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

Throughout our teaser trailer, we have used a number of captions which are there to help illustrate what the trailer is trying to portray. We decided to use this typical convention used in rom-com teaser trailers as we thought it fitted well with what we were trying to represent, and when we out the teaser trailer together previously without captions it didn’t flow as well from one clip to the next. I think by using these captions is linked in two of our clips really well, and allowed them to flow from one to another smoothly. We considered not using captions to show the change from them being adults to teenagers, but instead use black and white to suggest it is going back in time. This would of broken usual conventions, but in our previous a2 coursework we used this element and we thought it didn't work as well. This then reaffirmed our decision to keep the captions, as it showed the change in time easily and stick to usual conventions for a rom-com genre (P.S I Love You). The fonts on these captions vary; as the main ones throughout the trailer are a simple bold font which we found in our research was used in many other trailers such as 500 days of summer. We wanted to keep our house style colours as pink and blue, as we have used them in the other ancillary texts. These colours helped to suggest our genre as rom-com and attract our chosen audience. The reason why we used a different font for Keeping Faith in the trailer is because we wanted this to stand out as the title, and it is also the same font we used on our magazine so as a group we decided this would fit well with the overall presentation of our media products. In many other teaser trailers that we had previously researched we found that many of them didn’t give a specific release date, and only used ‘Coming Soon’ as to tease the audience and to hook them into wanting to see the film. We decided to use this at the end of our trailer in the same colours and fonts as the other captions, this worked well with our media product as it teases the audience, hooking them into wanting to watch the film and to also use typical conventions seen in other teaser trailers. Such films which use this convention include 500 days of summer and 27 dresses. We wanted to keep this convention as we wanted to tease our audience, and create intrigue.  



The costumes and props we used in our teaser trailer represented typical conventions used in rom-coms. When doing our research we found that many characters in rom-coms are dressed to suggest glamour, romance and are usually pretty people who the audience would find attractive. This is so in How to lose a guy in 10 days which stars Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson. Therefore rom-coms usually dress their stars in order to suggest this. We decided to dress Mercedes in a smart shirt, leggings and heels to suggest glamour and elegance. We also put Alex in costumes such as smart shirts and trousers, as we wanted to show him to be attractive to the audience and as a typical male seen in a rom-com. This worked really well as it suggests them as adults and helps to show how the trailer shows them as both adults and teenagers. It also helped to suggest the glamorous characters, and imply a distinctive comparison to real media texts in mainstream cinema today.

This evidence also shows our use of a long shot of our main girl characters at the start to introduce her to the audience. As we wanted to use a variety of camera angles this long shot we used, is the first time you see Mercedes, therefore it allows the audience to see her whole body as the costume we put her in was very important to her character representation as a sophisticated adult. This long shot occurs after the camera pans up from her feet as she walks in, we think this worked really well as pan creates suspense as you only see her feet first so it teases the audience to who the women is. The long shot following this camera angle, then shows Mercedes to the audience this works perfectly with our panning movement as it introduces the character, is a good way to start the trailer off, and it is also a camera shot seen in real media texts such as 500 days of summer and She's the Man. This was a convention we therefore decided to use and develop in our media product.

When it comes to camera work, we used some typical camera angles that are usually seen in this genre. One of the most important ones was the close up of Mercedes and Alex at the end. We wanted to use this close up as we wanted to show them together as a couple which suggests love and romance. We thinks this close-up works really well as it suggests the genre, and also represents the relationship between the two characters. By putting this camera shot at the end of our trailer, teases the audience as to whether they get together or not, and also finishes the trailer in a positive way interesting the audience into watching the film. Although we thought this camera angle worked brilliantly, we could of improved this more by using a over the shoulder shot looking a Mercedes over Alexs' shoulder, which would show a close up of her face suggesting her expression. This would therefore show both there facial expressions adding to the romance and to the comedy of our media product. It is a typical convention which is used by trailers of this genre to suggest the romance and give a variety of camera shots to increase the pace of the trailer. Therefore we decided to use this convention, in order to attract our target audience. This is used in real media texts such as 500 days of summer, in which close ups of the star couple in that teaser trailer were used frequently. We thought it worked well in our teaser trailer and contributed to the element of love, and was a good way to finish the trailer as it teased the audience to whether they would stay together or not.

