1. Evaluation Question 1: In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products
By Rebecca Logan

2. Purpose
In order to create a sense of a crime film being produced, we used typical sets to create this particular genre. By taking inspiration from the film Brighton Rock, we were able to see what locations they used and possibly incorporate that in to our own film. For example, we filmed in small, dark alleyways to create this atmosphere of film noir. We looked at film noir examples because we wanted to create the idea of light and dark, by doing so, we used shots on the beach and down dark, small alleyways to portray our understanding of what is included in film noir and a crime genre film. We also got influences for our characters from the films Seven and Jackie Brown. We decided we wanted to dress our actors in suits and smart clothing in order to portray there importance in the film. However, by making Chris Bacall look untidy through his appearance shows that he is not as serious about the job whereas our main protagonist Vera Jones is. By using these certain outfits for our actors it gives an insight to the characters personality.
For this task, I have created a film poster, magazine cover and trailer in order to promote a film concept that we originally came up with.
The reason for this promotional package is to advertise the film that we have come up with ourselves. People tend to see films on the assumption they will like it due to who directed it, the actors/actresses that will be starring in it and lastly the genre. It is important in the way that we portray our film in the correct way through advertising to capture our target audience. The way in which this is achieved is by sticking to and challenging certain conventions of genre and advertising.

3. Trailer Conventions
We expect to see the name of the film and release date at some point.
It is snippets of the film that give the audience an idea of what they can expect without giving away to much of the plot.
We expect to see actors names and rewards or quotes.
Music and backing tracks.
Voice over.
Names of actors.
The purpose of adding these certain conventions into our trailer is to inform our audience and give away slight hints in the narrative by showing certain parts of the film in the trailer. By doing this, it creates a climax for the ending, but by not showing this it keeps the audience on an edge, wondering what is going to happen. By doing so, we reckon this will appeal to our certain target audience. By challenging the conventions we had a female protagonist, this is clearly shown in the trailer, so it instantly will appeal to people who enjoy independent rather than mainstream films.
We took a lot of inspiration from the film Brighton Rock, as it seemed very similar to our own due to the genre, location and narrative. We looked at the trailer for this film and did research on how the marketed it when it was released.

4. Trailer Voiceover ACT 1:
Start off by gathering an understanding of the two characters everyday lifestyle. Vera being a divorced mum who is lonely and never switches off from work. You see that she is of some importance due to her appearance, and that her job as a detective is very important to her and she takes it very seriously. Secondly, you see Chris in his home environment, who seems more relaxed about his job and everyday tasks, this is seen through the way he dresses and acts so casually when being Vera’s partner in the case.
ACT 2:
PROBLEM- A case has come up, where a girl has been murdered on the beach, the problem grows worse as they try to catch the killer. Vera is shown chasing a culprit who is the suggested murderer. In the trailer it shows Chris with the body more, it shows him standing looking over it, unfazed and smoking a cigarette. Although it is not clear what we are trying to portray by this. It does not show Chris doing much investigation work, maybe making him part of the crime. However, Vera is oblivious to the fact that Chris is the killer.
ACT 3:
After showing all the investigations, we leave the trailer on a cliff-hanger in order to not show what will happen at the end of it. By doing this we challenged the conventions of a typical crime film.
Voiceover
The main reason that we used a voiceover was to make it seem like Chris was talking about the whole incident. By doing this, it allowed us to explain the story further. By having Chris talking it makes the audience feel involved and form a relationship with him.

5. Chris is supposed to be the binary opposite of Vera
Chris is supposed to be the binary opposite of Vera. He is mid-twenties, inexperienced and sloppy. He is influenced by; Se7en (1995) David Fincher and Brighton Rock (2010) Rowan Joffe. The characters that have influenced us are Pinkie Brown (Sam Riley) and Detective Mills (Brad Pitt). Both characters are smooth talking and slick but they also both have their dark sides. Chris is supposed to have a dark side as he is the murderer at the end of the film. So to show the difference between his son-like persona (in Vera’s eyes) and his evil persona in real life, we want to introduce as what he is pretending to be; lazy, scruffy and disorganised. So that when it comes out that he is evil we can see a very definite change in his character.
Vera was inspired by two characters from films we liked; Se7en (1995) David Fincher and Jackie Brown (1997) Quentin Tarantino. These characters were Detective Somerset (Morgan Freeman) and Jackie Brown (Pam Grier). We have decided that these characters serve as good examples for our main protagonist. Vera is meant to be in her mid-forties, an experienced detective and she is lonely because her children have moved out and she is divorced. As a character we want her to come over as methodical and smart as well as alone and pained. This is why she is susceptible to the maternal feelings she has towards Chris.

6. By choosing the crime genre to base our film upon
By choosing the crime genre to base our film upon. We wanted to do this because there would be so many different ways of challenging the conventions of genre and narrative. I looked at films such as Pulp Fiction and Snatch. By doing this research it gave me a better understanding of what to include. Pulp Fiction was very interesting to look at because being produced by a very postmodern film-maker, Quentin Tarantino it was nice to see what he included and how he challenged these mainstream conventions. We took a lot of inspiration also from Snatch, such as the freeze frames which we included in our own trailer and the non linear structure of the narrative. In order to confuse the audience.
We introduced our first character in her everyday environment at home. In this she is waking up and preparing for a day at work like no other. We portrayed her as a middle aged women who is devoted to her job, you get a sense that she is no longer with her husband as she takes off her wedding ring and places it on the table. Her importance in the film is developed throughout as we see that she is the main character and that without her the case would not be solved. We wanted to show her as a strong woman, again challenging the conventions we showed her as liking her independence. We introduce our second character intertwining with Vera, this is because the two people are a team and work together. But we wanted to show how different they are compared to each other. The audience will see Chris as an untidy, unfazed character who manages with his job but does seem to happy about it. Whereas Vera takes hers very seriously.

7. Magazine Cover
I decided to use Little White Lies as a template. The reason being that I feel this would attract our target audience. Furthermore the graphics they tend to use have cartoon effects which would appeal to the younger audience.
Other films that we are aspiring towards have also been on covers for Little White Lies.
The covers are simple with a minimal amount of writing, this appeals to youth as they are attracted to simplicity. Life can be confusing as a young person so for that reason simple things are interesting.
The image has a filter affect on it to make it appear slightly cartoon like relating to the usual magazine covers by Little White Lies. The image itself shows Chris hiding his identity.

8. This is similar to a conventional crime movie poster
This is similar to a conventional crime movie poster. It displays awards and quotes as a main focus.
The reason these awards and quotes are so important to a film poster is because they tend to be independent films. These ‘Indy’ films don’t have the money for well recognised actors or directors to attract an audience. They have to base there advertisement on the quality of their film. This is done by having it seen, analysed and talked about.
People feel they can rely on the opinions of authorative figures.
The star rating furthers this security of trust in the film.