1) In
what ways does you media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
During the initial stages of the project I came across many
conventions of the fantasy film genre. The main convention, which acts as a
defining theme for the genre, is that the film genre evolves around and
includes magic and the super-natural. Another highly used convention is the
idea of good vs. evil where the evil character disrupts the equilibrium and
then it’s the good guys that must fix the problem. There is usually a central
villain or dark lord who rules over the evil characters while the hero of the
good guys is just an everyday man. This brings up another convention, which is
that, the protagonist in generally male along with the main villain. This
leaves the female character to become the ‘damsel in distress’, another common
fantasy convention. The hero or a notable companion usually has some kind of
past or current relationship with the damsel in distress. The setting is
commonly medieval esce with castles and towers and exotic worlds similar to our
own.
I found these common conventions by analysing successful
trailers that fall into the fantasy genre. By analysing the similarities
between them I was able to work out common conventions. Also, during other
stages of the product, especially ‘Genre research’ and ‘Style and genre’, I
have researched fantasy genre conventions from other media such as TV and books
while also gaining more knowledge of the film conventions.
I looked at current successful trailers such as The Lord of
The Rings Trilogy, The Hunger Games and SnowWhite and The Huntsmen as these
fell within the fantasy genre and achieved a goal similar to what our trailer
hoped to achieve.
Different convention within the genre appealed to different
aspects of the audience. Having the protagonist as just a seemingly ordinary
man within the target audience range helps the all viewers within the target
audience relate to the character. A damsel in distress could appeal to both
moth and female audience members as the men like the idea of the man saving the
girl as it makes them feel powerful, whereas women will appeal to the
relationship the two characters have. The use of magic and evil mainly appeals
to the male audience but may interest some females more than others.
The conventions were used to give us a solid plot line and
appeal to the correct audience. If we did not use fantasy genre conventions
then the people who would see the trailer as interesting may be expecting
something completely different with the actual film. Many of the conventions
define the genre so this would bring in fans of the specific genre of fantasy.
The main convention we changed was the idea of a ‘damsel in
distress’. Another convention we changed was the idea of the main villain
ruling over an army.
The damsel in distress was removed as we were aiming for a more male specific audience. We would lose some female audience members but the action in place of the relationship would hopefully attract more male viewers, which would improve the total viewership. The idea of a large army was changed as we wanted a main antagonist who was the central hatred of the audience rather then a set of minions, which may detract from the power of the villain, as he shouldn’t need minions to do his work. Both these conventions being remove helps to remove our trailer/film from the generic fantasy style so it is not too cliché.
The changes we made were fairly effective as it gave the
trailer a more unique feel with focus on only two characters. Hopefully this is
enough of a different approach to attract a large enough audience to make up
for any lost audience from there removal.
· - Magic and the super-natural
· - Good vs. evil
· - Evil disrupts equilibrium and good must fix it
· - Central villain
· - Hero regular person
· - Generally male hero and villain
· - Damsel in distress
· - Medieval esce setting
· - Analysing existing, successful trailers
· - General genre research
· - Lord of The Rings
· - Hunger Games
· - SnowWhite and The Huntsmen
· - Male audience – Male central role, damsel in
distress = Power, magic
· - Female audience – Relationship of female and
male characters
- Follow the genre
- Plot that fits the genre
- Damsel in distress
- Evil horde
- Follow the genre
- Plot that fits the genre
- Damsel in distress
- Evil horde
