Real Media Texts

Conventions as 'rules' have purpose in which they can be either followed or broken. They can be reinvented in ordered to keep from being repetitive and add a sense of originality. My understanding of the use and purpose of semiotics was lacking in AS, but when it came to A2, through my research I have gained a much deeper understanding. 

I created a music magazine front cover, contents page and double page spread in AS last year. The magazine was in the rap genre and I had to follow a set of codes and conventions typical of rap magazines by looking at other examples. The layout and structure of my magazine was inspired by The Source. The style and positioning of my masthead was very big, bold and took up a third of the front cover. The semiotics, in relation to color, however were not followed. The Source magazine I took inspiration from used Reds, whites and yellows which were meant to present a sense of boldness whereas my magazine used purples and blacks. I did this to allow my creativity to show in my magazine by breaking the typical conventions but as a result, it failed to look like a rap magazine and ended up as more of a DJ magazine.

In my year 13 horror film trailer that I created, I had to identify a number of key convention of horror trailers such as mise en scene and structure. My horror trailer used low key lighting and colour as a way of eliciting an emotion from the audience. Our trailer uses dark blueish hues to create a sense of eeriness and fear on the viewer. The structure and pacing of my trailer is reminiscent of the conjuring 2 by creating a mood-board and shot list to help plan out what we are going to film. We were inspired by the conjuring because it is such a well known franchise and we want to make our trailer as successful and professional looking as possible, hence why the conjuring was used as a sort of template for structure and pacing.