Question 1

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

Trailer

The aim of our trailer was to successfully construct an engaging piece that stuck with the general conventions of a thriller film; we wanted the audience to feel empathy for all characters featured in the trailer, however we wanted them to feel confusion asking questions such as; ‘why has this happened? Who is the victim? Why has he done that? What’s going on? ... These questions could inevitably persuade or entice the viewers to want to see the entire film.

This is easily achieved by the number of different shots and angles we’d used throughout our trailer, each shot was properly thought out so that slight suggestions were made of the location, the narrative, the status of each character, emotion, time period and age. 

This shot was used to establish the area of the victims route, thriller films usually begin locations that are very similar to regular people to reinforce the idea of 'anything can happen' ... I believe a regular setting that creates familiarity would entice viewers to want to watch the entire film because some elements are easily relate-able. The setting could suggest that anything is able to happen, even in the least expected areas. This doesn't massively give-away the thriller genre because we wanted the viewers to guess what was to come. I believe this is a useful shot because it clearly establishes the area we intended to promote as an area of crime, however it also suggests the time period that the scene is in as we alternated from the 1990's to 2014 in every scene shown within the trailer. 
This shot also establishes what sort of female the victim is as people are easily able to identify the sort of person they may be from the clothing and fashion. This is effective in this sense because the long shot clearly shows that the victim is just a normal young female, she has not been victimised because of a provocative fashion because she is covered up. Overall I believe the shot to be efficient due to the surroundings and female victim (e.g. the car acts as a suggestion for the time period, the clothing suggests the traits of the girl), this could be useful in terms of visual suggestions.

We specifically used this transition because we wanted to imply that within the window of the standard house the victim was tied up and caged upon it. This transition bettered our trailer because it differed from the previous dissolving transitions I'd specifically put throughout the trailer, it provided a visual in-sight that the victim was within the the bedroom that the window looked out from. Audience feedback was generally positive from this transition and they had understood the idea of why we'd used it within our trailer, however the framing of the shot wasn't perfect and some of the window had been cut off. However to overcome this, with the additional improved skills I'd developed in iMovie I now knew how to battle this. I simply clicked onto a tool that would zoom into the chosen scene as much or as little as I needed, the overall effect of using this tool had bettered our product because the framing looked deliberate and not much window was cut off as we understand how important the framing is. 

We established the relationship of father and daughter through the use of the camera shots and angles, this was effective as these scenes provided visual evidence of how close their bond was. The shot had also enabled the setting to be exposed, a playing park also reinforces the idea of happiness and how the father made attempts to bond with his daughter. 

Using these scenes were useful and actually exploited the narrative of the film because the precious locket was always visible and it exposed a male of the same build (who later commits the abduction) with his daughter; this is for the viewers to interlink each scene with each other to summarise their idea of what the films about.

A close up shot of the locket was vital as this was the key narrative of the film, it's effective because it successfully shows off the locket that the victim in the later scene is also wearing. Not only does it do this but it also exposes the time period it was taken in as the actors Converse is also present, and from further research; was very popular during the 1990's. 

We used this as a point of view shot as it was taken from a low angle, this is effective because when we see someone of higher authority and power we usually 'look up' to them, this provides an indication of how powerful the male abductor is. 

Using my developed skills in iMovie I had added a special effect called 'flash and hold last frame'... this incorporated a 'camera shot' effect; as if someone had taken a picture of it. This shot was valuable as the audience would now link the locket from the past scene to this one, and hopefully understand the narrative better. 

This scene was used as another point of view shot to reinforce the idea of being watched, this promotes the conventions of a thriller film as point of view shots are presented to either show fear of a character. I believe this to be a useful shot because it shows the abductor to be concious of who's watching him and how every so often he'll peer out his window in search of his daughters return to reinforce the idea of his mental instability. 

We purposely used a slow motion special effect on this scene so that the viewers come to grips with the baby carrier being empty and that this was a trap to lure the abduction. The next scene was purposely sped up because she was being abducted at this scene, we wanted to visually imply that this was quick and simple, it also reinforces the idea of danger so I believe these scenes to be one of the most effective scenes within our trailer. 

We even deeply considered the text we'd use throughout, we used the effect that appeared and then gradually faded out. I believe this adds to the mystery of the trailer. Each piece of text provided a main director or where the film was from or a tag line that acted as a give-away for the film. We included things like 'A father is supposed to never give up' on one and then after a specific scene of the father and daughter bonding we'd continue with 'and Jason never did...'. This provides evidence of the narrative of the film and gives visual suggestions of what's happening. I believe the black text screens are very effective as they do present an idea of what's happening in the trailer and including things such as 'NEW LINE CINEMA PRESENTS' shows the professionalism of our trailer. .  

We even deeply considered the text we'd use throughout, we used the effect that appeared and then gradually faded out. I believe this adds to the mystery of the trailer. Each piece of text provided a main director or where the film was from or a tag line that acted as a give-away for the film. We included things like 'A father is supposed to never give up' on one and then after a specific scene of the father and daughter bonding we'd continue with 'and Jason never did...'. This provides evidence of the narrative of the film and gives visual suggestions of what's happening. I believe the black text screens are very effective as they do present an idea of what's happening in the trailer and including things such as 'NEW LINE CINEMA PRESENTS' shows the professionalism of our trailer. 

This was a very short clip and was only included to provide evidence that the child was abducted, however the true story was that the mother had abducted her child back, this would have been revealed in the whole film. This wasn't the best scene to use within the trailer because it does present a massive give-away to the film, however we wanted to include it to engage the audience further so that they were confused and questioning who had actually captured the young child and why. This improves the quality of the film because it does essentially create mystery and does make the audience want to see the film. 

The framing wasn't amazing in this scene because we didn't know how effective it would have been when piecing the trailer together. We needed to follow our actresses movement on the playing item however when filming we kept the camera still. We should have re-took this shot however with the limited time we'd left ourselves it was merely impossible, however we had overcome this by using a special effect on iMovie the tool allowed the shot to be zoomed in as much or as little as needed. By slightly zooming out it made a huge impact on the scene and made the framing slightly better. The shot also included features of the chosen setting and the all important pendant, this created a more effective opening of the trailer as it showed the child actress wearing the beloved pendant. 

These scenes were important and represented the fact that she was later going to be taken from him. To achieve this I'd used a special effect to reverse the entire scene, I wanted to include this and paired with audience feedback it remained because people thought it was effective as it slightly foresaw what was to come. 

This was an effective scene and I believe the scenery reinforced thriller conventions because they're usually within a dark, mysterious and eerie setting. 

To add to the elements which we'd adopted from real products I believe that our media product is a good example of following thriller conventions, it clearly shows how we've applied our knowledge to our product.