In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge

forms and conventions of real media products?

HOW WE USED CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTSTHE POSTER

We used the convention we had seen in many coming of age film posters, the characters being in the centre of the frame or the main focus of the poster. This is to show that the film concentrates more on the development of the characters than the development of the narrative.

The use of the plural words in the film title’s, “club”, “children” and “kings” gives a sense of belonging which is conventional of coming of age films and it also suggested possible narrative plots to the audience. We used this idea in our film title by making it “birds” and “bees” instead of “bird” and bee”.

When we did our product research, we noticed most of the posters had a background including either a location or a pale/gradient of colours, we used both of these ideas by making the sky gradient into the location shot. Again, this convention brings more attention to the characters in the foreground of the poster.

We used the motif of the flower crown in a subtle way within our poster to intrigue the audience as to why it is there and also suggest the meeting of another important character within the film. It also suggested narrative theme, and this was also seen in Electrik Children as there is a music tape included in the film title.

HOW WE USED CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTSMAGAZINE COVERS

We looked at Little White Lies as inspiration for our magazine covers because it is an independent film magazine, appealing to an indie audience, similarly to ours. We were inspired by the rule of 3 used in the title of the magazine, 'Little White Lies' and used this in our title.We were originally unsure whether to use the title 'Cutting Room Floor' as we didn't feel it was catchy enough although we really liked the reference it had to the pieces of film that are unused, giving it the meaning of exclusive content.

However, when we reevaluated it, we noticed 'Little White Lies' had the same syllables in the wording of our title and used this technique, we found that our title appealed to our target audience.

To appeal to our indie audience, we used the idea of focusing on the actors and characters rather that the actual film and its production values. That's why we placed the actors largely in the centre of the covers, similar to the copy shown of 'Filmmaker' with the female actress.

HOW WE USED CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTSTRAILER

We saw that most coming of age trailers had an establishing shot as the first shot of the trailer. We used this convention as we wanted to introduce the storyline with an establishing shot in order for the narrative to be clearer to the audience.

The first shot of Submarine shows introduces the location with the establishing shot of the Welsh seaside.

The title slates we used were typical of a coming of age film as we used the rule of three in the slogan for our film. By putting the slogan slates at the end of the trailer it tied in the narrative and the message of the film so the audience were able to understand this clearly.

- State of innocence- A problem is revealed- Meeting with helper/mentor- Refusal of mentor/problem from protagonist- Quest/Body of story- Struggles with resolving the problem- Complications with resolving the problem/deeper meaning- Climax - Reward And finally and probably most importantly to coming of age films - the TRANSFORMATION and INDIVIDUATION of the protagonist. The 'self journey'.

We used the narrative structure typically seen in coming of age films:

We also added a romantic element which is often seen in coming of age films as the target audience are able to relate to the situations of the characters. However, I feel that the romantic element came across too strongly in the trailer and so made it seem more of a romantic comedy, rather than a coming of age film.

HOW WE DEVELOPED CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS

MAGAZINE COVERS

We noticed that the covers often incorporated an artistic element to the image and we were inspired to develop this idea and so we altered the images of our actors so both black and white and colour were used.

We developed the convention of focusing on the actors by making two magazine covers, one for each of our main characters. This added the element of the audience being able to choose their favourite which overall meant we were targeting our indie audience by using the actor's as a selling point for our film.

We developed the feature of having a simplistic and minimalistic layout of an independent film magazine cover as we kept the image large and in the centre, with the title small. The typewriter text we used for the title gave it a homemade feel, appealing to our audience. However, we included some features of a mainstream cover such as the banner and another article extract. This meant that we were able to appeal to an indie audience by featuring other independent films as well as our own.

HOW WE DEVELOPED CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTSTRAILER

We mainly developed the conventions of a coming of age film by casting various ethnic groups to our main characters. As we found from our product research that character's in this genre tend to be predominantly from a British/American White background, for example 'Elektric Children', 'The Breakfast Club' and 'Submarine'.

By using different ethnicities we were still presenting the conventional male/female protagonist set up but making it more realistic as it is set in London, a very multicultural city.

We developed the conventions of the soundtrack as although we followed through the use of an indie/upbeat acoustic genre, we didn't include any vocals which are usually seen in coming of age films as the 'anthem' of the film (such as David Bowies, 'Heroes' in 'Perks of Being A Wallflower'). However, we felt that creating our own lyrics wouldn't have necessarily worked with the shots in our trailer but the genre was enough to create the same desired atmosphere.

HOW WE CHALLENGED CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTSTHE POSTER

We challenged the convention of using a location for the background of our poster. We often saw a rural location in coming of age posters but as our film is set in South London we subverted the conventional settings of the genre with a grittier edge to the location, making it more independent as a film which is what we had planned to make.

We challenged the convention of a coming of age poster including all the main protagonists in the centre by only including Finn on his own. We also challenged this convention by having the mainstream feature of billing and links to websites, social media and production logos etc at the bottom which isn't seen conventionally in coming of age posters, especially not independant ones.

Kings of Summer poster doesn't include billing or social media links.

We also challenged conventions by having the actor's names at the top of the poster, this is often seen in mainstream films but we felt that it fitted nicely with the composition of Finn sitting on one side of the bench and Lexa's flower crown on the other. Again, promoting the actor's and not primarily the narrative or production of the film.

HOW WE DEVELOPED CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS

THE POSTERWe developed the conventions by using one of our main characters in the middle of the poster but using a motif to symbolise our other main character instead of including her in it directly.

We used the bench as a way of showing the romance aspect of the film as it's often used as a meeting place. However, we developed this idea and did it implicitly with only using Finn and the flower crown to suggest a female character.

We also developed the conventions by incorporating both a coloured gradient background with a backdrop. A gradient/plain coloured background is seen in many coming of age posters such as 'Elektric Children' and 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower'. A backdrop relating to the film is seen in the poster for 'Son of Ranbow. We used both these features by adding a gradient to the top of the poster, bringing the focus down to the clear picture of the protagonist on the bench which is one of the main settings.

HOW WE CHALLENGED CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS

MAGAZINE COVERSWe challenged the conventions of a independent film magazine as we included extracts from interview's with the actor's on the cover, which is often seen in mainstream magazine's to draw attention to the well known cast. However, we wanted to draw attention to how our actor's are up and coming or well known only in the independent film industry.We also challenged the conventions as we had a small masthead, which is usually seen spread across the width of the page. This meant that the attention of the audience was focused on the actor's and so they wouldn't be distracted by the details of the title.

Indie magazine's are often minimalistic, for example 'Gorilla' and 'Little White Lies' film magazine, don't include any exclusivities of the content on the cover. We challenged this by keeping it minimalistic but adding an extract from the main story and a cover line about another film of a similar genre which is often done with mainstream film magazines to promote other films.

HOW WE CHALLENGED CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTSTRAILER

We challenged the conventions of real media products in our trailer in order to make it individual from other coming of age films. We did this by using the location as a key feature for portraying the indie coming of age genre. As coming of age films are typically seen set in middle class suburbs, we challenged this by subverting the location and setting it in urban and gritty South West London surroundings.

Although we used warm tones at the beginning of our trailer, we challenged the use of this through out the trailer (often seen in coming of age films) by having low lighting in the outside scenes. It was also a happy accident as it was raining when we filmed this shot and so the grey sky and buildings highlighted this.Warm toned shots from the

trailer Kings of Summer compared to our warmer shots.

The character's presented aren't presented in the conventional way of being middle class living in wealthy area which challenges the coming of age genre.