Evaluation Task 1- In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop or Challenge Forms of Conventions from Real Media Products?

9 Frame Analysis Trailer

First Frame: Settings

 Frame one is of the school lockers. We decided to set the scene of a school early on in our trailer so it shows the vulnerability and realism of our trailer and how it is focused on realism and the audience can relate to it. The school setting helps the audience to feel empathy towards our trailer as children are a vulnerable group and every can relate to going to school.

This is a stereotypical setting for a psychological thriller in an empty school, however we did challenge the convention of fast pace editing in many phycological thrillers and we used quite a slow pace to help further build suspense to keep the audience guessing what happens next.

Second Frame: Props

I have chosen a close up of our main prop in our film to include in my 9 frame analysis as it is the most tense part of our film One of our main props within our trailer is the gun that we used. Although it is a fake gun what we used it looks very real which further adds to the realism of our film. It is very stereotypical of an antagonist in a phycological thriller to carry a gun. This helps to connotes death and danger which are stereotypical of this genre. Also school shootings are very current in todays world so therefore the audience would be able to relate to the plot of our film and therefore are more likely to want to go and watch the film after watching our trailer.

Third Frame: Empty Classrooms

Another setting we decided to include in our trailer was a panning shot of empty classrooms, as we felt this was effective in helping to convey the psychological thriller genre. As it connoted emptiness and loneliness which helps the audience understand that something bad is going to happen.

Its also a countertype of a normal school setting as instead of the classrooms being filled with joy they are silent which is abnormal and suggests something is wrong and help further build tension. We also used a slider when filming this shot which helped add to the quality of our filming by keeping it steady which helped to make it look more professional.

Fourth Frame: Film Poster

I decided to use my film poster as my fourth frame as it was one of my additional ancillary tasks that synergized my film trailer for The Final Bell. I believe that the main photo I used for my main image conforms with many stereotypical conventions of real film posters. Using a long shot of the antagonist is very conventional for psychological thrillers. To help further emphasise my main character who is the school shooter in my trailer I decided to duplicate the image and use the gradient tool to fade the image and place it behind the original image.

To also further emphasis the main  images I put them in black and white to help add to the low key lighting effect that I used throughout all my media texts. This helped to synergise and connote the low mood in the school which helps show the eerie atmosphere throughout. I also included institutional information on my poster which helps the audience recognise star characters and previous films the film company have produced. 

Fifth Frame: Antagonist In Balaclava

I decided to use this shot of the antagonist with the balaclava on as it is very effective in conveying the psychological thriller genre. We decided by putting the main character in a balaclava it conveyed to the audience straight away that he is the antagonist and he is about to commit a crime from which he wants to hide his identity from. A balaclava helps to convey danger and crime which are all stereotypically in psychological thrillers.

This shot also shows the school shooter walking gingerly down the empty school corridors with his bag with a gun inside. This is where the suspense in the film increases rapidly and the music greats dramatically faster as the audience are left guessing what happens next

Sixth Frame: Film Magazine

My magazine cover is also stereotypical of a physiological thriller magazine as I fore fronted the antagonist and used a straight on mid shot to emphasis his main role in my trailer. However I challenged the typical conventions of physiological thriller as in our trailer the antagonist was wearing a black balaclava which hid his face. However for my magazine cover I decide to reveal his identity. which can help the audience to realize he is just a school boy who is innocent.

Seventh Frame: Antagonist Chasing School Pupil

The seventh frame is one of the most effective as it is taken from one of the most tense part in our trailer which is where the school shooter finds a pupil in the empty corridors and chases him until he trips. This is a stereotypical scene in a psychological thriller as you often see the protagonist being followed or chases by the antagonist. We also dressed our antagonist in all black with a balaclava on to make him seem more scary which further added to the build up tense scenes towards the end of our trailer.

Eighth Frame: Ratings

We included the ratings of our film from different newspapers which is a stereotypical convention of many pyscological thrillers. As it can help the audience to realise the film is of good quality and that they want to go and watch it. As when the audience recognises that top named newspapers have seen and rated our film highly they will be expecting to see a good quality film.

Ninth frame: Our Title

 The first frame of my analysis is our choice of film title, The Final Bell, and how this is presented in our trailer. We chose this title as it gives a direct insight into our plot, as a bell can signify school and we used the word final to signify the last time the children will hear the bell before the shooting. In my research I discovered that psychological thrillers the topic of school shootings is used as it gives an insight into realism and current affairs. In my research I also discovered many films are set in schools as children are a vulnerable group in society so are the perfect protagonist for a psychological thriller.

Our title does challenge the stereotypical conventions of many phycological thrillers as we only used 3 words in ours. However many trailers and films only use one or two words such as Taken, Gone girl and Severn. However we felt that our title really connoted our trailer and allowed the reader to self consciously realise what our film is about without having to watch it. Therefore we outweighed the disadvantages and decided the 3 word title was effective and worked for us.

As a group deciding on our font was the trickiest element for us all to decide on. However in the end we decided the impact font was the most effective for our trailer. I used the same font across all my media texts to help create synergy across the different elements which further promotes our film. I decided that the impact font fitted perfectly with the physiological horror genre whilst also matching our plot of school shootings. Our font stands out and is bold it can also connote school and lessons.