Creativity: Real Media Texts

Conventions have rules and are followed so that the audience can tell what genre there looking at. You can reimage and slightly change conventions in order to give them some originality and make it so that things don't become repetitive. In AS I believe that I didn't properly understand semiotics and why there used however in A2 with further research and knowledge I have a deeper understanding of semiotics and how we use denotation and connotation to create meaning.

In AS I had to make a music magazine cover, contents page and double page spread, I picked the rock genre. In order to create a successful rock music magazine I had to follow the specific codes and conventions that are found in other magazines. A specific semiotic and convention that I found in rock music magazines was the use of the colour red. For example Q magazine has red, white and black as it's house style. The use of red and black gives connotations of violence and anger, which correlates to the rock genre as it's stereotypically a aggressive. Another convention of rock magazines is the poses and costumes used. In the music magazines Q and UNCUT they have stern looks on the musicians in the dominant image and it's usually a mid shot or a close up. I used conventions in the following ways, the person in my image is in a mid- close up shot with a straight face, the background of the image is a urban brick wall with some low key lighting she is also wearing dark denim. This was in order to convey the rock genre. This therefore makes my magazine successful as I've followed the codes and conventions that mean the audience can recognise it.

In my year 13 horror film trailer, I made a trailer and to do this I had to identify a number of key conventions like structure, lighting and pace. Some conventions of the horror genre slasher which is what me and my group chose is, the antagonist being in a mask, a dumb blonde character, jock character and a final girl who survives until the end. In my trialer we are using costume and makeup to connote the character and charater types, but also the use of special effects make up like latex and fake blood. I used Scream as a reference for the gore, as the film shows a good amount of gore but also how the protagonists and victims get up and close with the antagonist and the phallic weapon used to hurt them. I used the Conjuring 2 to help with structure, shot duration, use of title slates. We took these types of details in order to make are trailer successful and to make it look professional. I have planned the shot list to where we need to have a montage section at the end of the trailer to show how it's gained pace. However unlike films like Halloween and Cabin in the Woods we are not having a 'final girl' but a 'final guy'. We have decided to change this as a final girl is a typical convention of slashers but changing it to a male isn't so much of a drastic change that it's unrecognisable.

In AS I didn't have much understanding of reasoning behind codes and conventions like the use of the colour red, but I also didn't't do as much research into a wide range of real media texts. Whereas in A2 I have looked at over 30 horror trailers ranging in all the sub genres, meaning I have a clear distinction between the different semiotics used. Being limited to one genre of horror has limited my creativity in being able to try new things and break conventions because despite wanting to do something original in order for this trailer to be successful I have to have the typical conventions that audiences will be expecting. The conventions I have used have come directly from my audience research from people outside of my media class, therefore they will be expecting them. Because of more research and knowledge about meaning and denotation and connotation I believe my media A2 trailer will be more successful then my AS as I'm able to have deeper knowledge of reasoning behind specific things that should be done and because of this I am able to slightly change things about my horror trailer but while still keeping to conventions.
Conventions limit how much you can change about a genre in order to make it recognisable. However expanding knowledge about real media texts means I can communicate meaning in a deeper way.