Avanish Bhopal

We found that from research, The equalizer, A Team and Limitless had conventions such as non diegetic sound, special effects and pace, these were all essential for the type of genre we had picked. Our media products represent the stereotype of Crime Thriller, this is evident from the factors of money, crime and power.

Our poster does represent the typical conventions of what a crime thriller poster should like look; due to the fact that it has the dark colour scheme to connote the dark, dangerous feel to the product and replicates other successful poster such as The Dark Knight Rises and Revolver.

From looking at our poster, it does convey a lot of traits that the poster should have. For example, the dark colour scheme and the font style of the title. However, I do think that some aspects do challenge the conventions such as the placement of the main character Danny positioned in the middle, the contrast of the image should have been different in order for it to blend more like the Revolver poster.

When looking at magazines such as Inception and A Team it did help us identify what was needed such as the composition of the image and the layout of the magazine. The Inception magazine helped us know that the main image should take up the full page and with applied this to our own magazine as well as the placement of the magazine name.

I think that my magazine does conform to the conventions of a typical professional magazine, this is because of the layout, straplines and composition of the image. However, on the other hand I do think that it does challenge the conventions of a real media product to a certain extent as the red filter does not represent how a crime thriller genre should to look. Moreover, I think it looks as if he is sun burnt,we got this feedback from the target audience; however, overall they expressed they did like the magazine and would be intrigued by it.

We looked at three films that were Crime Thrillers; Limitless, A Team and The Equalizer and used them as the ideal end professional product, we watched all three films trailers and used the trailer, poster and magazines all as inspiration and guidelines. Alongside additional poster and magazine examples in the same genre. Mise en scene, sound, camera and editing did help us develop our media product as the research helped portray the typical conventions of a Crime Thriller for our own trailer.

The inter-titles were there in order to display to the audience what was going on and to make them feel as if they were part of the experience. For example, the storyline; we used this to display when the film would be released, what the plot would be, as shown below. There will be one final game with a high stake of £100,000. This did challenge the conventions as it is not typical for a crime thriller to guide the audience as it is self explanatory, however, we felt that it was needed the storyline was complex. When mind mapping for ideas of our title, we found that high stakes was best as it suits the genre and plot so clearly as it involved a high stake that had to be wagered and won.

The costume for the actors in our trailer were determined because of the storyline, explaining that Danny was a student who has a poker addiction, so we thought casual clothes would suit fine as it was partly based in a school. However, because our plot challenged the stereotype of a poker trailer as we starred a student, we had to use costume which represented he was a teenage. In comparison to Revolver, the plot contained a character much older and therefore this is why it uses more formal clothing.

When experimenting with the editing software we found that using a black and white filter at the beginning of the film gave it a better look, this was due to the fact it connoted that it was a flash back and this was the look we were going for. From our research we found that there was natural lighting used for particular scenes which were in a natural ordinary environment. For example, Limitless used natural lighting in a bar. This is why I think that our trailer did conform to the conventions of a real media product.

The acting of my main character in my trailer was a let down due to the fact that the facial expresses in scenes did not promote how it should have looked and rather just did not fit in with what the character should be like. However, the emotionless facial expression in the poker scene did express what Danny was feeling in that clip. However, when picking up the mobile phone for a call he did not sound as worried as he should have been that his sister had been kidnapped. This is why I feel that it challenged the convention of what acting should be like in a real professional trailer.

I feel that other characters such as the bouncer and the loan shark played a good part in the film and showed aggression when needed and looked realistic. I feel that this helped form a realistic media product. The loan shark is in the black and white image below strangling Danny.

For our trailer we used props appropriate to our genre, this was things like vast amounts of money, poker chips and cards. Even though we did not use any weapons we did use scenes to express violence and danger, therefore giving a sneak preview of what the actual film holds.

The settings played a big part to how the trailer looked. This was as a result of finding dark and dingy places. For instance, we found two places which were ideal as it conveyed the stereotypical dangerous places the scene would normally take place. From our research this was needed for our trailer to fit into the conventions of a Crime Thriller. However, scenes in the school environment did challenge the conventions but was essential for the development of the storyline and plot.

The Dark Knight Rises Trailer

The choice of music was effective for the trailer overall as it created a buzz and we combined scenes in particular places in order for the beat to drop on that scene for more of an emphasis. In addition, we found that the music/soundtrack uplifted the trailer and but it gave off a subtle feel for the criminal actions which in contrast worked well, this was mentioned in our focus group feedback. As a final point this did challenge the genre but effectively worked. When researching into Crime Thriller, it was seen that a lot of short scenes were included to speed up the pace of the trailer and engage the audience. However, we did not do this and that’s what I think let the trailer down, it could have used more clean cut shots and at a much faster pace like the Limitless trailer. In addition, I feel that the shots could have been broken down better to introduce the characters for the audience. However, I feel that the camera shots taken such as the close ups and medium close ups worked well. Meanwhile from feedback we found that the point of view shot did not work well and the target audience felt there was no need for it. Even though the trailer did challenge the conventions of a real media product, I do think that the shots worked well and overall gave off a good insight to the film.