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

I have chosen to work in the Rom/Com genre so for my teaser trailer I have used conventions of a romantic comedy. Some of the main conventions are a narrative which includes a 'typical geeky girl' resisting the 'good looking' handsome, popular guy. I haven’t challenged typical stereotypes because my audience research indicated that they weren't particularly concerned with the subversion of conventions, in fact they indicated that they relyd on them to make sense of the narrative. This decision is a commercially sensible one. Commercial pressure is the reason why stereotypes are generally adhered to in Romantic comedies in order to ensure that the target audiences are not alienated. The stereotypes are also really important for creating comedy. For example in "Never Been Kissed" , all of the comedy is centered on the stereotypical nerd's reluctant attempts to get accepted by the 'cool' crowd. Stereotypes in productions such as romantic comedies work well because the oppositional nature of the protagonists invariably creates clashes that inevitably result in 'comic' situations.

 
In other romantic comedies the female protagonists are portrayed similarly, in terms of sartorial codes and their personality. My character is similar to the character in ‘Never Been Kissed’ their sartorial code is dull; they both have bland colors and made seemingly 'unattractive', and seem to adopt a carefree attitude towards fashion. Also, their presentation, in terms of their image and its associations, is simplistic in style. These characteristics are common in romantic comedies. The  'pulled back' hairstyle portrays a practical woman; it adds to the cold and indifferent personalities shared by the women in features like, ‘She’s All That’ and ‘The Ugly Truth’ . This is a convention I wanted to subvert. I was aiming to portray my character as someone who wanted to blend in: who was shy and reserved, not intimidating. This is so as to create a certain depth to my character by breaking the conventions normally associated with this type of character.

I used visual gags  as opposed to jokes in dialogue to create comedy . Because it is a teaser trailer, I didn't have the amount of time needed to include jokes, which is why I chose to have visual gags, as it is quick easy to portray and has immediate impact.  

The first visual gag I used is where the protagonists' books are thrown away by another student. Another is the male protagonist stopping the female from eating the unhealthy burger and chips. I was playing on the concept of diet: although it’s a serious issue I portrayed it in a comedic style, as serious issues are often the source of the best humour. I have learned that topics that are serious can be portrayed through comedy in a way that audience won’t take offence. 



 I created a compilation using the imovie video editing and a youtube downloader called 'Keepvid' of other media products that had visual gags . It consist of other romantic comedy trailers, that show the diffrent camera shots and the different types of comedy they use. An exmaple of that is slapstick humour which is evident in "Fun With Dick and Jane" the first humour is immensely exagerated but still funny. The romantic comedies I used are "Two Weeks Notice" , "50 First Dates" and "Just Married", although "Fun With Dick and Jane" isn't a romantic comedy it is comedy, the romantic comedy genre is a hybrid of comedy and romance so its practially similar.

The teaser trailer had to be very short but I have made a script that  was too long long to be in a teaser trailer therefore I used different editing techniques to replace the long dialogues making the trailer quick not slow paced which isn't what most maintstream contemporary films . The editing techniques I used to increase the pace are a push transition between the scenes, fades and pan shot.

Fades

Pan Shot

Still Frame Shot

The introduction of characters allows the audience to get their first perception of the character, how the character is presented says a lot about their personality and place in the narrative. I have also created another compilation of different romantic comedy openings. For my teaser trailer intro of the characters the audience recognize the male character as the cool popular 'kid' that is admired by people, this is conveyed through the girls greeting him and smiling also his body language and sartorial code indicates all those characteristics. the female character is percieved as a loner and not fashionable classifying her as the outsider through the fact she is alone and seemingly unhappy indicates to the audience she is the 'geeky' loser. This concept is similar in the video above, the introduction to those characters as in the first film 'The Proposal' the female is authoritive, makes people rush and nervous at her arrival which conveys the personality of this character. Also the last film which is 2010 'Valentines Day' movie the opening has such a famous well known cast that the had quick zooms into the character and their names next to them, for my trailer I have zoomed for one of my character and for both used a still frame shot with the voice over introducing them.

The issues in the narrative reflects the issues my target audience face in their perosnal lives. The film deals with social status, changing peer groups and finding love when its new. My narrative includes school orientated issues such as failing class and dealing with entrance exams in order to attract my target audience.

I chose this narrative to not completely stray from the conventions of a romantic comedy, which could alienate my audience. The fact that most romantic comedies have similarities come to show that the audience like to have a common foundation in the films they watch.