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

Ashley Murray

Before producing our teaser trailer, we researched other teaser trailers for thrillers such as ‘Obsessed’ (2009) directed by Steve Shill, ‘One Hour Photo’ (2002) directed and written by Mark Romanek and others such as ‘The Crush’ (1993) film written and directed by Alan Shapiro.

We researched various covers for magazines such as ‘Total Film.’ We also looked at different film posters for films such as ‘Awake’ and ‘The Eye.’

We decided to not over-complicate our media product by trying the challenge the conventions of a thriller. This is because we wanted our teaser trailer to be easily understandable for the audience.

We took note of what the conventions of other thriller teasers were and noted which elements we did and did not want to use. We noticed that many of the thriller teaser trailers contained characters such as the female victim and the male villain or an obsessive character.

The ways in which our film ‘Torment’ uses the conventions of real media products are that it contains the enigma code, as it is unclear what happens to our female victim Nicole. This can be shown through use of the question titles such as ‘will they find her?’ and the flashlight search in a forest for Nicole.

We used iconography such as ropes and photographs to successfully captive the genre of our teaser trailer. This is shown in the shot of Damien, where he is shown seated in his bedroom, with a large collective of photograph on his wall of the female victim Nicole.

Torment also uses the conventions of real thriller teaser trailers through the portrayal of our male character Damien, as he plays an obsessive villain, who will do anything to get the girl he loves similarly to the character of Lisa in obsessed .

The music conforms the conventions of real thriller teaser trailers as the music builds up pace further into trailer. The music is also quite intense and build tension in the audience, possibly making the audience jump at some point. The editing is fast paced to enhance the enigma. We also used low-key lighting to enhance the eeriness of the scenes. The props and clothing used in our teaser trailer were realistic, which allows the audience to feel more involved in the plot as it is similar to everyday life.

Ways in which we could have improved our teaser is if we tried more to challenge and develop the conventions of thriller teaser trailers. We could have done this by possibly not showing our male villain at all, for instance just showing his effect on Nicole. Or used a slower less dramatic music piece to challenge the conventions of a teaser trailer.