From previous audience feedback we found that our target audience, wanted to see the couple together, and actually see him liking her made more obvious. As the previous clips are of him being clumsy and it has already been made clear that this is why she doesn't like him. We thought we would use a simple, but effective camera shot which would portray exactly what we wanted. We decided to use a long shot of them walking towards each other, her on her phone and him looking at her, and then walking into the door as he is concentrating on her. We thought this camera shot worked well as it showed him liking her in a simple but effective manner. Also using a typical camera shot used in trailers of this genre.  After showing this to our target audience we found that this made our teaser trailer more attractive and represented exactly what we wanted. It also teases the audience as it shows him liking her but the audience don't know whether they get together or not. We wanted it to look realistic, but to improve it next time we could maybe use a close up of there expressions to show more variety of camera shots. Although, we thought this shot worked really well as it clearly showed the characters together, with her not being interested in him. We edited this part too, as before you could see the characters waiting ready to walk so we edited this part so you just saw them walking and made the teaser trailer look more natural, realistic and professional. This worked well with our media product as it made it shorter with a faster pace to make it look more like real media texts and made it more appealing for our target audience, this was therefore a convention we decided to use in our media product.

Although we decided to use typical conventions of a rom-com concerning costumes, we also broke this convention. As we are trying to portray our characters as young teenagers too, we therefore needed to put Alex in a school uniform and make him look geeky and clumsy. Through our research we found that this wasn’t a typical convention of rom-com teaser trailers. We decided to break this convention as we wanted to show the difference from the past to the present, as him being a geeky boy in the past and now a successful, attractive man in the present. This worked well for our media product as it showed the difference in age and can appeal to our target audience easily as our target audience would fall into the school age category. Therefore they can relate to the costumes and the fact that this shows them as teenagers and at school. We thought by breaking this convention it would represent the characters in the way we wanted and would also target our chosen audience.

 When researching into other teaser trailers, we found that many of them use the production company at the start. We chose to use Universal which is a typical production company used to produce rom-com trailers such as 50 First Dates. This worked well as it makes it look more professional and fits in well with other media products in mainstream cinema today.  When researching to other teaser trailers we found that the production company shown at the start wasn't the full clip, and is normally cut down to under 10 seconds, this is so in Love Actually. They do this to make the pace of the trailer faster and to hook in the audience. We decided to use this convention and worked well for our media product, by making it have a faster pace and allow it look more like a typical trailer. We also decided to play our soundtrack over the production company which is used in other trailers such as 13 going on 30. This soundtrack seen here was a guitar and hooks in the audience to watch the rest of the teaser trailer, it also represents the genre as rom-com and adds to a comedy atmosphere for the audience. This was a specific part of our teaser trailer that can be compared to a real media text in society today. This made our teaser trailer more professional and made it appeal to our target audience more. This worked well with our teaser trailer and the music hooks in the audience and teases them about what is to come in the trailer.

The voiceover à  As a group we decided that having a voiceover is a typical convention of teaser trailers that we wanted to use. In our research we found that teaser trailers such as She’s the Man and 500 days of Summer represent true rom-com genres. They both have voiceovers which give the trailer more excitement and make them more interesting for the audience to watch, than without any voiceover. We decided to have a voiceover as we thought it would allow our media product to be more professional and more like real media texts that are in mainstream cinema today. It also allowed our teaser trailer to have a faster pace and suggest our genre as rom-com.  This convention we decided to use made our teaser trailer typical for a rom-com genre and will make it more attractive for our target audience.