In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Being a teaser trailer, we had to closely use the conventions of a real trailer format seen in real life media products. Our piece fits into the conventional time frame for a teaser trailer at 68 seconds in length. Teaser trailers in general tend to use non-diegetic sound dominantly to help set the genre, we have conformed to this partially. We used a non-copyright rap/grime track which is very appropriate to highlighting the urban drama genre. In addition to this, using Final Cut Pro, we introduced our trailer using a classical string piece which subverts the idea of using sound fitting with the genre. This shows us developing, using and experimenting with the concept and convention of using non-diegetic sound against the trailer shots further than demonstrated in real media products. 

  It was effective in creating more of a contrast between the two sounds and therefore enhancing the tension being built.
 Our use of titles conforms to real media texts. After researching into the appropriate type of credits within trailers, we used credits to express information such as the release date, leading actors involved and relevant reviews. We created our credits using a font which we found after extensively searching on-line for templates, we made sure that we used this font consistently throughout as to conform to the conventions of real teaser trailers. They also conform to the typography of products within the urban drama genre, which is plain and blocked, this was successful in making the genre clear to the audience right from the outset.

Our trailer also conforms in terms of editing, the narrative is hinted at but not clearly revealed which is an important part of the trailer format. The disruption of the equilibrium is the most important element to be shown in a teaser trailer and remains a key convention of real life media products. This is reflected in the pace of editing we have created, which increases throughout the trailer to create the panicked and tense tone. We wanted the narrative to be very clear in terms of themes within it, but we were also inspired by trailers such as 'Under the skin' which keeps a large sense of mystery and tend to give a little less away than in other trailers, which is not something that you see in most urban drama trailers. This was our way of challenging and developing trailer features within our chosen genre. This is shown through us briefly introducing characters and not being consistent in showing these characters through our footage for example the low angle close up of a female character. 

 Our A2 trailer also conforms to the camera work of real media trailers by instating the setting through multiple establishing shots of the urban city of London, this is an important feature in trailers as it informs the audience of the general setting of the plot and gives key clues towards the genre. So after research into trailers of our chosen genre we decided to use establishing shots of London's Canary Wharf at the beginning of our trailer. 

It conformed very closely to the conventions of our genre by using a London based location, We used various greater London locations, which were concrete based to reinforce the idea of a concrete jungle and to be reminiscent of the poverty of council estates. After researching into the kinds of locations that were generally used in films like 'Fish Tank' and 'Ill Manors' we then scouted for settings and places that fitted this such as the concrete underpass in Greenwhich and the multi storey car park in Bexleyheath. 

                                     

In terms of conforming to real urban drama trailer texts, we have tightly conformed to the main conventions, this is demonstrated through our use of mise en scene, the London based setting is extremely appropriate to our urban genre. As well as this the costumes used consist of tracksuit garments and designer trainers, which fits well with real product customs. We found that more often than not urban drama material included characters which had worn designer tracksuit clothing. This also fits appropriately to real life stereotypes which are presented within the genre.

The mise en scene also indicates conformity, through excesses of empty alcohol bottles, rubbish, lighters and baggies distributed through one of the rooms to suggest some of the themes associated with urban drama such as alcoholism and drug use. These hard hitting issues are often explored as part of the social realist approach to the genre, so to us it was essential to express some elements of this in our trailer, we used this kind of mise en scene to do so.

We conformed and developed camera work in urban texts by using a combinations of both hand held documentary styled shots to reinforce the socially real aspects of the piece and make it seem more natural when for the audience for example in the point of view shot, running through the car park.

We also wanted to use more stable styled shots, to make the piece more diverse and to seem choppy so that it created a contrast and un-smooth feel to the flow of the trailer as a whole, to help mirror the disruption of the narrative equilibrium for example some of the shots showing artistic angles.

We challenged and developed the conventions of real media pieces through our research through exploring other kinds of texts aside from trailers. We looked outside of the teaser format at American TV drama for example we looked into the Wire, which is a crime drama often following drug trafficking related issues. We were inspired by the opening sequence of the shows first series, and took influence from this in our drug related shots by using flash zoom effects in our post production development. 

We also looked into actual urban drama films, to help find conventions more relative to the genre, this made sure that it was completely clear to the audience. We looked at films such as Kidulthood and were influenced by this to experiment with the concept of social realism, through using hand held documentary styled shots. British urban drama films also gave us insight into key atmospheric aspects such as the use of grime/rap tracks in non-diegetic sound and the kinds of tracksuit based costumes which would be appropriate to the genre.

Other research we engaged in was that of the working class youth stereotype. We did this by extensively looking through newspaper articles on British youth violent crime and the concept of ASBO culture and using the internet to search for related posts on the main features of such stereotype. This help us a lot when beginning to develop our main characters including the protagonist. Surprisingly, despite some of the research content it really helped us to sympathise with some of the kind of personae we started to establish. This also helped us to create initial costume ideas.

Theories
We thought it was important to compare our piece against film theories as a successful film related text should follow and develop appropriately in accordance to appropriate theories.

Todorov's genre theory claims that 'a new genre is always the transformation of one or several old genres'. Our A2 piece conforms to this as, being an urban drama piece, it takes elements from the gangster genre such as violent aspects shown though the point of view shot of our antagonist laying on the floor in a pool of blood reaching for a bat. The urban locations we have used are something which has been heavily influenced by gangster films. We also take aspects of the action and drama genre such as fast pace and the building of tension which is clear in our A2 teaser trailer in the documentary styled hand held shot running through a car park and the breaking of the fourth wall through direct address with the camera on multiple occasions.

Cameron's narrative theory explains how modular narratives 'articulate a sense of time as divisible and subject to manipulation'. Our piece partially conforms to this. Our piece fits into this with an anachronic modular narrative as we involve the concept of flashbacks and repetition. This can be seen indicated through the use of black and white filter over the shots we present as being from the past. This highlights elements of the plot. Our teaser trailer doesn't follow any of the other types of modular narrative meaning that it does not fully use the conventions of this theory.

It is evident that we have used various methods of challenging, developing and conforming to the conventions of urban drama and the teaser trailer format, Our feedback found that the genre of the piece was clear and easily identified by our target audience and that the convention which we used were successful in conveying this. [click here].