Ben’s Blog

Real teaser trailers usually feature footage from the film that they are promoting, a trailer certificate (or something to say it has been approved for all audiences), film company logos, a release date (or coming soon), and sound (which can be in the form of music, dialogue or sound effects).

The teaser trailer that I edited, involving putting together and editing footage uses these conventions: footage from what would be the film if it was real, a trailer certificate (12A from the BBFC), film company logos (Universal & Dolby Digital), a ‘coming soon’ and sound in the form of a rock song. So this means that the trailer that I edited does use the forms and conventions of a real trailer. The lyrics in the song heard at the start of the song “Let the bodies hit the floor” are relevant to what happens in the footage as the killer attacks the victim, bringing his body to the floor. Plus I worked it so that the whispering vocal at the start, which progresses to a screaming vocal “Floor” and rock instruments come in at exactly the time of the victim attack, and it continues through the dramatic attacking flashes/footage that follow until the end where it cuts off after the coming soon. I think this develops conventions because it is not just putting in rock music because it fits the footage, but has lyrical relevance as well, relating to what is about to happen in the trailer. The trailer does not really challenge conventions/forms of real trailers however since some songs in real films/trailers used would also probably have lyrical relevance to the footage and it uses real trailer features such as ‘coming soon’.

Real teaser posters (HP example above ^) & Wolverine example @ http://newsinfilm.com/images//2009/01/wolverine-teaser-poster.jpg feature some or all of these things: picture(s), text, a release date (or coming soon, 2010, etc…), website, film company logo’s, the title of the film (or the rough title as in the Harry Potter example above the actual film title is “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” but this teaser poster calls it “HP6″) and actor names. My teaser poster uses these features and does not challenge these forms/conventions although it does slightly challenge by having a different background on the title/actor names area so it is deliberately not completely consistent, with the purpose being to make the title stand out (most film posters have a completely consistent background). But apart from that it is using conventions of teaser posters without challenging or developing. Here is an annotated picture of my poster below to show the conventions I have featured in my poster:

Real film magazines always (or at least all I have seen) feature picture(s), a barcode, film magazine title, price, issue number, release date, features and a website (as can be seen above in an example of an Empire magazine front cover featuring Harry Potter above). My music magazine features and therefore uses these conventions as I will show with an annotated picture of my magazine below. My magazine also uses the form/convention of having someone on the front cover, opposed to a location (for example a river).

I annotated my magazine (as you can see above) to show the conventions I have used on it. As well as using I have also developed by making the price on my magazine a special limited price of £2 (cheaper than professional film magazines I have seen). This is because my fictional magazine would be the first issue of “Film Now” and I wanted it to be cheaper than regular to introduce it and make people more likely to buy it (as an established film magazine like Empire for example would have a fanbase that buy the magazine whenever published, and a new magazine would be a risk but some people may take at nearly half the price). I have never seen this limited price thing on a film magazine, so I have developed the pricing system of film magazines.

I have challenged forms/conventions on the magazine through the picture that I chose. Although I have used the form/convention of people opposed to locations or anything else being featured on the magazine, I challenged it by not featuring the full face of the person, creating mystery whereas film magazines I have seen clearly feature the person (eg: Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter). So I have done something different and changelled the normal, but not being extremely different by featuring a tree on the set of a film or something for example which would most likely not be a good method to sell the magazine.