Evaluation Task 1 - In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop or Challenge Forms of Conventions from Real Media Products?

NINE FRAME ANALYSIS 

Frame One 
The first frame is the very first thing the audience see's when viewing the trailer, the production company logo. As the logo appears in its staggered formation (edited in premiere pro) a back ground noise of children laughing in a playground echoes over the 5 second clip of the production company logo. The logo was edited to flicker on the screen conveying the crime genre and the eerie mood of the thriller. The logo was created on photoshop and is a simple design, a black ground allows for the bold white font that shows 'sKs' the companies name. The height of the 'K' develops into a shed post allowing the image to tie in with the font. The name of the company is underlined with 'Productions' wrote underneath. This is a very stereotypical trailer convention and most often appears at the very start of the trailer to inform the audience who produced the film. Our original production company logo had red blood dripping off of the end of the line under the title, this was as we originally used this production company logo for our horror opening sequence. After researching Crime Thriller production company logo we decided to make changed to our logo, as we did not believe the red blood match the genre convention and other crime thriller production companies.

After researching similar crime thriller production companies such as 'New Line Cinema' 'Legendary Pictures' and 'Stranda Film' it was clear production company logos are conventional of only maximum three colours, with big, bold basic font advertising the company and a smaller image above this. It is common of these colours to be black/white/blue/sliver/grey. Most company logo's also appeared on a plain black background to ensure the logo stands out.  Therefore these conventions were applied to my production company logo pre production. 

During research, we also noted that not all production company logo's are stills. Therefore we decided to add the flicker to our logo and apply it to the genre.

Frame Two
The second frame shows a  long shot taken from the first clip in our trailer. We decided that instantly we wanted the audience to establish the main characters and their relationship. Therefore we thought the best way to do this would be to show the mother and the daughter on the way to our first location, this conforms to the trailer convention that establishes character and setting early on in the sequence. This clip last roughly 6 seconds and shows the mother and daughter holding hands walking past the camera. This is a common convention within crime and horror thrillers as the juxtaposition of the trailer is emphasised and contrasted with the equilibrium at the start. When researching other crime thrillers this was a common element within the first few clips of a trailers. For example in the trailer of film 'Kidnapped' two shots are used to establish the relation of the mother and son before he goes missing.  Both shots are shown as close ups to reveal the happy facial expressions they are showing through smiling and laughing together.

Therefore we have recreated this establishment of equilibrium in shots of our characters and their relationship on screen at the start of our trailer. We have chosen to include long shots, mid shots, close ups and two shots when using camera angles and movements to depict their relationship to the audience.

The long shot was used to show a full view of the characters, this allows the audience to pick up their relationship by establishing the smaller girl is her daughter through  elements such as the tone in the mothers voice as she speaks to her daughter, asking "would you like to go on the zip wire" etc. Also the mother's body language and facial expressions show her love/care for her daughter as well as dialogue to show her protection further along in the trailer. The daughter is shown to be carrying a toy bear, she appears happy and innocent which further emphasises her vulnerability. As the character is shown walking past the camera the angle becomes increasingly high therefore further portraying her vulnerability. This clip also applies Tzvetan Todorov's Theory of Equilibrium, the bulgarian literary theorist suggests most narratives start with a state of 'equilibrium' in which life is normal and the protagonists are happy.

Frame Three

The third frame focuses on the daughter. In this close up shot she is shown lying in a pile of leaves, giggling with her bear in her arms. We believed it was important to show her positive emotions early in the trailer by filming clips such as her  in the park, with her mum, shots on the swings, giggling and having fun. This is key to contrast the early emotions of happiness and joy when equilibrium is shown against fear and panic further along when the equilibrium has been disrupted. The bright red bow she wore on the day was part of the costume as red can symbolise danger and foreshadows the upcoming events. When deciding on costume for our little girl we decided to research stereotypical outfits for younger female characters in thriller films. We based our costume on trailers such as Seeing Double, Daddys Little Girl and In a Fidel.

This included a light coloured dress, to convey the sense of innocence and purity, and a bow/ribbon as a stereotypical little girls outfit. However due to weather conditions on the day, wearing a dress wasn't appropriate for our young actress. Therefore we decided a little coat and a bow in her hair would be most suited. We found a red bow for sale and decided we wanted our daughter to wear this on the day of filming as red connotes with the foreshadowing danger.

