1. In what ways does your
media product use,
develop, or challenge forms
And conventions of real
media products?
Trailer

2. Conventions of British social realism
films...
Use of music to evoke emotion from the audience,
in-keeping with the pace of the clips in the trailer
and appropriate to the mood trying to be created.
There is also normally a transition with the music,
going from one pace/style/ feeling to another... -for
example- 'This is England' starts with an upbeat
reggae style of music before going to a much
slower and emotive acoustic song. Whereas the
trailer 'London to Brighton' goes from slow paced
piano music that helps to build the tension of the
trailer to much harsher and aggressive music that
matches the action in the clips being shown.
Social realism films explore the more gritty and
darker issues in a realistic light, and being very
open and intense about certain subjects that
ordinarily in the more mainstream film industry
would be somewhat more 'sugar coated' if not
avoided altogether.

3. Through my research I have also found that a lot of the clips in the trailers are
quite 'uneventful'- meaning that they are based particularly around the main
character's' everyday life/lives.
Although most of the trailers were quite suggestive, they all still had a sense of
ambiguity, that would leave the audience wanting to know more and feel drawn
into the trailer.
Here is a link to the wikipedia page as well as some other websites describing
the movement of 'Social Realism'...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_realism#In_film
http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/1037898/index.html
-Describing it as 'The most
typically British of all film
genres'

4. Here are some conventions of British social realism:
Themes- themes in social realism can vary, but is typically about struggles of
characters in hardship be it in regards to race, religion, class, sexuality, relationships
within families, crime, violence etc
Representation of gender- men are conventionally portrayed as violent and
aggressive, a key example of this is 'This is England'.
The representation of ethnicity- negative approach that again can consist of
violence, racism, verbal and physical abuse and the struggles of not fitting in.
Representation of class- always show the working and underclass
Mise-en scene- The lighting and general picture of locations are quite
grey and dull normally to reflect the themes they are exploring.
Camera shots and editing- conventionally a lot of uses of
what appears to be hand-held and shaky shots that follow
the lives of the characters-giving it a more realistic feel.
Dialogue- use of typical British slang, a lot of uses of abusive
language

5. How I have taken inspiration from existing media
products and used them in my own trailers...
After seeing in my research that the social realism trailers had music that was very fitting
with the serious topics or overall mood and atmosphere they were portraying. So I decided
As my trailer was had quite a melancholy feel to it and was dealing with the subject of loss
I felt that as music 'The Smiths' were perfect. I chose the song 'I know its over' as I thought that
the vocals had an eerie feel to them but still Melodic, it was slow paced and fitted well with the
beginning of my trailer. I also decided to use a song by 'Morrissey' (lead singer of the Smiths) for
the ending sequence of my trailer where like many of the trailers I looked at there is a transition
and the music changes quite dramatic to a much faster and uplifting song.
In the ending sequences of my trailer where the clips and music have
become a lot faster and uplifting, I decided to change the effect of
some of the clips to show/symbolise the transition and changes of the
characters. I did this by having some clips in black and white as well as
using some other effects on 'Premiere' to adjust the images. I found
this was quite similar to use of black and white clips in the 'This is
England' trailer that were used for showing the main character's
transition and changes he made when becoming a 'Skinhead'.

6. Like the other trailers I have looked at I used clips from various different locations, just
showing the characters in their everyday lives and suggest how they are feeling and an
idea of what it is they are going through. For example when one of my characters is on the
platform at a train station that makes you question what it is she is doing there and also
when she is on a bridge above a train track with flowers, as that may suggest to the
audience an idea of the storyline.
When looking at the trailer for the film 'Fish Tank' at the beginning of the year I really liked
the way for the text on the title pages there was a very subtle effect of water in the text on
a black background and I really wanted to do something similar when it came to my own.
Once I had decided that I was going to base the majority of my trailer around the image of
trains as it was significant to my storyline, I knew as a title page I wanted to use a video of
a train in the text and experimented with this idea on Premiere.
Also similarly to the trailer for the film 'Train spotting' which used freeze frames and then
the names of the characters, I used freeze frames to introduce my actors-'introducing
Courtney Cox'- 'And Jessica Duncan' which I really think emphasised the effect the
characters should have on the trailer and make the audience want to see the 'film' because
that particular 'actor/actress' is in the film.

7. Split screening:
In using a split screen in my trailer I went some what against the typical
conventions of social realism films, as it is an effect that is considered
more a post-modern feature as it is used in the films 'Adaptation' and
'500 days of Summer' which are two films known for their post-modern
features.
Here is a screen shot of an example of a
split screen in 500 hundred days of
summer, it shows along side each other
the exceptions of the main characters
night and the actual reality, emphasising
the difference between the two.
Here is a link to the Wikipedia page for 'split
screens:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Split_screen_(film
)
'In film and video production, split screen is the visible division of the screen, traditionally in hal
but also in several simultaneous images, rupturing the illusion that the screen's frame is a seamles
view of reality...'

8. A good example of how the use of 'Split screens' have been used in more mainstream
films, is the use of it in 'Mean Girls'. Here the screen is unusually split into four and the
four main characters are all on the phone to each other at the same time.
It is very different in the way that in this example it is exploring more time and space as
the girls are doing the same thing at the same time just in different places, whereas 500
days of Summer explores the difference between reality and what we wanted reality to
be and it wasn't.

9. My Trailer- use of split screens:
My first use of a split screen is during my first use of text in my trailer, where I have a clip
that starts off with one of my characters looking out as a train is passing her and where I
had adjusted the frame of the clip by stretching it out across the screen, I used a screen
roll for my text giving the audience their first impression of the storyline of my trailer 'Two
sisters trapped in the past'. Then still with the text rolling I used a dissolve to the other
main character, so I used the split screen to not only introduce the first impression of the
storyline but also to introduce my characters for the first time.
I also used the split screen as a transition, taking it from one scene with the two sisters to
another. Using it first as Courtney is replying to what Jess has just said 'I don't know' and
then the other side of the screen appears with Jess in another location and having
another conversation with Courtney “Why won't you let this go?!”...

10. One of the most important conventions I feel I kept to was the looking at a rather
serious and melancholy idea- my trailer is suggestive when it comes to the themes of
loss, death, tragedy and trying to move on.
To create this effect there needed to be a sense of ambiguity as well as certain shots
and qualities that gave the effect that suggested these things. I created this ambiguity
mainly through the use of shots of around areas of the train station and platforms, the
shot of the sun through the bars and the shots at the end of my trailer with Courtney
walking and then where she is looking through the bars out to the sun.
When it came to the direction of my actors, as the feel of the trailer was very
melancholy I wanted them to look quite down, depressed, lost and struggling. This is
shown clearly I feel in the shot of Jess near the start with the first split screen where
she is looking through bills and then puts them down and lifts her hands to her face, I
directed her in this way as I thought it would show her frustration and suggest the
struggle the characters are having financially.
I also feel the convention was met with the scene of the two sisters arguing “They left
us with nothing...” again suggesting they are struggling and gives a sense of tension
between the characters.
Finally when the sequence of much faster clips there is not just the suggestion of an
uplifting and hope with the music but also the clip of the two sisters hugging as it
suggests the two of them moving on together.