2. 1. In what ways does your media product use,
develop or challenge forms and conventions of real
media products?
Codes And Conventions For Short Film
When making my short film, I had to follow certain codes and conventions to help make our film look professional and
challenge forms of real media products. By researching narrative, genre and different types of cinematography, it helped me
to be able to have more knowledge about the film industry before starting to produce my own short film. The first thing I
learnt about was narrative, and how storyline is important in engaging an audience. We looked at lots of theorists and short
films to help give us initial ideas into how a professional film would look and be set out.
We looked at Todorov’s theory which suggested most narrative starts with a state of equilibrium and is then disrupted
which is normally true. We also looked at Levi-Strauss, Barthes code and Propp’s character roles which helped us when
producing our characters as we had the bad guy, and the victims. Genre was also another very important convention
therefore I looked at lots of films for example the film ‘Paul’, ‘Super 8’ and other films that had different genres that are
specific to a particular target audience.
After looking at genre and narrative we looked at mise-en-scene and how costume helped to make the film look realistic
and how the acting is also very important to make it believable. I also looked at different styles of editing for example, slow
motion, sped up footage, hand-held footage or still footage. Films that helped us were ‘The Shining’, ‘Disturbia’ and
‘Halloween’.
Therefore, when we were making our short film we had to consider all of these codes and conventions to make our film
almost professional. Firstly, we decided upon the genre which was a horror/physiological thriller. We considered the
audience too and decided we would aim our film towards teenagers/young adults. We decided upon mise-en- scene and
planned when we would film, how we would film (for example what cinematography) and also where about we would film
in order to make our film look realistic to our audience to keep them engaged.
After filming, we uploaded our footage onto final cut pro and edited our short film by adding sound effects like scary music
which related to our horror genre to make the film more exciting and thrilling to our audience. The editing also helps our
story flow in a way that the narrative is linear because it makes more sense as it is jumpy and the music/editing helps to
emphasise the physiological twist in our storyline.

3. 1. My Poster Codes And Conventions
In my poster and magazine article I had to also make sure these looked professional. I
therefore researched lots of film posters for example the ‘One missed call’ and ‘Halloween
II’ and followed the codes and conventions that they followed.
Producers/Directors names-
perhaps audience would
Sub line- introduce short
relate to these if they were
film (Make it exciting).
well-known which would
attract them to see the
film.
Large central image
to attract audience.
Bold Title to
introduce the film.
Tag Line-Short and
Good reviews to show snappy to engage the
people that it may be audience and promote
worth seeing. the film.
Date that the film is out- Age Certificate
tells audience when they
can see it.

4. 1. My Double Page Article Codes And Conventions
Photo/Image
Bold Title Heading
Interview
Sub-heading
Quote
Sub
Heading-
Image
from the
makes
film, black reader
silhouette want to
emphasise know
s the what is
horror exclusive
genre Date of film release

5. 1. Existing Posters That I researched before
making my Poster and Magazine Article
These posters all follow the basic codes and conventions. (Title, image, taglines,
slogans, names of producers, bold text) which all help engage the audience.

6. 1. First Draft of My Poster
I decided to change the layout of my
poster after all because I thought the main
image was too big, I didn’t like the title
and I thought the style of writing was a bit
too ‘edited’. I prefer the layout of my final
draft because it looks more professional
and the design of it looks a lot better and
more engaging.

7. 2. How effective is the combination of your main product
and ancillary texts?
I feel that the combination of my short film and my ancillary texts is very effective as they all cover the
codes and conventions of real media products. For example, all three have a specific genre
(horror/physiological) and both the poster and article follow the same colour scheme
(black/white/red) which relates them together. In the short film, the narrative links to the taglines
used in my poster ‘running the fine line between fiction and reality’ etc which relates to the storyline
of the film.
I have ensured that all 3 will attract my target audience because we followed all of the codes and
conventions of a real film in order to make it look professional. Also we edited like most media
products are.
I wouldn’t say any product was stronger than the other, as I feel all three have been really well done. If
I had to change anything about my products it would be perhaps making the acting a little bit better
and perhaps adding more sound to the film but members of my team weren’t too keen so we came to
an agreement.
My team members feel the same about our short film, and we all worked hard to complete it to a high
standard.
My poster and article are to publicise the film and I think the ‘exclusive’ interview on my article works
very well in engaging the audience and advertising the film. I think the poster is also effective as it is
bold, the dark image relates to the dark, horror genre of the film and also promotes the film very well
in my opinion.
In the next few slides I will show you how I think my product is effective and why….

