Evaluation question 1

In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
POSTER:
In order to create my media product, I used various movie posters as inspiration for my movie poster, however compared to many police crime movie posters, my product subverts a few conventions in regards to the theme of the movie.
For example, most of the movie posters that I had seen had a main image of a man however the main image of my poster is of a woman. We chose to use a female as a main character because we felt as though, women weren’t represented much in police crime movies. It is seen as a masculine genre whereas we subverted that convention by using a female character as our main character and main image for the poster.
Like many movie posters the use of lightning is very important. The use of lighting in my poster is extremely effective and will strike an audience in different ways. Audiences of both genders would be appealed to this image as young males would inevitably be interested due to the fact that the main image is of a woman and young women would find it appealing as they would feel they can relate to the character.
Another important aspect of the lighting used is low-key and high-key lighting. Low-key lighting is evident in poster which creates a sense of approaching doom for the main character/other characters in the film. High key lighting is then used to outline the main image and also used for the background in order for my poster to stand out. I found this effect to be common with many crime movie posters so I followed this convention.
The main image is in the middle of the poster and is presented in low-key lighting with a high-key background which shows that she is at the centre of the all the action/events occurring and could also suggest that she is the hero in the end – she brings a sense of light and hope to the audience.
I believe that my poster in terms of the main image, doesn’t conform to the conventions of a police crime movie poster… and this could be due to the fact that I used the victim/protagonist in my movie as the main image.  The main image portrays a female victim who looks emotionless as her facial expression doesn’t evoke any feelings, it’s quite cold, which adds a sense of seriousness to the poster
Costumes: The poster doesn’t reveal to the audience many clues on the sort of costume that they might see in the film which would inform them… to an extent… of what the film is possibly about. In terms of the reasons behind this, I intended to show minimal signs of costume in order to enhance the audiences’ focus on the characters on the poster and the way they’re portrayed. The costume that the character is wearing links to the event that takes place in the movie trailer, the torn t-shirt symbolises her struggle, the pain that she goes through but also her strength, the top is torn but not completely destroyed, just like her character.
  Most police crime thriller posters use certain props to indicate the theme of the movie, for example, many of the movie posters relating crime usually have a character holding a gun or even a police badge. A gun is a symbol or crime, not so much police crime but it is an indicator of the theme, however a police badge would indicate that the genre of the movie is police crime.
with regards to setting and location the poster doesn’t reveal anything about it which could also mean that it isn’t a hugely significant part of the film. All the attention is drawn towards the main character. Props Similarly to costume and setting/location, the use of props isn’t evident in the poster, however, keeping the audience in the dark through the absence of these sort of props is effective as they want to know more and therefore are more likely to watch the film.

Just like all movie posters, my poster has the billing block at the bottom of the poster. I created the billing block using a billing block poster template to insure that it looked professional.
 MAGAZINE:The design of my movie magazine was originally inspired by total film ‘red sparrow’ magazine that I came across when searching for inspiration. Masthead - features on all magazine covers, usually at the top of the page and indicates which magazine it is e.g. Empire or total film. This should be the largest text on the page and it can reflect the audience it caters for.  The main image should reflect the audience and also the style of the magazine. The main image is usually a mid-shot and should reflect on what the film featured is about. This usually involves the main actor from the film featured. However, my magazine doesn’t exactly conform to the conventions of real movie magazines that I have analysed as I decided to base my magazine on the ‘Actor’ rather than the ‘Character’ in the movie. The masthead of my magazine follows conventions as it appears at the top of the page and is the largest text on the cover. The black bold colour used in the masthead is effective as it stands out against the white background and black and gold writing.
Total Film is a British film magazine published 13 times a year by Future Publishing. The magazine was launched in 1997 and offers cinema, DVD and Blu-ray news, reviews and features.
My magazine consists of these conventional themes. ‘Buzz words’ - these involve ‘free’ and ‘exclusive’ which capture the reader’s attention and want to buy the magazine. Banner – gives overall information about the magazine and what will be found inside. Barcode, date, issue number – something every magazine has and is needed.
After researching many different covers, for example total film magazine, I then knew which conventions I needed to follow and which I could possibly go without or challenge. I needed the vital aspects such as a masthead, cover lines, a cover star/image and synergy within the colour scheme. I used total film as my inspiration and by doing this it made my magazine look much more professional. The fact that my magazine looks professional means that an audience would be drawn in by.