In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products (1)

In order to have done my course work, I had to make sure it was to look as authentic as possible. It involved reasearch in terms of how realistic my film poster, magazine cover and teaser trailer looked. My task was completed if people thought that this looked real. For my genre I decided to choose teenage comedy.

In order to have made this possible however, I had to begin first by researching the difference between theatrical trailers and teaser trailers. I noticed in my resarch the fundamental differences not only that teaser trailers were much breifer and shorter than theatrical trailers but also what kind of film they are, not just with genre but also whether they are big budget or not. The comparisons can be found in research. 

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts

The idea of my course work is to get the teaser trailer, magazine cover and film poster all related to each other. By relation I refer to the presentation of the same film. Regardless to genre and before even getting down to the idea of Jimmy USA, the principal was to make sure that they were all related to the film I would be doing for my course work.

Here is an example of a mainstream film teaser trailer, magzazine cover and film poster:

The Amazing Spiderman Teaser Trailer 

This is my final Film Poster Magazine and Teaser Trailer 

What was so effective about my main product was how (as I said before) was all related into one cause. Jimmy USA was publicized with the use of having Oscar Brody (fictional actor name) who played Jimmy USA in the front cover of all my publications.

I associated Oscar Brody with huge relations towards America. For instance as you in the teaser trailer, Oscar is a mad patriotic American as you can see on his T-shirt:

I ordered this T-shirt from Amazon because I thought that this shirt would help epitomize the personality of Jimmy USA, best associating himself with American pride by using this Shirt.








With the poster, I had also associated the Film Poster with an American flag.

Evaluation on Magazine research

As mentioned before in my research, there is a significant difference between MAINSTREAM magazines and INDEPENDENT magazines. Mainstream magazines would always tend to have a central dominant image of an actor that starred in the film. Independent magazines on the other hand however would tend to have a director or crew member on their magazine cover which are usually "unheard".

I chose to have a mainstream magazine, not only because I chose my teaser traielr to be presented as mainstream but also because I felt that it would show an easy connection with a mainstream magazine of a main character of my teaser trailer. 

But regardless to any type of magazine, whether it was independedt or mainstream, comedy or horror, I had to have taken into account the conventions of a magazine in their layout and design. The most essential ones were:

• Masthead 
• Date
• Issue Number 
• Banners 
• Bar Code 
• Price

Each of these conventions would develop my media product as a real media product. Here are some screenshots of these conventions from my magazine:

MASTHEAD, DATE, ISSUE NUMBER, PRICE AND SLOGAN

I noticed in my research that in most magazines, these conventions would tend to appear together. I also happened to have noticed that half of the slogan tends to be covered up by the dominant central image. In fi




BANNERS 

Evaluation on Media Technologies:

I used a tripod with the camera in order to get the panning, tilting and tracking to occur. Here in this photo, I am preparing for the scene when Jimmy USA walks into college. Due to the rain I had to use an umbrella.  

AVID

I used the software Avid as my movie making tool to create my teaser trailer

This was used to help me store my files

The tool I used where I could gather all my shots I had filmed and the shots I could select when making my film

This was so I could construct my effects with the footage together

 With the use of photoshop, I was able to create my poster by having this special crop out tool. Notice that as you click on the screen, there is a hightlight around the character. That was how I croped him out.

And now he is cropped out ready to be used for the title.

These lines helped center out my background

(2)........... Teaser Conventions and Genres

To essentially make my teaser convention look authentic and realistic I had to go through a list of
conventions such as:



FILM TITLE





Originally I came up with other potential fonts:

BILLING (steel tongs)

However in order to have made sure my media product looked authentic and realistic I turned the billings and credit to the same font the film title. I noticed in my research that credits and billing in teaser trailers tend to have the same font as the film title.

Company Logos 

Evaluation- Audience Feedback

After I had completed all three of course work media projects I came up with a list of questions concerning my course works.


MAGAZINE FEEDBACK: 

1. Do the conventions of my magazine make it look authentic? 
2. Should I have my central dominant image in character or out of character?
3. Does my magazine relate well to the teaser trailer and poster?
4. Should I have a colour scheme? 

The feed back I got from the audience was that I should have my character as Oscar Brody rather than Jimmy USA. Indeed they were right. Most of my researched magazines tend to have characters portayed as the actor. Also the use of colour scheme helped my magazine stand out more with the use of different colour banners. Also the conventions of my magazine did indeed help my magazine look authentic EG Barcode and banner use. 

TEASER TRAILER FEEDBACK: 

1. Do the conventions of my teaser trailer make the authenticity stand out?
2. Did the main character show a lot of relevance to America?
3. Did my teaser trailer show significant relevance to my poster and magazine 
4. Did the use of crops help my teaser trailer in terms of genre? 

The feedback I got from the audience was that regardless to how good the actor's accent was, in general he has been portrayed well as an American Stereotype. In particular, it was very helpful to have that shirt with the American flag on it. It helped portray the characteristics of his American being. 

FILM POSTER FEEDBACK: 

1. Do the conventions of the poster make it look like a mainstream film? 
2. Was the background in particular eye catchy? 
3. Did I have sufficient amount of conventions to make my poster look authentic 
4. Did my poster look relevant and significant in comparison to my teaser trailer and magazine? 