Another connotation of trouble ahead would be the contrasting background noise played over the joyful clips at the start of the trailer. By including shots such as these the audience is able to establish that she is a main character and allows them to build a relationship with her before she goes missing therefore creating more sympathy and empathy for the mother as they can relate to family dynamics.

Frame Four
In the fourth frame a point of view and hand held shot are used to convince the audience that the mother and daughter appear to be being watched. The physical setting of the image is a close up of leaves/bush around the outside of the frame and the park in the background. By using a hand held shot an informal/unprofessional perspective is shown. We decided to film this shot from within a bush to distort a clear view of the characters and show that the camera angle is hidden. By combining the two shots they suggest to the audience they are watching from a point of view shot from the antagonist watching the protagonist and from here a sense of danger and thrill emerges. Although equilibrium isn't completely destroyed in this shot it conveys to the audience the forthcoming disruption. However, it is unclear to the audience throughout the trailer who exactly is watching the mother and daughter and who took the little girl, but we decided to leave this ambiguous so viewers could find out by watching the whole film in cinema or on DVD. By introducing antagonists and protagonists crime thriller conventions are being used to reveal the plot. Within most thriller films antagonist and protagonists are used against each other to distort equilibrium and create a divide between 'good and evil'. The best examples of where antagonists and protagonists are shown is in disney movies. For examples in the film Snow white, the beautiful young girl ( protagonist ) is manipulated into taking a bite of an apple from an old evil witch, however this is a piousness apple and would kill her. This shows the difference between good and evil.

Frame Five
Frame five introduces the development we've made to typical trailer conventions. The basic structure of a trailer would include conventions such as montages/non chronological orders/fast paced editing. Although our trailer follows these conventions to some extent our storyline structure was based on an early idea of it being a game of hide and seek. This structure formed right from our initial ideas, we based the title, storyline, and narrative on this. As the main plot revolves around a heart wrenching tragedy of a mother loosing her daughter we wanted to conform to conventions that might be shown in a film based on a mother and daughter.  Therefore the game of hide and seek fitted perfectly as an answer as to how the mother looses her daughter. The first 30 seconds of the clip introduces the mother and daughter, establishes their relationship and generally is quite slow paced which challenges trailer conventions are most often they are face paced. The intensity begins to build as a game of hide and seek is suggested and the daughter runs off to hide. The action builds right after the mothers tells the daughter she mustn't leave the park. Soon after a clip is shown of the daughter opening the gate and leaving the park. In editing we decided from this point all clips will be shown with a low contrast and lower brightness as equilibrium beings to be destroyed. This edit is shown in the fifth frame the physical setting shows a mid shot of the mother with her hands over her eyes and she counts down from 10 to find her daughter. The narrative of the storyline begins from here as the pace builds as the mother counts down from 10 to 1. Shots between 10-7 begin to build in pace as the mother establishes her daughter is missing and beings to panic 6 - 4 shows intensity increasing and  3-1 the pace is even quicker and intensity climaxes. The countdown is narrated as a voice over and leads into the film title at the end of the trailer as "3..2...1...Here, I, Come".

Frame Six
This frame is a close up of a prop. The physical setting shows a shot which is a close up of a mobile phone dialling 999. This shot follows the clips of the daughters disappearance. Once the mother has search the park/area for the little girl she resorts to calling the police. At this point Todorov's Theory is confirmed when state of normality is disrupted by an outside force, which has to be fought against in order to return to a state of equilibrium.  From this point in the trailer fear, panic and determination takes over as the mother has a mission to find her little girl. As the trailer builds in speed and drama it is clear the mother isn't coping with the situation and is shown to be deteriorating. By adding in shots such as phoning 999, police signs, police cars and siren sound effects genre conventions are followed and the audience is aware the trailer is a crime thriller.

Frame Seven
This frame is taken from the end of the trailer when credits are shown. Before creating our credits on photoshop we researched the conventional layout for credits from other thriller trailers, for example, Shutter Island, Wonderful Racket and Godzilla. These all included conventions showing credits such as starring actors, producers, directors and camera operators of film trailers.

