Real Media Texts & Creativity

I believe that conventions are needed in order for the audience to be able to recognise the genre of a piece of media text, if the typical conventions are not on a specific media text, it will be very difficult for the audience to be able to tell what the genre is, making that media text unsuccessful. In terms of my first college magazine, I was not fully aware of the conventions I needed to use, as I did not use any real media texts as a reference, therefore I did not know where things such as the pull quote, barcode, or secondary image went. However, when it go to my AS music magazine, I started to look at magazines that were relevant to my desired genre, as every music magazine has different conventional layouts dependent on the genre, and relating back to my magazine, I had chosen the hip-hop genre, so I looked at examples such as XXL, Vibe, The Source as examples for the rules I should be following to make my magazine look recognisable as a hip-hop magazine. In order to make my magazine look recognisable, I had to use a colour palette consisting of red, black, gold, white. Red connoting the danger surrounding the idea of the hip-hop industry, which is that everyone in it has come from a rough background, and is involved n some sort of dangerous activity, connoting that they should not be messed with. The colour black is used in every hip-hop magazine, perhaps to further emphasise the fact that the hip-hop industry is predominantly run by black people. Gold connotes the idea of wealth, and how the artist on the magazine cover has had to struggle to get to where they are now, so they feel as they can show off their wealth. I had also learnt that hip-hop magazines either use close-up shots or mid-shots as the dominant image, to show the mise-en-scene of the artist on the cover, and they must always be in the centre, as they are the main focus, and people are buying the magazine for the person on the cover. However, I had subverted the stereotype that hip-hop is a male run industry, by putting a female hip-hop artist on the cover. It is a known fact that females are not as desired in this genre, so putting a female on the cover helps bring about awareness to the female artists that are in this industry. Things such as the cover lines, the masthead and the pull quote have all been placed around the artist, to bring as much attention as possible to the artist, making them stand out.

Me learning how to use real media texts in my AS year has helped me in the A2 trailer, as from the beginning, I started to use pre-existing trailers to help with things such as the structure, the mise-en-scene, the locations, and the angles. In terms of structure, most teaser trailers are around 1 minute, consisting of 20 seconds per section, equalling 3 sections. I learned that the first 20 seconds is filled with texture shots, to show the audience the location of the film. the next 20 seconds show the disruption/disequilibrium, and the last 20 seconds is the montage section, where the action can be shown. Because it is a trailer and we don't want to give away the ending, there is no equilibrium, leaving the audience on edge, persuading them to go and watch the film. Every horror trailer I had watched had low-key lighting involved, as it connotes mystery, and the fear of the unknown. In terms of angles and shots, high/low angles are used to connote superiority/inferiority, close-up shots are used to emphasise the feeling of being trapped, and long shots are used to emphasise the feeling of vulnerability. Relating this to my specific sub-genre, psychological horrors consist of the idea of psychosis, and losing touch from reality, not being able to extinguish what is real and what isn't. I have used the idea of psychosis in my trailer, as the main character battles with her own mind in order to stay sane, and as the trailer progresses, we see that it has become harder for her to keep her sanity, and using colours such as black and white to connote death, and the blood on the white shirt to show the corruption of purity. All of these conventions help to make my trailer more recognisable as a psychological horror, as I have watched multiple psychological trailers, such as Get Out, Shutter Island, 47 metres down, to help with my creativity, because although I have taken the structure and conventions from these real media texts, I have made it my own by twisting certain ideas, and trying to fit multiple sub-genres into my trailer.