Evaluation of form and genre in products

 

Trailer

Formal Conventions

• We have followed many formal conventions in our work to clearly establish that it is a trailer.
• The ratings card (1) is a formal convention found before many trailers. It shows the appropriate audience for the text and we use it in our coursework to give it more authenticity.
• Other ways we gave our coursework the feel of a trailer was whilst editing. The inter-title slides we inserted, such as "From The Makers Of",(2)  establish the text as a trailer to the audience and this is why they are used.

Intertitle from "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo"

• Whilst editing, the sound is also important as a formal convention to create the form of a trailer. The change in soundtrack, increases pace by using a faster track to cause a big build up at the end which is seen in all trailers, and the mix up of dialogue.
• We have a scene where two people are talking and by using an L-cut, we take this dialogue and add different video over the top from other parts of the film. (3) This establishes the product as a trailer as it is a common device used to establish narrative in a short space of time.
• The placement of shots is a formal convention for trailers. The shots are in non-chronological order as they are grouped thematically e.g. a montage of shots of our characters in danger. (4)
• The 'coming soon' and 'end credits' slide coming at the end are part of a trailers' formal convention, along with the 'title slide' coming at the beginning. (13, 14)

Genre Conventions

• The genre of our coursework trailer is action/thriller with a technology focus so there are certain conventions we used to establish the genre.
• Beginning with the mise-en-scene. The over-the-shoulder shots of computer screens and 'techno 'props go well together. They establish a use of technology/modern age feel on the action/thriller genre, which can potentially cause excitement amongst an audience as we live in the digital age. The 'geeky' props are things such as; glasses, computers, laptops, cables, blogs and cameras. (8)

Technology in "Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol"

• The dialogue used is common as a genre convention of the action/thriller trailers. It sets up a problem "My girlfriend has been kidnapped" (4) and working as part of the enigma code this also catches the attention of the audience.
• Dialogue such as "Run!" are common and help with the pace build; short and snappy.

• The roles we show are also very common in the action/ thriller genre. The villains are very obvious in the shots we show; drug deals and fighting scenes are common in action films. They are shown in quiet locations. (5) We also have some cross-over with the spy genre because our main character is an investigative journalist looking into a cover up and we include classic spy-style 'drop' scenes.

'Drop' scene



Suitcase drop in "Tinker, Tailor"



• The heroes are shown in the 'slo-mo hero walk shot'. This is where James, Michael and I are seen walking towards the camera in slow motion from a low angle. This is a classic shot to show a group of people who are determined to succeed and can be seen in all kinds of genres but mainly those where there is a thriller-style plot.

Hero shot

Similar shot from "Fringe"

• We also use shots that deliberately reference other texts in our genre, hoping that our audience will recognise and appreciate these references. For example, the shot where I pull the glasses off my face in shock is similar to the Daniel Craig shot featured within "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo". We also use similar dialogue about encryption. These references are a game we play with the audience, as well as our references to classic spy drama.

Our shot

Shot from "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo"

• We also have action shots to fit the genre, such as; the big alleyway fight scene where James takes on numerous people (6), shots of people getting punched and the shot where Michael is being strangled via his own camera strap by an anonymous person. This shot will cause the audience to ask questions.
• The 'slow team build' is also common in the genre.

Poster

 

Establishing Genre

• This poster needs to hint at our genre hybrid - action/thriller/spy.
• It has a muted colour pallet, which gives off a dark and moody vibe.
• A poster in the spy genre 'Tinker, Tailor...' uses a muted palette with a bright colour for the title. However, 'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo' has a dark poster so ours fits the genre while showing that there can be flexibility in the approach.

• On our poster we have included a computer screen with a key image from the film - the girl, Kess, apparently dead as someone callously walks past, which appears to have been put onto the "Anonymous X" blog.
• The computer screen fits with the digital/techno feel of our film, a theme that is becoming increasingly popular and is becoming a new conve ntion in the thriller.  Also, our main plot revolves around the use of blogs so the computer screen represents this on the poster, which will help the audience gain a little insight into the film before it is released.
• The image on the computer screen helps convey the action/thriller genre more clearly as the main image does not - the "Tinker Tailor" poster uses small images in this way.
• The use of a computer screen on our poster is a way of giving a teaser to our audience which causes interest in the poster and film.
• The computer screen is also at an angle which lights up half of my face with a blue tint. This can draw comparisons from the 'Tinker, Tailor...' poster. The cold blue works well with the spy element, while the lighting source links to our techno theme.

Formal Conventions

• There are also ways you can tell it is a poster through form, one of these being the 'billing block'. The billing block is situated in the bottom at the middle on all posters we researched, this is also where ours is situated.
• Another poster form is the 'coming soon' title. This is usually below the billing block and it gives an audience an estimation of when the film will be released. 'Coming Soon - December 2013'.
• The tag line is an important part of the poster form. It makes itself aware as a poster to the audience whilst hinting about the plot, 'Your Secrets Are Never Safe'.

Magazine cover

 Conveying the Genre

• Our magazine features elements that are taken from covers within the 'action/thriller' genre.
• This can be seen with our main image. On magazines we looked at, when there are 3 heroes they are placed centrally facing different directions with the main character looking at the camera.
• We changed our background several times. Our main image follows the conventions for composing a group of three, but we were not sure if the genre of the film was clear from the image. We therefore chose to photograph a computer keyboard to indicate the blogging theme and had our characters stand on it. We used a glowing blue line to suggest the keyboard is lighting up to make it look more technologically advanced.
• We decided to highlight the hacking/blogging theme from our trailer. This can be seen in the strapline at the top and the list of teaser text. Here we have adjusted the laout and look to suit a computer-based image. The strapline looks like a search bar and the teaser text is in a drop down menu box.
• We are conscious that these are very genre-specific choices and have decided to make our cover a special edition investigating the techno-thriller as it is more often the case that magazines change their overall look for a special edition than for an ordinary issue.

Masthead adjusted for Inception cover

The Magazine Cover Form

• It is common magazine form for the main image to overlap the masthead.
• The name of the magazine is also very particular. They are usually one bold word, eg. 'Empire'. Our choice was 'Inside' to hint at exclusivity and almost secret information.
• Ways an audience can tell it's a magazine include the issue number and date 'Issue 5' 'November 2013' - elements that have a practical purpose and also indicate form.
• There is usually a three-colour scheme on a magazine cover. We saw this by looking at covers from 'Total Film' and 'Empire'. The colours we went with were; blue, white and grey as these tie in with both the genre and our other products but are also technology related colours.
• The teaser text is also important for magazines as it tells a potential reader what they can find within the magazine. From research we found that the text is not genre specific as the magazine needs to advertise a range of options. Our text followed this 'WOODY ALLEN EXCLUSIVE' 'LINCOLN REVIEW'.
• Another convention of a magazine is that the text is always full of words that equate to a certain exclusivity. To take examples from our cover it is words such as 'First Look' and 'Exclusive'.
• We made sure that the title of our filmn was prominent on the cover to make it clear that this is the main film being promoted in this issue.