Evaluation Question 1

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


We spent a lot of time looking at the forms and conventions of the romance genre in order to conform to some but also to challenge and develop them in some ways.
We have used the typical conventions of the tragic romance genre in that our plot follows this idea:

In Todorov’s terms the narrative is structured as follows:

1. a state of equilibrium at the outset
2. a disruption of the equilibrium by some action
3. a recognition that there has been a disruption
4. an attempt to repair the disruption
5. a reinstatement of the equilibrium

Thesis > Antithesis > Synthesis

We have a clear beginning, the state of equilibrium, where Alice and George are happy; there is then a disruption of the equilibrium, caused by George's car accident, resulting in death; there is then a recognition of this disruption, where Alice spends a long time unhappy; Alice then attempts to repair the disruption by pursuing the dream George had for her; there is then a clear reinstatement of equilibrium when Alice gets a job working with her clothing designs. 

In this respect, our plot conforms to the conventions of the genre in real media. Our trailer reflects this.

We have also followed the conventions of a romance film trailer quite closely. We have a light hearted mood; the mis-en-scen reflects this as the colours are saturated; the sun is shining - we specifically chose a day with good weather; we also have light-hearted music playing which we carefully selected to enhance the mood; the camera movements are very quick, the transitions between clips are also fast; the camera is mainly at mid-height, showing a comfortable image; the two characters share the same amount of screen time, showing they are equal and equally important.
As the mood changes, the colours become much more dull and de-saturated, the camera movements are slower, as well as the transitions being slower. The camera shots are of Alice from above, looking down, showing that she has been beaten down by George's death. 


When the mood changes back to positive, the colours become lighter again, and Alice is filmed with mid-shots and long-shots, showing that she has overcome the hardship. 


We also conformed to the forms and conventions of a romance trailer by adding a voice-over. We used a strong male voice to deliver the important information at the end of the trailer.


In some ways we have developed the forms of a typical romance trailer. We have used hand-held camera work. This technique is not normally used but we used it to involve the viewer more and show them the strong relationship between Alice and George. 

Our poster challenges typical romance film posters, in that it is landscape. Usually film posters are in portrait view. We decided to challenge this convention because when we worked on the poster we found a landscape view worked best with our picture. We also thought it would be a good idea to have something different about our poster so it stands out. The layout we have used is pleasing to the eye, the eye is naturally drawn to the centre therefore George and Alice are in the centre and are the focal point. 


The title is bold, and is the biggest. We used black because it contrasts with the background and stands out. We also included when the film would be in the cinema, the directors, the actors,  a quote from the film and a quote from a magazine. We used Adobe Fireworks to blur the background so that Alice and George and the writing would be the main features. In this respect we have followed the conventions of the romance genre.

We have mainly conformed to the forms and conventions of the genre with the magazine cover. The main feature is a picture of the main character from a scene in the film. 

We followed the basic layout, the name of the magazine is at the top, and then the segments are placed around the character. We chose segments relating to the romance genre, including an interview with the director of 'When Harry Met Sally'. There are also some free promotional gifts advertised. We found it difficult to follow conventions, as not many film magazines advertise romance films, so we had to develop our own idea of what it should be like to advertise the film effectively.