linguistics professor who becomes diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease, the film is produced by an indie film production company.
These films plot lines inspired me to create "Forget Me Not". However I wanted to make it different to the rest, I did this by adding in another narrative. I wanted the main protagonist to be a runaway and I thought this would add a different dimension and more interest to the trailer rather than it just being another girl meets boy drama. I was inspired by "Safe Haven" in which the main protagonist is a runaway trying to wipe clear her past, I wanted my character to do the same as I thought it would be effective for Dan (the male protagonist) to not find out about her disease until the end of the film, however we as an audience would know, this could make the trailer extremely suspenseful.
There are many shots in the trailer "Safe Haven" I think are great especially the running feet, I liked this shot so much I incorporated it into my own trailer.
Here are the two shots of the main protagonist running, the one on the left is from Safe Haven and the one on the right it taken from my own film trailer "Forget Me Not".
I have complied with many of the conventions of a romance drama such as...
- Having a heterosexual love interest
- Soft and gentle non diegetic scores to reflect the mood of the film
- Lots of fades in and out (an example of a drama/romance who also uses this convention is The Notebook)
Montage Sequence
I used a montage sequence in my film trailer to add excitement to my film trailer. This is very typical of trailers as it quickly summaries the 'best bits' of the film and helps to build suspense, it also gives a quick snap shot into different scenes without giving too much away. And is a good way to show the problems, conflicts and solutions in the narrative which may help the audience decide if they wish to watch the film. My trailer uses the montage sequence to do exactly this it highlights key parts of the narrative in particular suspenseful scenes. This is what I hope will captivate my audience. , it starts at 1.24 and I have used it to highlight the main conflicts and problems seen in the middle of the trailer.
My montage sequence uses layering. Each shot blend in to another with a low opacity. This is a unique post production technique which challenges the conventions of a montage sequence as I have never seen this being used before within a trailer. However I think it is creative, dynamic and looks professional in my trailer which will hopefully make it more memorable for the audience.
Here are some screen shots demonstrating the layering transition:
Here are some screen shots demonstrating the layering transition:
Female Protagonist coping with terminal illness
I think that I have also challenged some conventions of the Drama/Romance genre such as having my main protagonist as the one with the disease shows the audience directly what its like to deal with diseases like dementia, its the harsh reality of life and what its like to suffer with a degenerative brain disorder. Some people may find this upsetting so in films like the Vow, the main protagonist is the male who is not suffering with memory loss, this puts more distance between the woman suffering from an almost fatal accident and the audience, to protect them from harm. This may have been done so that the film could be rated as a 12A rather than a 15.
Using actors names in the trailer
Doctors diagnosis voiceover
Another convention of a trailer is the use of Actors name in the trailer to promote the film to the target audience. I have also used actors names in my trailer, as i feel it makes the audience feel more connected to the characters as they can follow them and watch other films they may have been in. Generally the stronger the actors following the more people will be interested in his/her film.
Below you can see how I have compared my credits and the use of using actors names with "The Vow".
On screen credits
I was inspired by the use of on screen credits in The Vow, I liked how the shot of the protagonist was paired with the actor/ actresses name. I wanted to try and recreate this effect in my own trailer however as I was limited to editing on IMovie it proved very difficult to overlay text and video. Also I didn't have any shots of the main protagonists for long enough that you would be able to read the text on the screen. So instead I decided to pair a sequence of the character with their real name. For example you can see below that I have paired a shot of "Alice"walking in the beginning of the trailer, with a black screen containing her actress name "Chrissy Lightowler".
I did the same when introducing "Dan". I made sure both the credits were in a sequence when the character was introduced. This ensured that the audience knew who was who and gave them more incite to the main protagonists in the film.
Voice overs are often used in Romantic Dramas to introduce a love theme however in my trailer it is used to tell the audience and Alice that she has been diagnosed with a degenerative brain disorder.
To make my trailer different from the rest and stand out I thought it would be interesting to have a doctors diagnosis as the voiceover, I had never seen this done before in a trailer so it was very challenging however I thought it would help the audience understand the narrative of the film and put them in Alice's (main protagonist) shoes. This could potentially be a good marketing technique as the trailer would entice the audience as they feel like they are going thorough Alice's life with her. I think she is a very relatable character as she is a teen the same age as our target audience.
Titles and Font
This is my title shot in my trailer after researching other romance/drama film titles I decided this one looked good and suited the genre and narrative of my film. Many films such as The Vow use different colours/fonts/sizes of text, this is done to make one specific word stand out or just to make it look more interesting. 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 that appears mid way through my trailer.
Here are some examples of Title shots from other trailers.
Titles from the romance/drama have specific conventions that they abide by. Only pale calming colours are used, never any bold colours. The fonts are always simple many use a scroll like font like "One Day" has. However I decided I wanted to go for a font that was large and would stands out so that the audience would remember it. In my opinion The title from The Vow is hard to see so personally I wouldn't choose this colour scheme. Instead I decided to go for a light/turquoise blue. The colour blue is associated with depth and stability this juxtaposes the narrative of my film as "Alice" is very unstable. Light Blue is considered beneficial to the mind and body and associated with health, which is ironic as "Alice's" mind is flawed.
Characters
My Character "Alice" is similar to "Tessa" the main protagonist from Now Is Good. Chrissy was the main protagonist in my film trailer, I had seen her perform in many school productions such as Beauty and the Beast, Alice in Wonderland and We Will Rock You. She was readily available and fitted the role perfectly. Her youth made her look innocent and vulnerable, much like the character "Tessa" in Now Is Good.
Both Tessa and Alice challenge the female stereotype, and they prove they can play challenging and important roles. Gender and sexism are topics constantly challenged in films. We too have tried to challenge this representation by using a female lead.
Flashbacks
In my trailer I have used flashbacks, I simulated these by using cross fade transitions where the previous shot fades into the next one creating a dizzy and disorientating effect.
I have challenged the conventions of the romance/drama genre as I have never seen flashbacks like mine used in a trailer before. I think this was a clever and effective idea, it gives the audience an insight into "Alice's" past and will help the audience connect with the character, which in turn should encourage them to go and watch the film.
Soundtrack
My soundtrack is Say by John Mayer. I choose this soundtrack because it fitted the conventions of a romance/drama soundtrack and the chorus worked well with the sequence of shots in my trailer and helped to heighten suspense. I also took into account results from my audience research.
I think my trailer has challenged the conventions of a romance/drama trailer as often dialogue from the footage is used to support the soundtrack however we decided to just to use a voiceover and soundtrack so that we didn't give to much away from dialogue in the trailer. I also decided the lyrics in this song were very suited to my narrative so explained the storyline perfectly. Also as we didn't have professional actors I thought it would be better to not use dialogue as this could have made the trailer awkward and uncomfortable if the acting wasn't a good standard.
I think this strong emotional soundtrack adds another dimension to my trailer and effects the audience in a more personal way.
Below is the soundtrack to "The Fault In Our Stars"
Below is the soundtrack to "The Fault In Our Stars"
Despite having dialogue from the film throughout this trailer I think the soundtrack is used in a similar way to mine. Its used to emphasise the peaks of the trailer and highlights the drama and the emotions covered in the film. Many trailers use soundtracks to emphasise the narrative in the film, this engages the audience.
My trailer also challenges the conventions of a romance/drama trailer because when researching trailers I discovered that the majority start with dialogue from one of the main protagonist or voice over in some cases, however mine starts with upbeat music and later the voice over starts. I think this is effective in my trailer as it gets the audience in the mood and the soundtrack fits well with the initial sequence of shots.
