EVALUATION ACTIVITY 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of teaser trailers/poster/magazines)

Our film is titled “The Pursuit” it is short and also relevant to our film as the hero`s mission is to find his girlfriend and get her back. We have used this as our title as one of a fairly recent convention of action films is they consist of one or two words such as “Taken” and “lockout” , so we have built on this by creating something similar but also something powerful. We have used a full stop in this version of our Title and not on any of our posters this is subverting the convention of the stereotypical action film trailer as it makes it seem very final something that we were trying to convey as the message we were trying to send to our target audience is that nothing ells matters apart from getting her back.     

We have used a lot of setting and locations for our trailer which is something stereotypical of the action genre so it was hard to pick a screen shot for our location but this being the opening scene is the most appropriate. This is not a exotic location it was filmed in a clearing in our local woods, and so from this shot purely you could say that we have subverted the exotic location convention typical of the action genre on the other hand they way we have grounded the character to a place or country and then travels away from it is something we have developed from films like James Bond which films have been being made for 50 years and so is a set up obviously popular with our target audience. 

We used minimal props in the creation of our trailer which in itself subverts the convention of lots of weapons commonly seen in action films, with the prop you can see here is a small knife sliver knife that contrasts with the bleak outside surroundings and the black tape. She is also wearing a burgundy jumper which subverts the female sex symbol stereotype often seen in action films this is due to the fact that we wanted her to be taken more seriously then other characters, similar to the way you often see high powered women in films wearing a suit. The knife was intended to use as a way for our victim to attempt an escape. Unlike the lack of props used, the victims failed escape is something use often in action films like our one, as it shows the victim trying to regain power and get away this is would appeal to our target audience as if she is trying to get herself out of this situation you would feel more empathy for the character whereas if she was just sitting there crying and representing the stereotypical female action character then the stereotypical audience reaction is that of annoyance. If this happens then the whole film will lose favor with the audience. A recent example of a strong female character is that of the part played by scarlet Johannes in the new “ Avengers” film. Where she is shown as a strong female character suggesting that the helpless female stereotype is changing, and to maximize our appeal we should build on this. 

The image you see here is part of a face paced cut in between our heroes escape, the effect of this cut between long shot and close up was very effective and made it look the overall product look very professional as lots of cuts showing the events it different angles is something you often see in action film trailers. What you see here is us placing the tripod at its lowest setting pressing record and standing back, so for the footage we actually use a lot was taken and edited out. I think that this is a convention of trailers that is very important and fixed with the genres unlike more movable ones like the representation of women, when you look at the finished effect of the fast paces cut that really dose only last couple of second and so is hardly noticeable, for this reason also I feel it has given this scene a very natural look something that action films also strive for. 

This idea of using a question to engage the audience is something that used to be seen in action films including “Gladiator” quite a lot but has fallen out of a typical convention in favor of a voice over similar to something you would hear in “Looper”, but we felt that this method would be really effective in creating an emotional response and give an overall professional to breaking up are very different clips of footage. The font we have used contains all the key elements that were looking for in our film, the boldness helps the film name stand out while the unfamiliar lines give the effect of danger we are keen to convey with our film. We decided to adhere to the convention of using ether white or red titles in our trailer as red not only connote blood and danger but also give us the contrast we were after between the black and red to be aesthetically pleasing. 

The image you see here is when the plot really clicks into place for the audience, it is quite late in the trailer and so really challenges the convention of the plot and story line being the first things the audience is informed about. We decide to keep the audience guessing for as long as we can to maximize there interest and also to hold there attention thought the trailer as if a  person here's the story line first and dislike like that type of genres then they will stop watching it, this way the trailer gives the viewer a chance to be more convinced to watch it. The reinterpretations shown here is that of a seemly normal guy creating a bigger impact to the audience when he changes in to the stereotypical action male, in order to save someone who has been taken from him.

The genre of our film is action as shown in this picture. Our trailer is not what you would necessary call a stereotypical action trailer due to the lack of explosions and constant fight scenes, in fact ours only shows capture and escape. This is an aspect of the genre we as a low budget action film we found hart to effective recreate and so decided to focuses on a darker element away from the explosions and turn our genre in to more a realistic action film which was a lot easier to film and more effective of the audience to view. In this pitcher you see our hero captured by some unknown men, it is not know at what point in the film this is taken from and so leaves the audience with an overall feeling of uneasiness as you don’t know at this strange if our hero is infant the hero or the villain who was being restrained for a reason. 

This is the first introduction of our victim, she is tired up and was locked in a boot. Our victim was not involved in the marketing campaign that went along with the trailer this is very non-stereotypical of a traditional marketing campaign as they often like to show case there actors to try and use this the entice our audience. With out trailer on the other hand we aim to use this unknowing as an advantage and to surprise our audience with this new pivotal character. This character is introduce in an unfamiliar  setting with a fast paced cut in between the initial opening of the boot and the height angle shot you see her in, this maximizes her vulnerable something you would stereotypical associate with a character like this. 

We have used minimal special effects in our trailer challenging some of the basic stereotypical of action trailers of which including; lots of explosions, fight scene, blood,  and gun shots. I felt with all of theses added in we would lose site of the actual story and also in some cases like the explosions and blood it wasn't possible to re-create them in as much detail and quality that our audience has been accustomed to. Taking this in to account we did try using make-up to create a bruise on our victims face,   this was something we have never tried before and I feel trend out very well. The bruise itself and the location is also something is something only just starting to be used in films as it is not very aesthetically pleasing to the audience, bridging with the stereotype that women are only in action films as a bit of “arm candy” and has only just begun to show the women of action films with any sort of injury.