Q1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or

challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

In this evaluation I will discussing the various conventions of crime

film trailers, posters and film magazines and whether I have
conformed or subverted these codes and conventions in my media
product.
ALWAYS STATE: I have followed the codes and conventions
of existing crime trailer? How did I employ the convention?
What was the intended impact? Was it successful?
Age and characters on the poster and magazine:
In this light we have subverted the typical codes and conventions of
crime film trailers due to using younger actors, some looking older
than others, as we wanted to appeal more to our primary target
demographic by using actors in a similar age group for example 1829 year olds. As you can see in the idmb user reviews, this age
demographic is the highest amount of viewers which backs up why
we wanted to target our target demographic more directly. Previous
crime trailers such as Legend ( Insert clip ) use Tom Hardy as the
main character for both roles as the Kray Twins. At the time Tom
Hardy was 37/38 years old which is typical for most crime trailers to
be around this age gap this is also the case with black mass as
Jonny Depp play an older character around a similar age. (insert
clip) therefore we have subverted this code and convention. We
found it fairly successful due to it having a more direct attachment
to our target demographic, although I found that it would have been
more effective to use an older looking character than John as he
looks fairly younger than the other characters that feature in the
film and is actually younger than our target demographic of 18 29
year olds as he was previously 17. This is also the case with other
media products such as our magazine and poster. The Legend
poster situates Tom Hardy ( insert picture) as he is the main
protagonist in the film, we followed this convention by employing
this in our own poster by including the 3 main characters in the
trailer ( insert final poster). Furthermore we decided to use the
mob character in our magazine and not the main character. By
doing this we subverted the codes and convetions as most crime
film companies include the main character on the magazine cover,
for example Black Mass has the main character on the front played
by Jonny Depp. (insert poster). As a result our magazine is probably
a bit ineffective and to improve I would include the 2 main
protagonists: John and Clyde in the magazine cover as they are the
main characters. Although, we did this to make the audience

wonder what character they are seeing and whether he dies or not
by looking at the trailer.

Mise en scene:
There are a lot of codes and conventions we have conformed that
are situated in previous crime film trailers. A very common example
is the outfits that the main protagonsits wear in crime films. We
followed the codes and conventions in this case by wearing suits or
on rare occations, smart casual clothing. This is the case which we
have conformed in films like Legend (insert clip on him wearing a
suit), the godfather (insert) and Goodfellas (insert) due to wearing
suits I found that it was a very effective piece of clothing which
allowed to target our audience and get across that it was a crime
film. Along with other props such as guns , money and violence
which are all
situated in crime
films ( insert
various clips from
different trailers of
these scenes).
Overall using these
props and outfits
allowed us to
create a scene
which could
instantly be
perceived as a
crime film by an
audience. A prop
which may subvert
the codes and
conventions seen
in crime films is
when the wallet and phone is dropped onto the table and while this
may subvert these conventions, we included it to show that the
audience the main protagonists also have ordinary lives.
Furthermore, mise en scene also includes everything in scene,
therefore the location was an import consideration. I decided to
conform the codes and conventions of locating some shots in an
industrial area. For example, we can see container in this shot
( insert the muscle clip) and a brick wall in this shot. This has been
a location recently used in the crime film Black Mass (insert video
or picture) and by resembling the same style of location, we are
conforming the codes and conventions and showing our audience
that it is a crime film which means it is an important convention to
consider when trying to direct our target audience. We have

followed this convention in our poster by including an industrial city

at the bottom of the poster. This has been previously done in the
film poster, Goodfellas ( insert poster) which we wanted to closely
resemble and follow when creating our own poster.
Production logo at the start of the trailer:
It is a typical code and convention to have the production logo at
the start of the trailer which is shown in various existing crime films
(insert). We decided to conform this convention by inserting our
production logo, I previously made, into the start of the trailer, along
with including an large organisation which would distribute our
product on a world wide scale; this being Universal. This is typical
for the production companies to produce the product, yet use
powerful and wealthy organisations to distribute their product
( insert intros from various trailers).
Camera Angles and shots:
Having an establishing shot of a city at the start of the trailer to
introduce the location they are in e.g. a megacity such as London,
NY etc is a typical code and convention used in most modern day
crime films such as Legend and Black Mass (insert clip). We planned
on using this convention in our own trailer although due to the lack
of technology and budget, we couldnt pull off something similar to
this that would look as effective as in most crime trailers. This
meant that our trailer was less effective when showing what kind of
location the film was situated in, other than the voice-overs
substituting for this.
On the other hand we did follow various codes and conventions in
terms of camera angles; that being a high angle shot of Jonny Depp
in Black Mass ( looking down on someone, shooting them) I found
this was a very effective shot, therefore we conformed this by taking
the same idea but with Clyde punching the camera. The intended
impact being that the audience wonders who he is beating up and
to have a direct connection with the audience as the punch
proceeds into the camera. I found that this was a very successful
shot because it is quick, yet forms a connection with the audience.
We have also conformed other camera angles through the close up
of the money being thrown on a table. We can see this being used in
the film Legend as there is a close up of money being thrown in a
sink. This was meant to show that someone has made a sum of
money from something which is all on cash e.g. a target could have
been killed and paid for doing so or someone could have been
robbed. This makes the audience curious of how they made the
money and therefore has been effective because that is the
intended effect. Another camera angle and shot we have
conformed is the violence in crime film trailers. In Black Mass they
have a medium shot of Jonny Depp (known as whitey in the film)

