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

We made our trailer identifiable to our target audience of 16-24 by mostly adhering to the conventions of trailers from other soaps, however to highlight that this is different to other soaps we did not follow all conventional features of soap. 

Unconventional editing, the image becomes unfocussed when she inhales the substance.

                            

                                   The Conventionanl mise en scene of lockers conveys it is in school which contrasts with the alcohol and therefore denotes they are rebellious.

Conventions we adhered to-

-Using fast paced editing to convey excitement and energy in trailers.

-Soaps are a genre that are mostly consumed by females therefore conventionally feminine colours such as pink and purple are employed and our cast is predominantly female so that the audience could relate to the problems that the characters face.  However we have enough male characters to not alienate a potentional male audience and to further attract female viewers.

-Like most soaps we have a lack of low angle shots in our trailer, this is because it denotes a sense of dominance and authority.  Our characters are all vulnerable in some way and therefore this camera angle would be inappropriate.  Also in a soap there is a no main characters and all are equally important.

-The lighting in many of the shots is natural which convey that the soap is about realistic characters.

Conventions we subverted-

-Conventionally a soap uses limited camera shots, usually a mid shot we do not have many in our trailer suggesting that the characters are intriguing because they rarely appear in the most commonly used camera technique. .  We chose to use unconventional camera techniques such as the high angle shot of one characters who is clearly upset denotes their vulnerability, so that the audience will identify that this soap is more interesting. Also we used the unconventional techniques of a hand held shot of a girl being chased down a corridor which creates a sense of disorientation and panic.

-The area where we challenged convention the most in is editing.  We used interesting transitions to make the text more dynamic as a convention of all soap trailers is to be dramatic, hence we were emphasising the drama that is already in our text.  We also used a CCTV effect to highlight the crime that the characters are committing when they steal the DVDs and when one character “sniff’s spray” the shot becomes unfocussed to convey that she is intoxicated and implying that they take these substances to get away from reality, this technique is used in “Skins”.  The danger in the chase scene is immediately conveyed with the red tinting of the shot, the unsettling sounds effects such as the heavy breathing and the heartbeat which reinforces that this is a life threatening situation as it emphasises vital life signs.  

-There is also shots with dark lighting such as the party scenes and the drinking in the dark scene (which we tinted with green to suggest night vision) thus it indicates the rebellious nature of the characters and that their lives also have darkness in them.