1b) Genre

In terms of genre it was essential in both the AS and A2 media coursework and conforming with genre conventions. When creating my music magazine as part of my AS portfolio I found it was simpler to include the conventions of a magazine compared to a film trailer. However in A2 the skills that I had acquired during the AS had grown and I was aware of the research I had to conduct in order to know what the generic conventions were.
In AS I was more concerned with simply following the conventions of the genre and the generic rules. The brief was to create a music magazine, the genre of music that I chose was Indie. The conventions of a music magazine were; a large image, medium close up, use of iconography for image, masthead taking up the top third of the page, main headline in the centre of the page in a larger font than the other text, three to four colours in the colour palette, important text in the left hand side of the page (sweet spot).  I followed these conventions throughout my music magazine front cover to ensure that I conformed with the rules of the genre. In A2 I had developed my skills enough to be able to challenge some of the conventions of the fantasy genre which was the genre I chose for my film trailer.
The genre of my film trailer is fantasy, with a secondary audience of action. The conventions of a fantasy film are; interesting authentic setting, predominantly male lead roles, a love interest, an element of magic, the use of special effects. There is a difference between generic conventions of a genre and the audience expectation. Generic conventions are rules that are set in stone and are something that a film of a fantasy genre would expect however audience expect to see change and films that challenge the conventions (rules) that they are aware of. Steve Neales theory 'Genres are instances of difference and repetition; this is what pleasure for the audience is derived from'. As the audience are interested in the genre itself but like to see differences between different productions from the same genre. My film trailer follows the conventions mostly but I have tried to challenge the genre to interest the audience and so they see that their is something that hasn't been seen before. My film has two male leads which is expected as it is generic convention however I have not included a female love interest as this was my way of challenging the genre. By not including the female love interest the audience would not be expecting that to happen as fantasy story lines predominantly follow a slight love story that is incorporated throughout whereas I chose to not include that and focus on the action side of the genre.  David Buckinghams theory 'Genre is a constant process of negotiation and change' would apply as I have negotiated with the genre conventions and conformed with the majority of the conventions of a fantasy film however I then changed elements to make the film original in terms of genre.

identify generic conventions- Fantasy/action- Audience expectations (genre is a negotiation between producer/audience) RULES and EXPECTATIONS- contextual