Real Media Texts Essay

All types of media have certain conventions that need to be adhered to in order to be recognised as a part of their respective genre. Specifically to the film industry, there is the horror sub genre, and then even more specific sub-sub genres, such as Splatter, Slasher, etc. As a result, there are very specific conventions related to my media product, with the important factor being that the conventions take on newer meanings each time they are repeated or slightly subverted. 

For my Media AS Level, I created a music magazine that exhibited various features and conventions due to me copying a current music magazine and using it as an inspiration. However, the difference is, I did not understand the conventions properly, I was just utilising them due to a knowledge that they were commonplace in RMT. I did not display a great deal of creativity in this manner, rather predictably, due to my lack of any real understanding of what the numerous conventions of music magazines meant, and just placing them into the product due to the aforementioned pre-existing knowledge that they were commonplace. However, I had a limited idea of certain ideas and conventions, such as the photo pose of a hip-hop magazine being naturally aggressive and self-indulgent, and a dark-edgy colour scheme to match the nature of the genre of hip-hop.

On the contrary, now at A2, I am creating a Horror Trailer which, more specifically, falls under the 'slasher' category. I have displayed a much higher level of competency and understanding when it comes to conventions at this level, however. For example, the binary oppositions such as light vs dark, and male vs female are present throughout my trailer, representing a whole host of societal as well as traditional horror conflicts. Now I have received lessons on the semiotics and subtext of a film, I am able to utilise these two attain the desired effect in my work, and connote various different meanings to an audience, whether that be explicitly or implicitly.