They often appear throughout the trailer over shots of the named actors/actresses but we have decided to reveal these at the end so the audience can focus fully on the action being shown, instead of missing parts as they attempt to read the font at the same time. Other information such as production companies, make up, costume and sound professionals are revealed. In a bigger bolder font below the credits 'COMING SOON' are shown to entice the audience that the whole film will soon be available for their viewing. A final piece of information is shown below that alerting audiences they are available to view the film also in 3D IMAX as this brings a wider profit to the production companies as their film can be viewed in more luxurious screenings. The production company logo is featured on the bottom right of this page and also a conventional age certification informing viewers below age 15 that they are not permitted to watch this film.

  Frame Eight








This frame shows the magazine cover I created on Adobe Photoshop for my film trailer. The main image of the cover was taken on the day of filming so both actresses are shown in costume. The composition of the images shows the mother in the foreground looking concerned and troubled. The daughter is shown lurking in the background although font was edited over her to further disguise her.   A dark gradient was added over the cover to convey the genre of the magazine and the trailer. This also allowed the font and extras to stand out against a darker background. By adding vector mask I was able to contrast the mothers coat against the background by using bright colours as the coat is an iconic costume within the trailer and this attracts the reader. The actress shown with her name and 'exclusive interview' alerts the reader of her involvement and also shows star power.  I decided to name the magazine 'Thrill' as it perfectly described the genre of both magazine and trailer. The masthead (title of magazine) is white to stand out with a bold font and a drop shadow. The masthead is big and bold as it advertises the brand/name of the magazine. The date is positioned at the top right to inform the audience when it was released, usually this is shown by month and year. The date also shows this is a monthly magazine. To the left of the magazine is the cover lines, these attract a wider target audience and therefore more readers as it informs viewers what other information the magazine has such as interviews with other films and more release dates. I have included other A Level Media trailers such as Love Me, and Delirium. Above the masthead I have included an intensive to further entice viewers into buying the magazine with the inclusion of a free magazine inside. Other features of the magazine include 'Top 10 films of 2017 so far" and a film strip offering 'behind the scenes' action from Here I Come. The price of the magazine is positioned in the top left in red to inform viewers of the price. A barcode has been added to the bottom left of the magazine to add realism.
This image shows a comparison between my A2 and AS magazine cover. During my AS project I
was asked to recreate a popular magazine cover. I chose to use Sherlock Holmes as my magazine cover. During this task I had to consider elements such as a masthead, tagline, puff, cover lines, main image, and institutional information such as a price and barcode. These have also been applied to my A2 ancillary text, as these are all stereotypical conventions I have chosen to include them in my product. I have also added extra incentives such as a "Free poster inside" this encourages consumers to buy my magazine with the extra's included.

Frame Nine
The final frame is my film poster. The main image in this is of the daughter hugging her teddy bear. This image was also taken on the day we film so the character is shown in her costume. The main image was cut from its original form and added to another image taken recently of the woods that we filmed at. The image was darkened with a high contrast to allow any font and the main image to stand out. I decided to edit the poster black and white to convey a serious mood. However using vector masks I have kept the original red in parts of the image such as the girls bow, and the teddy bear's



ears. The red in this image stands out bold as it is the only colour within the poster. The red symbolises the danger within the trailer. The font at the top of the trailer was taken from the unique selling point we concluded for our trailer in the initial production. This also gives the viewers a short description of what to expect within the film. Around the main image quotes and ratings from film reviewers have been placed  such as "Heart Wrenching" and "Gripping" with star ratings to inform viewers of its popularity. The title of the film 'Here I Come' is placed in the centre of the poster with its iconic 'Chiller' font to create syngery within the product and ancillary texts. Most importantly this informs viewers of the title of the film. Below this credits from the end of the trailer have been added to reveal star power from actors, inform audiences of the production company, producer, director and so on. Like the end of the trailer "Experience in IMAX 3D" is also shown to inform consumers of the luxurious offer. The production company logo, DVD logo and Cinema logo have all been placed at the bottom of the poster to inform viewers of the different ways they can experience our trailer/film. Unlike my AS film poster, I created a tick list of film poster conventions such as titles, tag lines, release dates, production company and bill blocking, reviews/quotes and certifications. My AS poster has little of these conventions only a title, release date and starring actors.