Evaluation: In What Way Does Your Media Product use, Develope, or Challenge Forms and Conventions of Real Media Products?

After doing much research into film teaser trailers I now know the typical codes and conventions of teaser trailers. These codes and conventions are shown in some of my earlier posts:

http://megansa2blog.blogspot.com/2009/10/codes-and-conventions-of-teaser.html - General Codes and conventions of teaser trailers.

http://megansa2blog.blogspot.com/2009/10/codes-and-conventions-of-film-trailers.html

http://megansa2blog.blogspot.com/2009/10/codes-and-conventions-of-film-trailers_19.html

http://megansa2blog.blogspot.com/2009/10/codes-and-conventions-of-film-trailers_5593.html - Codes and conventions of hand picked teaser trailers

But to summarise what I have found is that most teaser trailers include a voice over, either from the main protagonist either male or female, a shot of the production logo, a narrative enigma and non diagetic music throughout the trailer. There are more aspects of teaser trailers that aren’t as common and so aren’t necessarily codes and conventions of teaser trailers in general. But we have tried to incorporate these general codes and conventions into our teaser trailer.

To research these codes and conventions I used http://www.imdb.com/ to search for film trailers. I found that IMDB was easier to use than sites like YouTube because you can be re assured that the trailer is the official trailer un like some trailers on YouTube which can be fan made and claim to be the official trailer. But http://www.youtube.com/ was also useful for some research. Some trailers that were on YouTube I could be reassured were official because there had been posted by the official YouTube channel but some of these were low quality so I was unable to view the trailer fully. I also used http://www.google.co.uk/ search engine to search for trailers and information on films. I rarely used this and only used this when I was unable to find the trailer I wanted on YouTube or IMDB.

When creating our teaser trailer we were inspired by a number of media aspects. A few teaser trailers influenced the making of our teaser trailer. One which especially influenced our first initial idea was The edge Of Love trailer. This film is of a similar genre to our film and the plots for our trailer and their trailer are similar. Another form of media that influenced the plot behind our teaser trailer was Taylor Swift – Love Story music video. Even though this is a music video it has similar themes to our trailer and has the same genre. I have posted the video and why its connected with our trailer here: http://g324meganridley.blogspot.com/2009/12/taylor-swift-story-music-video.html

Two main trailers influenced our improved teaser trailer significantly. The 500 Days Of Summer teaser trailer influenced us with some of the shots used and some of the editing used. This includes the use of a split screen and a fade out shot. More information on how the 500 days Of Summer Teaser trailer influenced our trailer is shown in my previous blog post: http://g324meganridley.blogspot.com/2010/03/trailer-reshearch-500-days-of-summer.html

The other trailer that influenced our teaser trailer significantly was the trailer for The Time Travelers Wife. Not so much the story line but the shots used and the titles used in the trailer. This includes the running shots towards the end of the trailer, the titles used to signify the main actress/actor in the film and the music used. more information on how The Time Travelers Wife trailer influenced our trailer is shown in my previous blog post:

http://g324meganridley.blogspot.com/2010/03/trailer-reshearch-time-travelers-wife.html

Even though both these trailers were not of the exact same genre as our teaser trailer (period drama) both are romantic dramas and include similar themes to our trailer, which was one of the reasons why they influenced our trailer. another is that both these trailers are for recent films and both were seen as significantly good trailers and stood out from the rest, meaning that they applied to their target audience and made significant amounts of money at box office.

Also classic films such as Pride & Prejudice and Sense & Sensibility have been strong influences; this is because we were fans of the period drama genre so we have knowledge of the various period films. These films included famous actors/actresses such as Keira Knightley and Mathew Macfadyen who were both in Pride & Prejudice and a younger Hugh Grant starred in Sense & Sensibility in 1995. Tv dramas such as Emma, Lost In Austen, Sense & Sensibility and Pride & Prejudice which included famous actors/actress’s such as Colin Firth influenced us also.

We have used some intertexual references in our trailer but hardly any. With originally getting our idea from the various classic period dramas we had seen we used some codes and conventions of the period drama genre and period drama trailers. One we used was the struggle the main male protagonist and the main female protagonist go through to be together. An example of this is in Pride & Prejudice (Movie version, 2005) in which Elizabeth Bennett finds out that Mr Darcy is to be engaged to Lady Catherine de Bourg's daughter, this puts a strain in the relationship in which the two main protagonists have to work out to be together, Their is also a struggle between the two main protagonists when Mr Collins proposes to Elizabeth, her mother wants her accept but she does not because of her feelings for Mr Darcy.

Pride & Prejudice 2005, Mr Collins proposing to Elizabeth

This also gives a narrative enigma which is included in most period dramas and period drama trailers and makes the audience want to find out if the two main female and male protagonists will be together in the end. We also made our main male protagonist to be similar to Mr Darcy from Pride & Prejudice. This is another intertexual reference which would appeal to a female market and fans of period dramas.