Explore the genre and conventions of your chosen media text. How do you plan to adhere to or develop these conventions?
My chosen media text is a film trailer. There are many conventions in this area as there's so many trailers available to see. During the research stage i focused on 8 different trailers. The genre of these trailers where either comedy or action, with one being a mix of both. These genres are the most widely used in the film industry and so have the most conventions.The trailers I watched and analysed were Kick-Ass 2, Fast & Furious 6, Oblivion, After Earth, World War Z, The Internship and The English Teacher.
Throughout all of these trailers I saw many conventions that were very vivid. The main one I saw was the use of the main famous actor as a selling point. The two trailers that this was very obvious in was After Earth and Oblivion. Will Smith in After Earth was in pretty much every shot shown and was used to attempt to bring more audience who are fans of him in. The same technique was used in Oblivion with Morgan Freeman and Tom Cruise, them both being shown in almost every shot. This technique was also used in World War Z and a few others. This technique is very effective in the way that it brings in more audience because if the actor is very famous then all of his fans would come and see the film he's in. This works quite well not in just getting people to come and see it but in reviews as well because most actors take on similar roles to their previous ones so the fans coming to see the film would enjoy the film as it would be similar to ones they've seen before with the actor in. In my product I could adhere to this conventions by using one of my actors in most of the shots and having his name enter the screen on it's own at a pivotal point in the trailer.
Another way in which they sold the film was mentioning the institutions behind it. They usually try and mention the biggest ones behind it to bring it the most attention. An example of this is Kick-Ass 2 in which they mention Universal is behind it in the trailer but it isn't until the end that they also mention about Plan B and Marv Films, who are less well known and there isn't point mentioning them earlier on. World War Z also mentions it's institutions but decides to put them all up one by one after another during the trailer at a key turning point. The idents are usually shown right at the start or right at the end. This helped sell the film because a lot of people know about institutions such as Universal even if they don't really know what the company does beyond making some famous films. Mentioning that institutions such as Plan B and Marv Films are behind the film as well could be beneficial because some film goers might want to help out less well-known institutions and some frequent indie film goers might already know these institutions and like the type of films they produce. It gives the audience a sort of idea as to what kind of film it's going to be just by looking at the institutions behind it. In my product I could develop this conventions by having my own institutions flash up at the start or at the end of the product mentioning a variety of indie-type institutions to appeal to that type of audience and give an impression to what my film is going to be like.
A more obvious way in which they sold the film was by making the plot line clear and explaining the story background well. They all did this in different ways all of which I could adhere to. The trailer of Kick-Ass 2 and Oblivion establishes the storyline through the use of the voice-over. Where as Fast & Furious 6 and World War Z tells it via the use of dialog and scenes. I could have either of these techniques in my product however as it's harder to do a voice-over I think I would be leaning more towards telling the story via dialog and scenes.
A convention that seems simple but was part of every single film was establishing the genre. This was done by for instance the use of jokes in the comedy genre, an example of this being Kick-Ass 2 in which the genre is shown by the music stopping then the punchline of a joke is heard and then the music starts again, which is used in many films. Another example is the use of scenes with explosions and fast cars in the action genre for instance in the trailer for Fast & Furious 6 which contains many scenes with fast cars and explosions. One final example for establishing the genre in this kind of way is in Oblivion and After Earth which establish the genre of both of these as Drama/Sci-Fi by the use of props that look futuristic and the use of space scenes and tense close ups.
Another convention which they use in some of the trailers is adding extra selling points by for instance saying "From the director of -insert a successful film here-". An example of this is in Oblivion in which it says "From the producers of Rise of the Planet of the Apes". I could adhere to this convention in my product by saying something similar to this however because of copyright reasons would have to make up the title of a film that's meant to be successful.
In conclusion there are many different conventions used in these trailers that I could adhere to the main ones being the use of main actors and the introduction of the institutions behind the film. It would be easy to adhere to these conventions and would definitely help my product look like a normal film trailer and potentially bring in more audience if I were to release the trailer properly.
A more obvious way in which they sold the film was by making the plot line clear and explaining the story background well. They all did this in different ways all of which I could adhere to. The trailer of Kick-Ass 2 and Oblivion establishes the storyline through the use of the voice-over. Where as Fast & Furious 6 and World War Z tells it via the use of dialog and scenes. I could have either of these techniques in my product however as it's harder to do a voice-over I think I would be leaning more towards telling the story via dialog and scenes.
A convention that seems simple but was part of every single film was establishing the genre. This was done by for instance the use of jokes in the comedy genre, an example of this being Kick-Ass 2 in which the genre is shown by the music stopping then the punchline of a joke is heard and then the music starts again, which is used in many films. Another example is the use of scenes with explosions and fast cars in the action genre for instance in the trailer for Fast & Furious 6 which contains many scenes with fast cars and explosions. One final example for establishing the genre in this kind of way is in Oblivion and After Earth which establish the genre of both of these as Drama/Sci-Fi by the use of props that look futuristic and the use of space scenes and tense close ups.
Another convention which they use in some of the trailers is adding extra selling points by for instance saying "From the director of -insert a successful film here-". An example of this is in Oblivion in which it says "From the producers of Rise of the Planet of the Apes". I could adhere to this convention in my product by saying something similar to this however because of copyright reasons would have to make up the title of a film that's meant to be successful.
In conclusion there are many different conventions used in these trailers that I could adhere to the main ones being the use of main actors and the introduction of the institutions behind the film. It would be easy to adhere to these conventions and would definitely help my product look like a normal film trailer and potentially bring in more audience if I were to release the trailer properly.