8. 2. Marketing and Advertising
Marketing and Advertising our film was obviously important. Therefore, by using the codes and
conventions of a real media product it helped make our products look professional.
For example, using a house style. On my products I kept the house style white,black and red as
these colours are normally associated with the horror genre.
Whilst making the poster I had to use all of these codes and conventions in order to attract the
target audience and also to help promote and publicise the film.
In my double page magazine article, I decided to do an interview with the ‘new’ actress Rachael
Young. This was in order to get across all details of the film, about narrative, and about the
actress herself to give the audience an exclusive insight into the new film.
The house style stayed the same throughout and I think that I have promoted the film fairly well.

9. 3. What have you learned from your audience
feedback?
The importance of audience feedback is very important. I knew from initial planning and
research who my target audience were and what they wanted to see. When I conducted a
questionnaire, I got some really great feedback which I am pleased with. For example,
people said that the acting was good, the editing was good, they like how the colour
scheme stays the same throughout and how the genre is reflected in the movie very well.
Also people liked the different types of cinematography used.
From my audience feedback, I have learnt that I have managed to promote/engage and
advertise my film fairly well as most of the feedback was positive. I made a questionnaire
and asked ten people to fill it in after looking at my media products.
I am very glad I got audience feedback as it helps me learn what to do better in the future,
or what to change etc in order to progress further.

10. 3. Audience Feedback

11. 4. How did you use media technologies in the
construction and research, planning and
evaluation stages?
Throughout my coursework, I have converged many types of
media to create my ancillary tasks and my short film. For
example numerous websites to upload my images, footage and
work onto. I have used digital cameras to film, which has
extended my knowledge of Photoshop and final cut pro. Also I
have downloaded music and used music off garage band and
added that to my film whilst edited and just loads!
By getting more familiar with all of these types of convergence
and digital technology, my skills have now improved rapidly and
I have been able to produce my own media products.
In the next few slides I will be discussing about communications
on the internet, and web 2.0…

12. 4. Distribution of my Own Work and how technology helped
By using websites like Blogger and social networking sites like youtube and slideshare, it has enabled
me to advertise and distribute my work all over the world. By putting our short film onto youtube, it
has made our film global and anybody can watch it. The internet is becoming extremely popular now,
and the use of better digital technology has enabled us to make our film almost professional.
Web 2.0 helps us to communicate via the internet. Recently, skype, youtube and social networking
sites like facebook have enabled people to gain access to the internet and to communicate with
people all over the world from their home. PCs have made our lives so much easier in some ways as
people can upload their own footage to the internet, whilst also viewing other peoples footage or
images. Also, nowadays you can tag yourself at certain events, or places and you can now even check
in at certain places! Also the internet helped me to research everything from the filming industry, to
codes and conventions to narrative, genre etc.
My skills have certainly developed during the making of my media products and ancillary tasks as in
AS I had never really worked on final cut pro before or garage band. The only problem I encountered
was uploading the video footage to the apple mac as I had never used one before. It was just a case of
getting used to the Mac really. However, the editing was complicated too but working as a team did
help whilst producing the short film.
The theme of the film was also important as it was a horror genre so had to be gripping to the
audience in order to engage them to the film. The technology was helpful as it enabled me to cut
things out or add music, sound like voice overs and add text to the film at the end.
Overall, without the technology and convergence we have today, I don’t think our film would have
looked as professional at all and therefore, I think the use of digital technology and the internet was
extremely useful.