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

Use of Conventions in my trailer

During the research stages of the coursework I analysed for existing soap trailers to identify the conventions they had and the effect that they had on the audience.
For soap trailer analysis click on the following links: Emmerdale, Eastenders1, Eastenders2 and Corrination Street.

We mainly wanted to follow conventions that we found in the previous analysis to ensure that our trailer was successful. We did this through following conventions of technical elements- such as camera work, editing, sound and mise-en-scene. However, because our soap was aimed at a different audience we also developed and challenged some of these conventions to ensure the trailer was appealing to them. We also challenged some of these conventions because our trailer was introducing a whole new soap, rather than just advertising a specific storyline to the audience.

To keep the trailer faced paced and moving the storyline along we used titles in between the action. This was a convention seen in a lot of the existing trailers we analysed as a group. Putting the titles such as 'NEW CONFLICTS' 'NEW LOVE' and 'NEW YEAR' broke up each piece of film and helped to hint at the storylines and introduce the new soap to the audience.

We broke conventions of existing soap trailers by using the names over the shots of the characters at the end of the trailer. We decided to do this because our trailer was introducing a new soap. Having the names of the characters meant that the audience would become more familiar with them and be able to understand the storylines shown more.

We stuck to conventions by using the logo, name of the soap, institution and time/date the soap was being broadcast at the end of the trailer. This was seen to be successful in other trailers as it is the last thing people see and the thing they tend to hang on and watch the full trailer to see when it is being shown. We stuck with the consistent use of the titles sliding in and out as the audience would become familiar with it.

We continued with one of the conventions we found in an existing Emmerdale trailer to use in ours to help to introduce the characters. It used close ups of each of the characters fading quickly in and out at the end of the trailer. This helped to show their reactions and facial expressions to what had been shown in the trailer. By doing this we felt that the audience would get to know the characters better and it would reinforce what had already been shown- especially because it is introducing new characters that the audience would have never seen before.



One of the conventions of soap trailers was the stereotypical setting they were set in, depending on the storylines and region of characters there was. For example Emmerdale is set on a small farm village, a lot of the storylines involve the everyday lives of the village people on living on the farm. This is something that is familiar with the audience and instantly recognisable to them if they see trailers, posters or advertisements. Because of this we decided to use the location of a school throughout the trailer. The scenes are quite obviously set here and helps the audience to understand what will be shown in the soap and connects the storylines with the characters and setting.

The most convention method of sound on the trailer was through titles and dialogue- we also found that sometimes a voice over was used. We chose to continue this conventional method of having titles throughout the trailer as well as dialogue. Combined with the action on the screen, this helped the viewer to piece together the storylines shown. For example when Elizabeth has the notebook with 'Zac' in love hearts the next title says 'New Love'. This helps the audience to understand the relationships that could be developed and the general plot of the soap portrayed by the trailer.

Use of conventions in my listing magazine cover:

During the research stages of the coursework I analysed three existing listings magazine covers to identify the conventions of them.
For analysis click on the following links: What's On TV, TV Easy, and Soaplife

Magazine analysis

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Use of conventions in my Hatton Park poster:

During the research stages of the coursework I analysed two existing soap posters to identify the conventions that they included.
For poster analysis click on the following links: Neighbours and Hollyoaks

Poster Analysis

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