The answers I usually got were that the conventions were laid out well to make it look like as if it were a real poster. Furthermore it was a good idea to use the background as an American flag and make it standout. 

Magazine layouts and planning

Offical Teaser Trailer- Jimmy USA

My Poster

Potential music for my teaser trailer

My course work requires music in the background, prefiably non-digetic. Here the following tracks that could be potential for my teaser trailer:

American Idiot- Green Day  

Teenage Dirtbag- Wheatus

I don't want to miss a thing- Aerosmith 

Hero- Enrique Inglesias

Good Charlotte- The Anthem 

Born in the USA- Bruce Springsteen


Of the songs I chose for my teaser trailer were (in order of apperance)

1. The Anthem 
2. Teenage Dirtbag 
3. Born in the USA
4. American Idiot

My Final Magazine Cover

Organising Props, Costume And Setting

For my teaser trailer I needed to use a number of different props and I also needed to think about the costume that my actors would wear and the settings, where teach shot was done.

Props

Suit case - this is to show that the character has traveled to England 

Snap Back (hat) - to portray a stereotypical American 

Book - to show loneliness 

Alcohol suggesting that he is having fun 

Costume

A t-shirt with a huge, bright american flag on it- this is to catch the eyes of the audience that the main character is a proud american. 

Casual clothes to show teenage life

Setting

Brent Cross station showing him walking out with suitcase suggesting he has arrived somewhere 

House where the house party will be

School to film lessons/break time 

Potential Magazine Names

• Extreme Film 
• UK Filmazine 
• Buzz 
• Zipfilm 
• Jolly Films 
• Watch 
• Film Eye 
• Film Minister 

Dialogue Script

Dialogue 1: Matt and Alex office scene

Alex: Welcome Jimmy. I gather you had a long flight from the states but I am glad you had a safe trip. Here in this school we have friendly staff and peers. Now is there anything you would like me to do for you?

Matt: (American accent) Sure. I hear in Britain, you British folks love that tea you drink. (Switches into a mocking British accent) So would you care to make my your finest cup of tea? Jolly good chap!!


Dialogue 2: Crowd scene

Matt: Howdy folks. Tell me what goes on with you British folks?


Dialogue 3:

Matt: Let's go and play some soccer..... or football whatever you call it.

FIELD GOAL!!! THATS 3 POINTS!!! U-S-A! U-S-A!!



Dialogue 4:

Matt: I heard there was a party here.

Sweet Mary Jesus! HELP ME!


Dialogue 5:

Friend: You really need to sort yourself out mate... desperately. No one really respects you, no offence.

Matt: But they don't mind right? They like me because I'm American born and awesome.

Friend: No. Regardless to you being American, they don't like you because you are an utter mug. But just listen to me if you want respect rather than attention. Just play it cool. Go with the flow.

Dialogue 6:

Mo: Oi oi oi Yankee!

Matt: Why hey there!

Mo: you're a dead yank! I saw you talking to her.

Mo's friend: And you just made a huge mistake

Girl: Oi Brett leave it out. Stop being such a dickhead.
Friend: Oi Brett leave it out. He is harmless.

Matt: Get off of me you big mean bully

Mo: Or what batty boy? What you going to do about it blud?

Matt: Blud? You will see some proper blood if you don't go away.

Total Film analysis

I have decided that my film would appear on the cover of a mainstream magazine similar to Total Film/Empire. This is because my film is from a comedy genre, but also because it is distributed by Hollywood Studios, Universal and Summit Entertainment. I imagine my magazine will be a comedy special edition and that the cover will be dominated by films from that genre.

I am going to look at three covers for Total Film Magazine to see the way that mainstream film magazines use the conventions of magazine front covers. While all types of film magazines have a masthead, coverlines. dominant central images and banners, the ways in which these conventions are used, change depending on the type of magazine.

 (tag lines) 

Head of central dominant image appearing in front of the title as well 

The Similarities:

Each of these magazines have the head of their central dominant image blocking part of the magazine chache

The film title of the magazine always appears in the centre of the magazine 

The taglines that feature other films always appear to surround the central dominant image on the sides of the magazines 

THE CONCLUSION 

For my magazine in concern of the course work, I will make sure that I include in the magaizne. For isntance, bright blocky writing, coverlines relating to hollywood films, lots of banners, head covering the title. 

The Five:

American cinemataogropher

• Mattshead appears at the top of the magazine. Colour used is white to make it stand out against the dark background. 
• Central Dominant Image is Matt Damon who is the recognisable actor of this mainstream magazine. 
• Barcode 
• Issue date 
• Reference to directors and actors. 

Empire

• Mattshead appears at the top. Bright red to make it stand out 
• Central Dominant Images: actors are not particularly famous but the characters are very recognisable (Captain Spock and Captain Kirk) 
• Issue number, date and price is shown but in a tiny font which does not stand out 
• Banners above cover line and a circular banner also referring to tother film titles with different colour 
• Coverlines appear at the bottom of the magazine, referring to other film titles in different colour 
• Website 

Sight and Sound

• Central Dominant Image of a film crew, perhaps a director. 
• Slogan below the Mattshead. 
• Mattshead is in a banner. also another circular banner 
• Coverlines refers to other film

Star Burst

Film Maker

Central dominant image of James Franco

Mattshead title at the top of the magazine

Barcode