Evaluation Question 1

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

•  TRAILER CONVENTIONS 
• Psychological Thriller, Horror themed.
• Advertising for trailer - magazine and poster. 
• Costumes and Props - Monster, black rope, white dress.
• Makeup - unhealthy makeup, symbolising mental health but from the outside.
• Cinematography - Over the shoulder shots, close ups.
• Editing, Fast cut scenes mood lighting.
• Location, 'dangerous & Isolated' places abandoned building and forest.
• The main character is a Countertype, not innocent, not nice. 
• Pills, shaky hands, face peel - Insanity and Anxiety.
• Calm music, piano paying to give the character more 'personality' and set a particular mood which is deceiving the truth behind the character's true nature. 
• Night Sky and old TV Effects.
• The font is joined, matching the theme as the title has a word "Mortal" I've made the text look as if it does not end by joining each word together.
• Tackles the issues of loneliness and distrust as the main character states that her friend doesn't care about her, the main character is also mostly alone symbolising solitude.
• Makes audience question what is real and what isn't (Fight Club, Jacob's Ladder). The way the main character acts is questionable, the surroundings the character is located at is also strange to go to in a plain white dress alone. 
• Twitch and overlapping effects, distort reality. These types of shots suggest that the things that take place may or may not be real. The twitches, blood and knife props and a terryfying monster symbolise a fight against oneself.
• Narration - has a slight delay effect to the voice: distorts reality. The narrator is the main character talking to herself about herself. She states "Why am I still here? Just to suffer? I can feel every atom of my body. The body I've lost, the people I've lost - it won't stop hurting." This sentence makes the audience sympathise with the 'protagonist' in one level or another, yet feel completely alienated from her. 
• Calm piano music: synchronised with piano shot and the trailer. Gives audience impression that throughout the first part of the trailer, the main character is playing the piano.
• Piano notes - the melody gives the audience a disturbed and uneasy feeling. 
• The title is shown at the end. This gives the trailer more suspense keeping the audience interested in the name of the film. 
• The best parts of the 'film' are shown to attract the viewers (scary monster, blood and insanity.) 
• Actor's emotions of fear, disconnection and anger - addition to the story of the character. These intense emotions give er more personality.
• The trailer doesn't show the whole plot, making the audience question the story. Thus, getting intrigued.
• Associated with companies: New Line Cinema and Warner Bro's Studio. I wanted to feature New Line Cinema on it's own initially, but after more research I found out that New Line Cinema films are distributed by Warner Bro's. Which is why I included both of them. I wanted to include a smaller distributing company but changed my mind into something more recognised. New Line Cinema seems like a better option for my type of genre. 

• COUNTERTYPE
• The trailer mostly focuses on one character creating a sense of loneliness showing things in the trailer that aren't supposedly real from the point of view of the main character. The film title "Mortal Harrowing" defines internal sadness, giving the audience ideas about the plot. 
• The 'villain' is the main character. The main character is also not a villain, the protagonist is fighting against herself. 
• The monster is not real, it is portrayed as a 'hallucination'. 

• PLOT STEREOTYPES
• Many Psychological films stereotype mental illnesses which wasn't my intent but in order to tell an interesting story, I had to follow some misconceptions about people with mental problems. To avoid much conflict, I restrained from revealing what type of mental illness the character has in any product's I've produced for my audience to avoid offending people who actually live with a particular type of mental illness.
• Women stereotype - cannot control their emotions. This plot stereotype was also not in my intentions since I wanted a female character to portray other stereotypes such as innocence. 
• 

• POSTER CONVENTIONS
• Main colour palette is blue, symbolising sadness.
• The main image is of the main character.
• The main character has various faces and different emotions (unpleasant) relating to the film title. The main face is emotionless.
• The main character is wearing a white dress, symbolizing innocence and purity.
• "Innocence is Destructive" Tagline. The sentence is an oxymoron. 
• The title is not in capital letters similarly to "The Silence of The Lambs" film. Lowercase words sound quieter and calmer than uppercase words. 
• The Tagline is all in capital letters, sounds harsh and aggressive.
• Extremely blue eyes to match with the colour palette and capture audience's attention.

• COUNTERTYPE (POSTER)
• The poster is a portrait of the main character from different angles showing extreme emotion (mental illness portrayed through an image).
• The protagonist fighting against herself is captured in that image.
• The positive 'emotion' in the center of an image, shows her fighting against herself around her normal expression - out of focus and lowered opacity. 

• MAGAZINE CONVENTIONS
• The style of the Masthead is established in big, bold, large red capital letters with a gradient from a light red to a darker shade of red. 
• The combination of 'Film' and 'Mix' - Filmix. Catchy, short and easy to remember. This name hints to the audience that there are different film related discussions in the magazine, a variety of topics. 
• The overall colour palette is blue, red and yellow/orange - interesting combination that works. The orange contrasts well with blue making the text stand out even more, I highlighted more important topics in yellow without overusing this colour. 
• Glowing Text Effect - captures attention and gives the magazine a more personal style which sets this magazine apart from other film magazines in the market.
• The image is the main character from "The Mortal Harrowing" - advertising the film.
• The magazine advertises the actor  "Behind the scenes, new actor: Reannah McNee" to build a fanbase and increase audience for the film.
• The magazine offers access to three films which are shown on at the bottom of the magazine (Sub-images) offering rewards to the audience in return for buying the magazine. 
• Advertising the "The Mortal Harrowing" on "Cover Line" on the left hand side.
• The 'model' matches the colour palette, is illuminated using blue light in the studio. 
• The magazine has good contrasts, everything is easy to read.
• Overall, the text is thin but capital letters are used to sound louder and more exciting.
• The Masthead is placed under the 'model' creating a better composition as there are more layerings on the magazine. This gives the audience an illusion that the subject is interacting with the environment.
• My Magazine features: a bar code, cover lines, masthead, dateline, top line, main cover line (Reannah McNee), secondary images, features, the main image, banner, and a buzzword "PLUS". This magazine also includes text font variation with additional effects such as "drop shadow" and "glow".

• COUNTERTYPE (MAGAZINE)
• The barcode is placed above the sub-images going against the typical magazine conventions.
• There is eye contact from the subject in the photograph. It engages with the reader and draws them in making it feel more personal.
• The sub images are slightly tilted upwards on the right hand side. Less symmetry makes the magazine look a lot more interesting.
• The background is extremely dark, unlike most magazines with light or a mid-tone for the background. 
• The magazine is a Halloween Edition, matching with the dark mood of the magazine. 
• Black and yellow bar on the left side making the magazine look more eye catching. 
• The cover line is located on the left hand side because an average person looks from left to right first. 
• The 'model' is expressionless, giving her a mysterious personality which matches well with the 'film'. 
• The glow around 'Sub-Images' appear to illuminate the 'model' from the bottom. The glow was edited in whilst the pink light on a 'model' was achieved through a studio light.