1. In what way does you media product use, challenge or develop forms and conventions of real life media products?

2. Conventions of teaser trailers The aim of film trailers is to promote the product in a way that creates immediate interest before its release. Teaser trailers allow the audience to develop an idea of the genre, the storyline and the actors involved in the film whilst giving them an idea of whether or not they would be interested in seeing it. Teaser trailers are released before full-length trailers in order to tease the audience in a way that will leave them wanting to know more and are an important part of film marketing. They create a buzz that gradually generates more excitement surrounding the film, which is supported by posters and film magazines. ‘ Teasers, unlike typical theatrical trailers, are usually very short in length (between 30–60 seconds) and usually contain little, if any, actual footage from the film. Sometimes, it is merely a truncated version of a theatrical trailer. They are usually released long in advance of the film they advertise. One of the reasons for the name "teaser" is because they are shown usually a long time (one or one and a half years) before the movie comes out, so as to "tease" the audience.’

5. Teaser trailers which have influenced my media product The teaser trailer for the film ‘Quarantine’ is one which influenced my media product, particularly due to its self-recording technique which I have adopted in my own trailer. The trailer’s genre is horror and is similar to the idea of my trailer in the sense that the main characters are being chased by something, however the ‘Quarantine’ trailer gives away more information as to what this is. Another similarity with my trailer is the way in which the main character is a working young female who is reporting the events that are taking place. This is something that influenced my trailer so that the audience have a clear idea of what the trailer is about without giving too much away. A difference between the ‘Quarantine’ trailer and my media product is that, rather than the main character holding the camera and filming herself, she is being filmed with a hand-held camera by someone else. This is something that I chose not to do because I wanted to emphasize the feeling of isolation in my trailer in order to add to the feel of horror, however I feel that it would have made some shots clear and less jerky. As a way of overcoming this I chose to film some shots where the character has set the camera up in front of her rather than holding it, so as to uphold the isolated feeling but at the same time have decent shots. Another similarity between my product and the ‘Quarantine’ trailer is the text used at the beginning of the trailer, however this is done in a more official way to emphasize a sense of authority over the situation, whereas I have made mine questioning and uncertain with the way in which it flickers to add the to sense of fear that I am trying to create in my trailer. The text in the ‘Quarantine’ trailer is also accompanied by a voiceover, however I chose not to do this as I wanted to create the feeling that my ‘film’ is based on real events, therefore I kept the narration to my main character. The trailer follows typical conventions in the way that it has a young, vulnerable lead female character and gives the audience an idea that there are no survivors in the film due to the beginning of the trailer in which we see the aftermath of the events that have taken place. The trailer also ends with the audience being presented with the name of the film and the date of its release.

6. Teaser trailers which have influenced my media product ‘ The Blair Witch Project’ is a film which influenced my teaser trailer the most. The trailer for the film is very similar to mine in the sense that it is filmed using a hand held camera and surrounds the idea of something unknown coming after the main characters. The low quality of the filming supports the idea that the filming is of real-life events, which is something that I imitated whilst developing my media product. Similar to ‘Quarantine’ the film involves more than one main character, which means that rather than the characters filming themselves they are able to film each other. The trailer does not give much information whatsoever on the content of the film, apart from the idea that there is a female character, whose appearance we are unaware of until the end of the trailer, and two other characters called ‘Mike’ and ‘Josh’. The audience are told at the beginning of the trailer through the use of text that the characters are missing and their footage has been found, which is presumably what the film is based around. The trailer uses the same aftermath effect at the beginning that the ‘Quarantine’ trailer uses, and this is something that I have incorporated into my poster rather than my trailer. The trailer is very short in length, lasting only 37 seconds but is effective in the way that the lack of information leads the audience wanting to know more – what happens to the characters and why is the female lead apologizing on the trailer? All we can tell is that the main character is ‘very scared’, which emphasizes her vulnerability and makes the trailer seem more creepy. The trailer does not include any text, which could be as a way of emphasizing the idea that the film is presenting real-life footage. I also wanted to create this feeling through my trailer, however I thought that the use of text is very effective as it adds suspense. The trailer follows conventions in the way that it also has a vulnerable young lead female character and presents the audience with text describing the disappearance of the main characters at the beginning of the trailer. The trailer also follows conventions by lasting for 37 seconds and by presenting the name of the film at the end of the trailer, along with the date of release.

7. Teaser trailers which have influenced my media product The ‘Cloverfield’ teaser trailer is well known for the sense of mystery it creates due to the way in which it does not give away any information as to what is attacking the city, all the audience can understand is that it is extremely destructive and something that the characters need to escape from. This mystery is something that we also see in ‘The Blair Witch Project’ trailer as we do not know what is after the characters, however the ‘Quarantine’ trailer is much more obvious about this and doesn’t lead the audience guessing as much. It is not so clear who the main character of the film is through the trailer as there are many different people shown, however we gain an idea as a result of the amount of camera attention a particular young male character receives – this goes against typical horror/thriller conventions. The ‘Cloverfield’ trailer differs to ‘The Blair Witch Project’ trailer and the ‘Quarantine’ trailer as it does not ask a question and it doesn’t present any text to briefly summarize the events of the trailer, and this could be as a way of upholding the mystery of the film and not giving any information away. The length of the trailer is longer than what is expected for a teaser trailer (30-60 seconds) and therefore goes against the conventions of teaser trailers. The trailer is also in chronological order, whereas other teaser trailers tend to used varied shots from different parts of the film. The ‘Cloverfield’ trailer specifically focuses on one part of the film, presumably the beginning, and does not show anything else from any other moment of the film. At the end of the trailer the audience is presented with the name of the producer and the date of the film’s release, however we are not told the name of the film and this is something that also goes against the conventions of horror/thriller trailers. Similar to ‘The Blair Witch Project’ trailer and the ‘Quarantine’ trailer, this trailer has no background music. This goes against conventions but could be with the intention to create a realistic feeling for the film.

8. http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v =TNFszlN6KjI My Trailer