2. In what ways does your
media product use,
develop orchallenge
forms and conventions
of real media products ?
3. Synopsis of the
dark room
Lux miller, a young award winning photographer has her life
turned upside down when suffering a bicycle accident that left
her self doubting her every move. after a series of developed
photographs she cant remember taking, lux is led to believe
there is someone out there watching her every move. Looking
for answers, she is forced on a scary journey finding this
mysterious stalker. who is he? Is he real or it just Lux's mind
playing dark tricks on her ?
10. poster ChallengesConventions
• Reviews
• Title
• Key images
• Coming
soon date
• Billing box
• Production
companies
• Website
• More than
one
image/collec
tion of
images
12. Website
Conventions:
•Same font and colour scheme used in
my poster
•social bookmarking
•Coming soon date
•Extra options
•Production company names
Challenges:
•No tag line
•Different image/not as many images
as the poster
I was inspired by the films One Hour Photo and Memento when it came to creating the synopsis for my trailer as both films involve characters with metal issues who work with photos.
The genre of my trailer is pt, which is a sub genre of thriller that focus’s on the unstable mental/emotional states of a character with added elements of mystery, drama and horror. The main themes conveyed in a pt are Reality, Perception, mind, exsistance/purpose, identity and death. My trailer follows these conventions as it follows the main character, Lux Miller who holds the typical conventions of a character with an unstable psychological state. It also follows the key themes of reality, perception, mind and identity as Lux isnt sure weather she is being chased/stalker as her perception of reality is disfigured due to her metal state. This also leaves her questioning her identity as her mind is playing tricks on her. Because of the P issues raised in my trailer I have rated my film a 15 as these themes may be disturbing, confusing and uncomfortable for younger viewers.
When creating the protagonist I researched names that meant light; lux is Latin for light I thought this was effective as it links to the dark room and her her job as a photographer as she is focusing heavily on light in her work. My trailer is 15 rated and my target audience is females 15 – 27. Lux conforms to my ta as she is a 20 year old female meaning whilst watching the trailer my audience can relate to her which would make them want to see it more. A second way Lux conforms and relates to the target audience is through her clothing; when coming up with her costume I made sure it was young, trendy items mostly likely found on the high street. This adds an extra shock/scare factor to the audience as lux is represented as a ordinary young female and it could be them in her position.
One way in which I challenged conventions through costume change is different outfits for Lux’s different mind states. This was almost a subliminal message through out the trailer. When Lux’s character is calm and content with herself she pictured in a classy, beige relaxed mac coat. In comparison when she's doubting herself and mentally confused she's pictured in a rough oversized parker jacket conveying the messaged that she swamped with her own self uncertainty and panic.
Through the setting of my trailer I conformed and challenged conventions. The main setting was the dark room this confomed to conventions as it held the typical thriller qualities as the setting was a secluded, closterpheobic environment with a heighten sense of being trapped and imprisoned. The harsh red lighting also conformed as it created an satanic dark deseptive atmosphere; this was successful as it shots in the trailer were gloomy and distorted linking to the physiological state of the main character Lux Miller. Though the dark room holds typical thriller conventions it also challenge them as it was a environment/place not classically seen in films and in everyday life. This was a successful setting as it sticks in the viewers mind as they don’t usually see a film based around a dark room.
In my trailer I follow the typical conventions. For example is use non diegetic sounds (my music/soundtrack) to create an eerie atmosphere and to build up tension as a chose a piece that changes in speed as it progresses. My trailer also contains diegetic sounds for example when Lux is talking on the phone; this was added to give more narrative to the viewer. One way in which I challenge conventions is when I use a diegetic sound as a narrative but to mainly build tension. There is a repeat of lux’s bicycle wheel editied in every so often on a really quick cut; the repetitive sound builds up almost like a pulse which is a successful technique as it leaves the audience at the edge of their seat. Apart from the two examples above there is no dialogue in my trailer I think this also challenges conventions as most trailers build a narrative through the dialogue where as I have chosen to build it from lots of fats cuts.
More than one image – most posters sell the trailer using just one. Used polaroid's as they were more recognisable as a photo.
The tones in my trailer are either a red and black – the dark room scenes or grey and black – the establishing/outside/accident scenes.
Tone; the red and black tones are apparent in both my website and poster this is a reflection of the red lit rooms form the dark room in my trailer. Font; the font in both my trailer and website are the same Image; as you can see the images are different as I didn’t want to overcrowd my website because it has a lot more going on in it in comparison to the poster so I chose just one. It isnt as fluid as it could be now but I still feel its effective as its clear their representing the same film because of the same tones a fonts.
The first set of feedback I was given I gained from my vox plot. I created this before I had even decided the plot of my trailer. Form this I got to fins out what scares my target audience most, and what elements of a horror/thriller trailer they think are most successful. The main feedback from the vox plot I received was that my target audience preferred to see psychological elements in comparison to gore this then developed my genre to psychological thriller.
After my first trailer draft was created I made a set of questionaires to be filled out so my peers could give me feed back on what could be improved. I chose media studies students and teachers as they all knew the typical conventions and themes.
They all recognised the trailer as a pt or at least a thriller, they all had a brief idea of the plot, they this by the fast cuts and the fact the main character thought she was being chased. The also gave a list of improvements which were really helpful, the main ones were to cut out the ending and change it with a more exciting scene to scare the audiences as it finishes they also said there were to many bike scenes and to cut a few out as it looks as if the character is cycling backwards.
I used final cut pro for all my editing and rendering. And ocasonally had to use mpeg stream clip for converting some of my vidoe files.
I used adobe after effects when creating my titles. I made Kiya films our production company logo/title and the Dark room title. I really enjoyed using after effcts and even researched to see if you could make a poster on it but its more conventional and successful to use Photoshop.
I used Photoshop to create my poster and website.
I used youtube and vimeo to upload trailer drafts to my blog and I used youtube to upload my vox plot.
I used slide share to upload powerpoints usually about research of collective ideas to blogger.
I used animoto for inspiration and mood board ideas that animoto made into a short film.
And of course lastly I used blogger to present all my research, planning and development whilst creating my trailer, website and poster.
