Evaluation task 1

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

Frame 1
My first frame is my magazine cover for Delirium which uses many typical conventions of the thriller genre. The first and most prevalent feature that uses typical genre conventions is my use of colour. The main features of the cover such as the main image and background are in black and white which will immediately signify darkness and mystery to my audience. The two key film trailers that I have referenced on my magazine cover were ''Delirium'' and ''Here I Come'' which are both highlighted in red which is standard iconography of Thriller themed texts as it looks more sinister than other neutral colours such as blue or green. This is because it has the connotation of blood and danger. The colour contrast between black and white and red also will also make the words stand out for my target audience which will quickly make them attentive. My magazine cover does develop some conventions as I made use of effects to bolster the look of some of my text. For example by adding an outer glow on to my slogan ''can you trust yourself'' makes it more identifiable in an alternative way than the red of the other text. This outer glow effect does also in fact challenge typical Thriller conventions as the ghostly glow is more often associated with the horror genre. I implemented this however to make the logo more memorable for my target audience. The other aspects of the cover such as the pictures to the left also challenge thriller conventions of real media products as it also appears ghostly. However I decided to incorporate this as a result of my analysis of The girl with the dragon tattoo (2011) which is a psychological thriller that made use of dark colours and added a ghostly feel to the ancillary texts which implied its dark theme.

Frame 2
The second frame that I haven chosen is my film poster for Delirium which challenges the typical conventions of real media products in the same way as my magazine cover does. My signature slogan ''Can you trust yourself''' is edited with the same outer glow opacity as my magazine cover which not only defies typical genre conventions but also will be a form of branding synergy to promote my product. However it does conform to conventions of real media products far more than my magazine cover as the entire poster has black and white. This is both in terms of font and colour. I have situated my slogan in a descending format so that my audience will see the other key information on the poster such as the building blocks and production company logo. The poster features two halves of his face which allows for the text in the middle of the image. This composition has proven effective as it will immediately draw the audiences attention to the main protagonist in the image which will make people focus on the poster. This will develop the conventions that thriller posters have which is drawing attention to a target audience. I decided to use that effect as a result of searching for Split (2017)'s film poster which had one half of the antagonists face across the left side of the screen. But for variety I used two halves of my protagonists face to emphasise his role as a character.



Frame 3
The third frame is a pivotal point in my film trailer where our protagonist is searching for clues as to who murdered his brother. He is frantically working to find out crucial information by analysing pictures and key dates which could be connected to the murder. In the scene that features this frame, the protagonist starts to become extremely frustrated that he cannot cope with the grief and anger as it overwhelms him. The shot in the frame is a mid shot which allows the audience to observe our protagonists body language which further suggests his catatonic state where he is fixated on just finding his brothers murderer and nothing else. The frame also features a kill board which is a key convention in any thriller narrative associated with investigation.This ties into the narrative with key pictures of fictional events. To support the claim of investigation the protagonist is dressed in a smart white business shirt with glasses which stereotypically connotes intelligence which will indirectly indicate that the protagonist is in a middle class job. In terms of crime and deviance, this contradicts typical forms and conventions of thrillers which normally show the working class suffering as victims of criminal activity.This iconography will entice my target audience who I believe will be strong supporters of the thriller genre.

Frame 4
The fourth frame in this post is extremely instrumental to the narrative as our protagonist has just been informed via telephone that his brother has been murdered and the shot shows his perfectly natural reaction. This frame signals the beginning of our protagonists psychological deterioration which will eventually culminate in his delirious vengeful state. Our protagonist is dressed In casual clothes and given the curtains in the background one would assume he is at home. This adds verisimilitude to our film as it shows that key events can occur at any place at any given time. This frames develops conventions from real media products as it shows raw emotions that are always seen in the thriller genre as secondary cast members are often killed off to provide a disruption to the narrative. This would most likely produce extreme problems for a protagonist which is what is shown in our film as he starts to lose his sanity.

Frame 5
The fifth frame of my analysis is a wide shot of our protagonist in an office environment which is presumably his place of work. As the shot is static, the audience would not be able to know that he is very frantically writing which shows he is under pressure to complete important work. This is supported by the pile of books next to him showing that he is far too busy. This in the same scene involving cuts, will show a ''snapping point'' where our protagonist will start to express his frustrations and grief at work by damaging the office. This uses typical genre conventions as all highly stressed characters in thrillers and psychological thrillers do eventually succumb to pressure from their lives. Also in the scene we added extra external agitators such as people being noisy and those people banging on the windows which will influence his breakdown.

Frame 6
The sixth frame of my analysis shows our protagonist in an antagonistic role where he is strangling his son and staring at him aggressively. This supports the idea that his psychological deterioration is in full effect and that his stresses at his workplace are affecting his interpersonal relationships at home. It is a close up shot that captures both of their facial expressions with his son very distressed and frightened. It is at this point in the trailer that our protagonist will shift to an antagonist as he starts to exhibit characteristics of a villainous person. In the foreground of the shot there are bricks from the outside of the house and in the background there are ordinary bins. This creates verisimilitude where it shows that what has happened to our lead character could happen to anybody showing the profound effect of tragedy on ordinary people. To further suggest the mood of the shot, both characters are dressed in black which is a stereotypical convention of highly intense scenes in thrillers and it is raining on a very cloudy day. This use of pathetic fallacy again connotes the nature of the shot as being intense and dark.

Frame 7
Towards the end of our trailer it is established that our protagonist has changed roles and frame 7 fully supports that idea. This is shown by our protagonist looking directly at the camera in a long shot. This will allow the audience to observe the setting for the shot.  He is again dressed in dark colours and it is pitch black in the photograph which connotes the intensity of the scene due to pathetic fallacy and careful use of mise-en-scene. He wields a hammer in his left hand which given previous events in the trailer, our target audience should be able to infer that our protagonist wants to exact vengeance on the person who murdered his brother.

Frame 8
The eighth frame of my analysis is the final title for our trailer. It involves a parallax effect where the particles around it are moving making it more memorable for our audience. The title features cracks in the font which we decided to implement as it symbolises how are protagonists life is crumbling. This is a form of enigma code for our audience to decipher at the end of the trailer. It has a white hue to it which directly contrasts with the pitch black in the background. This makes the title more visibly striking for our target audience.

Frame 9
The final frame of my analysis consists of billing blocks that have all of the key people in the making of the trailer with the Director, Producer and camera crew all included. This uses typical conventions of film trailers as it is essential that the audience understand who should be credited for the making of the trailer. It also features the release date in a separate slightly larger and more unique font which will focus the audiences attention on the key date more. This is the date that the film would hypothetically be released for consumption at cinemas.