punching someone to the floor (insert clip). We have conformed this

by using a medium shot of Clyde punching someone to the ground. I
found this was a very effective shot to show that the main
protagonists in the film have a violent side to them.
Editing:
My media production work is edited in a way similar to most crime
film trailers. Usually there is a fair amount of dialogue at the start of
the trailer with long cuts, whereas as the trailer progresses, the
shots get much quicker, especially when there is violence involved
(insert clip) the cuts are very quick. This Is effective because it
shows the violence is very quick and brutal, also covering up who
the character is who got punched. We have conformed this in our
trailer by using quick cuts of the characters punching another which
is very effective as it looks realistic. (inset clip).
Another technique we have conformed to is with most crime trailers,
it fades to black when the title appears. This is the case in Black
Mass when someone is shot, the screen goes to black, followed by
the title of the film (insert clip). We have done this in our trailer
when the sound of a gunshot is heard which makes it very effective
because it seems like the title is suddenly appearing, making it
more notable to the audience to remember.
Sound:
There is a variety of diegetic and non-diegetic sound conventions we
have followed to create our trailer. During most of the trailers I have
watched, there is non-diegetic music in the background (insert clip)
which creates the mood of the trailer. We have conformed this by
inserting a piece of music which represent the genre fairly well. This
is effective although could have been improved by making it tone
down when the voiceovers come on so they can be heard easier.
Voice overs make up a lot of crime trailers, for example we see
diegetic voice overs of Jonny Depp (insert clip) talking over the table
while having dinner. This voiceover then turns into a non-diegetic
piece of sound as it is played over the top of other shots. This is
effective because the audience can listen to what he is saying while
other suspense shots which arent related are shown to keep the
audience interested. I have conformed this by taking the same idea
with the mob boss character talking over a table, while shots
change but the voice over is kept on. This is very effective as the
audience dont get bored as they can hear an insight into the plot
while watching others shots from the film. (insert clip).
There is also a variety of non-diegetic music of punches. This is very
common in Black Mass and Legend to show violence. We have
conformed this by using a punch sound effect to make the shot look

a lot more realistic. Overall the shot is a lot more effective with a
realistic punching sound which most crime films include. (insert clip)
Magazine and poster full evaluation:
Poster:
While I talked about the characters being on the front of the poster
earlier, I expand on this by talking about the connection this forms
with the audience. In most posters, the characters arent usually
looking into the camera (include the black mass and the legend
poster), although I decided to subvert the typical codes and
conventions because I felt if the characters looked directly into the
camera, it would form a connection and make the poster look more
appealing. This was very effective and wasnt too in your face as the
characters faces are slightly shadowed, furthermore we also wanted
to follow the conventions from the Goodfellas poster in which they
are looking directly at the camera, forming a connection. Overall,
across most posters we have subverted the conventions, although
conformed looking specifically at the Goodfellas poster.
Title positioning:
The positioning of the title in crime film posters tend to be down
the page, near the bottom. I have conformed to this by doing the
same in my poster as other posters have done in the past for
example they do this in The Godfather poster, Goodfellas, Black
Mass and you could say Legend too. Therefore by conforming to
these conventions, our poster looks more professional and therefore
is an effective convention to follow. Furthermore, the font tends to
be in bold and is regularly used on a black background (insert
goodfellas and godfather) which we tried to follow as the text stands
out well on a black background, meaning it is more effective.
When following conventions for the positioning of actors names, it is
very subjective as some posters have the actors names with the
title (insert legend poster) while other posters like Black Mass
(insert) have them at the top. I then found the Goodfellas poster
which is in between these and will be effective as it is very similar to
our poster. I conformed the conventions of this poster by putting the
actors name above the characters on the poster, meaning it is
effective in showing the audience who they are.
Magazine:
I found that the masthead on magazine covers tends to be at the
top of the magazine, covering out of the page. This is conformed
in our magazine as we wanted to make it look professional, and by
doing so has been very effective. Furthermore main characters of

the film tend to be on the front of the magazine cover, although we

subverted this by using the mob boss character. While he is an
important character, the main protagonists are John and Clyde.
Therefore the magazine may be less effective due to the main
characters not being on the front. On the other hand this could
make the audience curious of who he is and whether he dies or not.
Furthermore to make the magazine cover more professional we
followed the convention of the fact that characters on the magazine
usually cover the masthead with the top of their heads. I did this in
my magazine making it look more professional. (insert examples).
The information on the sides of the magazine covers are usually
related to the film cover and other articles in the magazine. They
are usually a colour which matches the magazines colours and
fonts. I have conformed this in my magazine as most of the text Is
colour coordinated with either the masthead or the title of the
movie. This makes it look more professional as there arent different
colours or the same for all the pieces of text on the magazine.
Another convention shown in magazines is the enticing statement at
the top of the magazine usually using words such as amazing. We
conformed this by doing the same in our magazine cover saying
Biggest crime film preview of 2016 making it an effective piece of
advertising for consumers to be convinced to buy the product.
Finally puffs are a common piece of advertising used in magazine
covers They are used to make the magazine look more enticing
while filling up space on the cover. I have followed this convention
by inserting a circle and putting persuasive advertising In it. In this
case I followed the convention in the Man Of Steel, Empire magazine
cover as that includes persuasive adverting about the popular
director, David Lynch. I followed this convention by including
advertising about another famous director, James Cameron. This is
effective because the audience want to read about the interview
therefore persuading them to buy the product.