M3 - Codes & Conventions

CODES & CONVENTIONS

RADIO TRAILER

The conventions of a radio trailer include using dramatic music, tense dialogue (often from the protagonist), being informative about narratives and themes and using a narrator to give more information.  

I was aiming to meet the dramatic conventions of radio trailers by using clips from the actual show to create a mini audio teaser. This allowed the audience to get the best idea of what the actual show will seem like rather than just audibly axplaining the show to audiences. It allowed me to create drama without any visuals. To do this I used specific audio effects to make the most immersive experiences such as a police siren to connotate chaos and mayhem. This was provided with dramatic music paired with the most dramatic sections of dialogue from the plot such as the clip of Violets friend shouting at her. This created more dramatic areas paired with calmer areas of the audio to create tension. I have also used a narrative voice at the end of the trailer to announce the name of the show and when and where to watch it. This ensures that the audience knows where and how to go and watch the show and will therefore take action to do so.

POSTER/BILLBOARD

The conventions of a poster is to use an interesting image (often images of the protagonist/s), striking title and images throughout to fit the theme, as well as a logo.

For my poster I decided to use a central image which reflected the overall themes of my show. The female figure is depicted sprawled out on a bed along side a cigarette box and vodka bottle. This connotate chaos and helps to leave the audience curious about what these could signify further in the character of Violet. The font used represents the messy-ness of Violets character and makes it feel more personal, like she has written it. This font is used throughout the campaign such as in the TV ident to create a house theme for the campaign. This font helps to suggest to the audience the themes of the show which are reinforced through the title 'The Way I Used To Be', which hints towards the shows themes being based around Violet and how she changes over time. I have also included the BBC3 iplayer logo towards the bottom of the page to give audiences a call to action when they see the poster. As a poster is more likley to be seen later than the schedueling for campaign (if physical posters are still on the street), using the iplayer logo allows the audiences to always be able to access the show in one place after the show stops airing. Something I could improve to further fulfil this call to action would be to add hashtags or social media handles so that audiences know where to visit social media sites and access online content. I could also add some persuasive text to hook the audience such as a tagline relevant to the narrative. One example where this ha been effective would be in the 'Normal People' campaign, where they used big billboards on the street where there will be footfall past it in more urban areas. This posters and mine are relatively similar, with the same colour theme, use of BBC logo and a striking title. This poster includes portrait images of the two main protagonists which people will recognise from potential trailers or social media campaigns, and then see that they can watch the show on BBC iplayer and therefore may take action to do so. These posters also can be shared online to show to fans, which they may then go and visit in person. These were effective at bringing popularity to the show, and show the effectiveness of posters on the popularity of campaigns if the conventions are used correctly.

SOCIAL MEDIA

The conventions of a social media campaign include posting interesting images with captions such as sections from the show or extra behind the scenes images to promote the show to audiences.

For my instagram social media account I used my radio ident to act as a logo, as it contains the title used throughout the campaign. This creates a house style for the audiences to familiarise with the show. I created a sequences of instagram posts which can be used to keep audience interested in the social media site, feel more connected to the characters and story and also gain more information about the show. These posts also work for before the show is released, to help give audiences teasers to the content in the show. These help keep the audiences interested before the release of the show, and increase footfall on the site. This means popularity of the show is increased and more people will be eager for the release. The posts which fulfil this purpose could be the typographical quote posts. The quotes give the audience a hint of whats going to happen and visual aid but they dont give too much of the dramatic element away which would spoil the show. In these posts I may use a lot of visual and textual posts that is more common on this platform however i might also post my radio and TV trailer that provide audio information to the audience. This audio element gives a contrast to the visual and textual elements and helps to keep the audience interested in the content they are seeing. This means they are more likely to follow the page to have easy and quick access to new content, and they are able to turn on their notifications to recieve this. It also means that I am able to access a wider target audience; by using different types of posts with different elements to entice the viewer, more people will be likely to like something that we are releasing and therefore be more likely to support the show. This is paired with the use of captions. Captions on posts help me to give information to the audience such as 'Episode 2 streaming tonight!' but also be releavnt to the posts. These captions help the audience to feel as if they have a friend or someone they know whos running the account - it makes it feel more personal to them and like they are part of a community. These captions also have hashtags included. These hashtags help to share the content around the social media site for more people to access but also help to create one place for all the shows content to be - not just content from our account. Fans can see content each other have posted through this as well, although this doesnt help in gaining popularity to our own page it still assists at the bigger aim of gaining popularity to the TV show, and these fan posts can often be a big part of this so encouraging this active community is very important. This also assists in the aim to help bring popularity to the show by making fans more aware of it and the themes within it and therefore will be more likely to be called to action and actually watch it. This was also similarly used by the show 'Normal People' who have a very popular Instagram account (127K followers) by using the similar posts as to mine, with information on cast events as well as images from the show and unseen bits.

TV TRAILER

The conventions of a TV trailer is using dramatic music, fast and slow paced interesting shots, dramatic characters (mainly use of the protagonists) with dialogue and tense ending with a title element.

For my TV trailer I created a script as part of my Pre-Production documents. This script helped me plan which dramatic scenes to add to my trailer, to fulfil the purpose of teasing the audinece with drama while also leaving them with questions about the narrative, characters or drama. This consisted of snippets of dialogue from key sections of the show, such as a line from Olivia shouting at Violet, but we dont know the context of this. The voiceover used at the beggining of the trailer works at a narrative voice which suggests to the audience that the show is from Violets point of view, and that the narrative is based around her. This also helps give more auditory information to the viewers about themes and hints of the narrative to the viewers. This voiceover pulls extracts of dialogue from the radio trailer which creates a sense of familiarity with the audience and also keeps continuity across the campaign. I tried to use a mix of fast paced editing with slower edited scenes such as at the start and end of the trailer, to create tension with the audience and leave a lasting dramatic effect - when the audience has questions about the ending of the trailer (e.g. What happens to Violet? What are Olivia and her parents mad at her for?) and wants to watch the show to find out what happens or just becasue they enjoyed the trailer.