Question 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or

challenge forms and conventions of real media?

The genre of my trailer is Romantic drama. Most films in this genre focus around an obstacle that is preventing the love of two people. Like the films I have looked at I have chosen a big obstacle that prevents my characters from being together. In the research and planning stages of my trailer I looked at existing media trailers to identify codes and conventions of the romantic drama genre.

In the film ‘Dear John’ the two main characters are separated when the male character goes off to fight in the war. Like ‘Dear John’ I have chosen war as the obstacle in my trailer. My male character Jay goes off to fight in the war, leaving behind his childhood sweetheart Rosie.

I have followed the codes and conventions of a romance drama as my characters are separated because of this obstacle. In most Romantic drama films the ending involves the lovers separating because of the enormity of the obstacle - this is a convention I have followed as my male character Jay dies at war separating the two lovers because of the severity and devastation caused by war - the obstacle.

My trailer is set in the 1940’s. To get an accurate idea of the costume and styling of this time I used old photographs and other film trailers.In ‘The Notebook’ the time period is set in the 1940’s, I analysed this trailer in my pre production stages as this gave me an idea of not only the costume and style but the narrative and behaviour of characters at that time.

The female style was particularly important to get right as I think it is easy to notice the 1940’s time period through the clothing they wore.

• The use of red lips on the character here is a convention of the 1940’s style that I have stuck too. Young women in the 1940’s often wore red lipstick and this made them look older than they were - which was the overall style at the time.

• The hair is twisted as the front and tied back which keeps the hair off there face and again like the red lips makes them look older than their years.

I have also used the codes and conventions of the 1940’s style from ‘The Notebook’.

In ‘The Notebook’ the female character Allie wears fitted tea dresses. She wears a combination of bright and subtle colours.

In my film trailer I have applied these conventions of the 1940’s costume. Like ‘The Notebook’ character Allie, my actress wears tea dresses in similar styles.

Like the character Allie’s dresses, my character Rosie’s dresses are pulled in at the middle and have buttons down the front.

The conventions of a teaser trailer are to ‘tease’ the audience before the film is released by giving them short clips of the film to entice them and make them want to watch the film. A teaser trailer does not give away too much about the film and does not contain any ‘spoilers’.

My teaser trailer involves very short clips which do not give away too much away about the film. However, I have challenged this convention of a teaser trailer as my trailer does include a clip of a telegram - as my male character goes off to war it could be argued that I am giving away the ending of the film - that he dies at war. Unlike some of the trailers I looked at - ‘The Notebook’ and ‘Dear John’ which all contain only teaser clips in their trailer - my teaser trailer could perhaps give away the ending.

In my trailer I have given the audience with a potential ending and outcome for the film through the clip of a telegram and ending clip of Rosie putting a cross by a field of poppies.

This follows the conventions of the teaser trailer ‘Letters To Juliet’ which reveals a lot to the audience. In the 59 second trailer it is revealed to the audience that the main part of the story is to find an old ladies lost love and that her grandson Charlie and female character Sophie do find him, and it shows the audience that Charlie and Sophie fall in love. The trailer gives away the majority of the film plot in a short period of time however this still fits in with some of the conventions of a teaser trailer as the audience are still enticed and may still want to watch the film even if they do know the outcome. Therefore in my trailer not only have I challenged the conventions of a teaser trailer as I give a hint about an important part of the plot, I have developed this because I have still done it in a way where the audience are ‘teased’ as they do not know for sure that my male character has died and is not just missing nor that the telegram is necessarily for him.

On my film poster I have followed a lot of the conventions of other posters I have looked at. The credits are at the bottom, the title is clear and the main image is striking and prominent.

My credits are at the bottom of the poster - like on one of the posters I analysed in my pre production stages. Like ‘The Notebook’ film poster I have also included the date in which the film will be released, and the production and distribution companies logos.

I have also made my title the focus of the page by making it a bold colour against the background and bigger than any other text.

In another of the film posters I analysed the male character at the top appears to be slightly faded out, giving the impression that the couple have split or he has moved away.

This I have developed in my film poster as I have faded an image of both the male and female character to represent that the happiness of the couple has been lost.

I have kept the title at the top of page so that it stands out and is easy to see - this fits in with the typical conventions of magazine covers.

I have placed the barcode at the bottom of the page which is where the magazine I have analysed have placed theirs.

I have placed the tagline at the top which is where the magazine ‘STUDIO’ places it so that it stands out.

I have placed the date, price and issue number at the top out of the way in small print - this is done on most magazines so that it does not obstruct a story.

I have challenged the conventions of the magazine covers I looked at as I put other images on my magazine cover aswell as my main image. I did this to entice the audience and give them more hints about the film.