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

My film is called ‘One Life’, it is chosen from the inspiration of the films that were associated with self-discovery as that is the main topic of my film. I decided to choose these issues as I wanted to create a plot that is relatable for those between teenagers and young adults who are struggling with their own lives. I followed the typical conventions of a theatrical trailer by including the basic features such as institution and production companies, inter-titles, character introduction etc. I followed the conventions in order to achieve the trailer that I wanted to create; moreover I also had to include features of the romance drama genre to ensure that the trailer linked with the plot. My main inspiration for my trailer was from the existing film ‘Eat, Pray, Love.’ The film is based around a middle aged woman who wishes to discover herself through travelling to different countries and attempting to do activities and events she has never done before. The types of conventions that I followed from the romance drama genre, specifically from ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ was the linear narrative itself as my trailer is based around a young female character who wants to discover herself after struggling with her mental issues. The narrative for many romance dramas follow Todorov’s theory of equilibrium and disequilibrium, this is because the film always begins with the original state (equilibrium), discovers a disruption and then continues the rest of the film trying to resolve the problem. I was also inspired through the locations that the genre includes, it is mainly varied and especially with the plot of my film, I travelled to different locations in and around of London to capture different shots. Furthermore, with the use of the inter-titles in my trailer, I was inspired by a range of different films such as ‘Safe Haven’ and ‘The Light Between Oceans.’ I was mainly attracted to the fonts from these films as they all follow the conventions of a typical romance drama and have simple titles. This is as the main focus set on the trailers and even film posters is based around the scenes and images that are being presented to the audience. Therefore, by including such a simple font, it allows the attention to be drawn towards what is being show yet it still ensures that the audience acknowledge the inter-titles.

As mentioned previously, the main inspiration from the narrative came from ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ as I created my trailer to be based around self-discovery which was similar to the film. However, as the ages of the target audience were different, I also was inspired by another existing film ‘Blue is The Warmest Color.’ This is as despite the difference of the discovery that the female character wants to make in this film is based around her sexuality. However, the actresses were young and the issues mentioned are relevant in society for the future generation which is what I wanted to portray through my plot and trailer. The main characters in the film are also very alternative and do not conform to the stereotypes of typical teenage girls which is why I wanted to mirror their personalities into my character. This is achieved through the mise en scene as I purposely made my character be shown dressed in darker colours and the main aim was not to sexually objectify her as I didn’t want to draw away any attention from the plot. My aim was to create a complex character that would allow the audience to question her motives throughout the trailer so that they would become intrigued enough to want to continue watching. Furthermore, as touched upon, location was very important for my film especially from the inspiration I was taking from previous films. I attempted to try and film in different locations in and out of London as I wanted a selection of different shots from a variety of places, although not all of the footage I gathered was used, it was a fun experience for me to experiment with shots in different places.

All of the camerawork, editing, pace and sound for my trailer was influenced by the genre conventions, this is because it allowed me to have a reference when working. These aspects were the hardest for me as I wasn’t used to working individually when it came to filming however with the examples I was able to achieve the look for my trailer that I wanted. The pace is very short and snappy especially through the montage shots as they were showing the various locations, such as the point of view shots in Camden. The pace was so fast in order for the audience to acknowledge what they had seen so far and what was yet to come. This also relates to the sound, I wanted the whole trailer to be in line with the scenes and sound therefore I aligned them so they synced with one another. The sound was created by myself through the software GarageBand, it was a first experience but extremely fun, it allowed me to be in control of the music and how I introduced the different sounds to the audience. I previously had the sound throughout the entire trailer but after experimenting, I decided to incorporate parts of the diegetic sound from the shots. The sounds of the track and the diegetic sound adds emphasis onto what is going on in the scene which is why I thought it was a good effect to include. It was inspired by the film trailer ‘The Shallows’ which is a completely different genre to mine but in the trailer, the sound is emphasised and sharpened to increase tension. I then gained inspiration from this technique and recreated within my trailer so that the effect was to add importance on the scenes that were unfolding.

I had touched upon briefly on the ancillary tasks which were the film poster and the magazine cover, both link into my trailer as they all include my main character and I have kept all of my final products as simplistic as possible. Therefore, the products fit into the conventions of their media forms as I used examples from other posters and magazines in order to help me make a decision for my own. For the poster, I immediately drew inspiration from ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ but the image was very simple and I didn’t want to recreate just one image. Thus, resulting in why I decided to edit screenshots from the trailer onto my poster in order to attract the audience and ensure that the poster isn’t as plain as it was prior to editing it. Although, I did continue to take parts of it to help me structure my poster as I was uncertain on the placement of the title, taglines and social media information etc. So, I used the ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ poster as an outline for my own, this was also done for the magazine cover. I researched into different magazine companies and decided that ‘The Filmmaker’ was the best fit for my film although I did have uncertainties and attempted different covers such as ‘Sight & Sound’ but in the end I decided on the original company. The specific issue that I was heavily influenced by was the Summer 2012. Volume 4 #4 issue, it is the central image that caught my attention due to the close up of the woman. The majority of romance drama film magazines consist of the main character positioned directly in front of the camera and looking glamorous to indicate the sophistication of the company. Moreover, the main aim is to make the appearance of the actress seem a lot more different than it is presented in the trailer so it allows the audience to feel an intimacy with the actress as they seem her in a different setting. The magazine also has a fair ratio of photography to text as despite the fact that the central image takes up the majority of the cover, they have still included taglines and pugs to go around it. I decided to do the same for my cover and followed their colour palette as they fit the central image with the typography that they had included which is what I also did, the overall effect was that two synced with one another so the cover looked more professional.