Evaluation

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

I have stuck with the convention of a lead female protagonist for my film. Typically in a teen film we will follow the life of a typical teenager girl. However some films like, 17 again and Bandslam follow a teenage male protagonist, but I've stuck to the typical style such as A Cinderella Story and Wild Child and follow the life of a teen girl. In my film we follow the character of Mollie Fletcher, this is clearly shown in my trailer.
The setting of my film is also very conventional of my genre. In my trailer you can see clearly one of my main setting for my film is a High School. Obviously most films of my genre are set in America therefore and American High School. I had to try and re create an American High School from my school. Luckily the architecture and interior of my school can easily be betrayed as an American High School. I made sure in as many shots as possible lockers could be seen as these are very conventional of a teen American films in a High School setting.
I've also kept to a typical plot of my genre, keeping to conventions. The basic plot involves a boy and girl, a dispute or argument of some form and all gets resolved at the end. This plot can easily been understood in my trailer.
It's also important the language used in my trailer is relevant. I looked at many films and trailers of my genre to see what language is used. Language can also depend on the rating on the film too. I looked at the BBFC guides to PG and 12a the usual rating of teen film in the UK. American teenagers are often use phrases such as ‘Oh my God’ and crude words such as ‘Douche’ seen in 17 Again. Language was also important in the humour of the trailer. Humour is a common convention in this genre, so the use of language helped portray that along with actions. For example the last clip in my trailers shows the traditional comic character at High School, stupidly saying ‘I’ve found him” whilst pointing at a poster of Nate, then he’s friend comes along and call him a ‘Douche’. I also had to look at how I would script my voiceover. I looked at many examples of trailers for this. I think my voice over is very conventional, introducing the main character at the beginning and giving some information about their life.
I have also thought about costume of my characters. It is important to represent my characters as teenagers. I looked at some characters from other films too see the common style. I wanted my audience to relate with my main character Mollie so it was important to dress her very casually, like the characters from existing media products. My male character Nate is also similar, very casually dressed, and also very cool at the same time, to show he is popular. Here is an image of my two main characters in a typical costume:

Bringing the trailer together is the choice of music. The two pieces of music I used are by artists who their listeners would also be interested in this genre of film. This automatically can give you a potential audience.
The characterization of my two main characters was really important. My characters are traditional of my genre, however I have also challenged conventions as well. In modern media texts like High School Musical, the character of Troy Bolton is very different to more traditional male jock type characters; I have chosen to go back to the traditional representation on jocks for my trailer. Troy Bolton (right) in High School Musical is the captain of the basketball team, and very popular, however he also takes part in the drama club, and his girlfriend if the clever girl from the maths and science clubs. In my film Nate, a typical jock, hanging out with his mates, playing basketball and a pretty girl on his arm, Mollie. Nate treats Mollie not well and cheats on her eventually.
Mollie is quite a naive girl much like the character of Sam in A Cinderella Story. Sam (below) is treated badly by her stepmother and sisters, and isn’t very popular at school. Sam is very traditional character you’d find I this genre. However Mollie has an inner strength and stands up to Nate by deleting him after she’s see’s him cheat. But Mollie has a good heart and knows she has to find him, making Mollie quite a modern representation of a teenage girl.
I think my ancillary tasks are very conventional. My film poster is simple, a white background, basic font and few colours, like many film posters of a romcom genre, 17 Again and Another Cinderella Story. My film magazine however was slightly more difficult to follow conventions fully. Usually film magazine covers such as Empire will have big Hollywood budget action blockbusters on the main cover and not often a teen romcom. Although an actor such as Zac Efron who appears in teen films, may be seen on a cover of a film magazine. So I used the actor who played the role as Nate as an up and coming star who may appear on the magazine. I also kept to conventions such as lots of texts, minimal images, bold fonts and big magazine title.