Firstly, I am going to analyse the way in which we have used codes and conventions in order to execute our chosen genre;
When analysing how we executed our genre it is clear to see that not only did we use conventions of real media text but we also developed and challenged them. Before filming our trailer we had to analyse many social realism texts that focused on real life struggles and problems in order to gage ideas of what those sorts of trailers should look like, and how we were going to go about creating a similar product for our own trailer.
1. CONSTRUCTION OF NARRATIVE AND CHARACTER
Personally, after analysing those trailers, I found it clear to see that the one thing that underlies the genre of a trailer the most, is the way in which the narrative is portrayed throughout the trailer. Now when looking at the different trailers, the way in which narrative was portrayed varied greatly, within 50/50 the use of text on a black background, highlighting the different stages of cancer was used in order to carry the narrative throughout the trailer.
It is through this that it is clear to see that the underlying issue of the trailer is cancer, however it is these numbered points and also the shots following each of them that carries the narrative throughout the trailer. However, in the trailer for ‘Whats eating Gilbert Grape’ the way in which that narrative is carried, is through a voice over from Gilbert the main character, it is through his voiceover coupled with the shots on screen that the narrative for the whole trailer is built upon. Therefore we as a group decided that this too was the way in which we wished to carry our narrative, however not only did we use this convention but we also challenged it. I say this because in ‘Whats eating Gilbert Grape’ the character speaking in the voiceover is in fact Gilbert and not his brother who has the social disability, however we as a group decided that we would have Noah, who has the social disability, to be the character to do the voiceover, this is because it gave the trailer more of a social realist feel, as you fell more in touch with the main character. Noah talks openly about his problem “human beings are creatures of routine, my routine is a tad different to others”, this not only gives the audience more chance to connect with the character, but it also highlights his willingness to change. Just like ‘Whats eating Gilbert Grape’ it is not only through the voiceover that the narrative is carried but also through the use of the shots that are coupled on screen when the voiceover is playing. For example when we have Noah highlighting that “human beings are creatures of routine” we have this coupled with Noah carrying out a ‘normal’ routine, 
then juxtapose this will ‘Noah’s different routine’, 
showing how although Noah is different from the ‘norm’ he is still trying to change and fit in. However it is not only through the voiceover and coupled shots that narrative is carried but also it is through our voiceover that the construction of our character is highlighted. I say this because throughout the trailer the voiceover is used and through what he is saying you can see on screen how in fact he is changing as a character and how he is accepting this change. At the beginning he highlights how he is different from normal people and how he knows what makes him different ‘it’s just the way in which I undertake the tasks, which differ’s from the norm’, however as the trailer moves on we see on screen how his character is constructed and how his character develops, how he ‘wants to be normal’ and how he is being moulded by society around him, for example the smoking and party scene, 
here this highlights his change and construction of his character and how his character develops through the trailer to become someone completely different at the end, compared to at the beginning where he is seen to be an innocent boy, who likes to keep to himself and stick to specific daily routines. We challenge the usual convention of construction of character because in films such as ‘Whats Eating Gilbert Grape’ the main character is constructed through the words and thoughts of other characters as opposed to actually from the main character himself, however we actually have the main character talk about himself and construct himself through his own words, in order to create a more social realistic feel to the trailer and in fact actually give the trailer a sense of uniqueness.
2. USE OF SETTING
When it comes to use of setting this is something that is vital to the genre of social realism, without the correct setting a trailer or film will have a completely different feel and could be mistaken for a completely different genre. After analysing the way in which other social realism films use setting in order to highlight the genre we decided to conform to the same types of setting because if we changed them, we realised that it would give our trailer a feel that we did not wish to achieve. When we analysed the film ‘Rain Man’ it was easy to see how they utilised setting in order to create a social realistic feel to their trailer. Throughout the trailer of ‘Rain Man’ they use simplistic settings such as houses, 
rural areas, 
and cars 
in order to portray a social realism film. Therefore we as a group decided that using simplistic settings such as those as it would give our trailer the social realist feel and look that we wanted to create, we therefore incorporated a scene where the actors were in a park 
, where they were in a house, 
and when they were in a car, 
this meant that we could use simple settings and settings avaliable to us in order to use and develop conventions of the social realism genre. We managed to develop the conventions of setting in order to make our social realism a lot more modern, instead of having the actors just sitting around in a house we incorporated a party scene in order to show the sort of lifestyle that younger people have these days, not only that but with the park scene we had not only the two actors walking along the park but we also shot footage of the actors smoking,
in order to highlight the risky nature of life in days like today, by shooting this footage we managed to bring social realism forward to modern day. Setting is extremely important in social realism films and that if for the pure fact that if you get the setting wrong then in no way will the audience be able to relate to the product as much as they should for a social realism and therefore in my eyes this means that you have failed in making and producing a social realsim product, that is why we as a group had many discussions on setting’s for the trailer as we did not want to create a hollywood style film, our aim was to create an art-house piece that many people will be able to relate to, which in the end I feel we managed to do and an extremely large proportion of that was down to the settings that we chose.
3. USE OF COSTUME/PROPS
Not only is it through setting that the construction of a social realism is brought to life but also through the use of props and costumes. In order to get the feel of a social realism we had the characters wear clothes that would not be associated with the upper class but with working class people, this is because we know that the audience watching our trailer would be that of which are working class, due to the fact that they go to see social realisms as that is what they as an individual are able to relate to. We ensured that each scene we shot they were wearing different clothes, however we ensured that we stuck t0 the working class/middle class feel, through the use of the baggy and dark clothing in some scenes 
, and jumpers and jeans in others, this is just like in ‘The Place Beyond The Pines’ 
here they have also used simplistic and baggy clothes to highlight the genre of social realism. However we have developed costume also by incorporating the feel middle class through the way in which we dress Noah at times, 
however this is to highlight the separation he feels towards others of his age due to his social disability. When it comes to props however we did not use that many, this is because we wanted to have raw footage that was not distracted by props which may have caused the trailer to look slightly more Hollywood. After analysing the social realism genre it was clear to us a group that props was not a major need for our specific genre and actually it is just the plain raw footage that actually allows the audience themselves relate to a feel part of the trailer and the storyline, this is why we decided to use this convention in our trailer as it is used in so many real media texts in the genre of social realism.
4. SPECIAL EFFECTS
When it comes to special effects, we used quite a few in order to give our trailer the feel we wanted it to have. Throughout the trailer there is an image of a clock ticking through the hours, however when we show this clock on screen we do not show it with its full opacity, in fact we changed the opacity to 60 so that actually the shot was not fully vibrant, this means that it made the shot seem a lot more faded, that way the audience where also able to see the shot that was playing behind it. This allowed us to highlight that the character of Noah had a specific routine and that he was not like any other normal person, that he had his differences and it is through the use of the faded shot of the clock that we were able to highlight his specific routine.
The clock was not the only special effect that we used within or trailer but also the shot where Noah is sitting down in the middle of the party on his own 
. Here we filmed the shot for 10 minutes and then when we got to the editing stage this then gave us enough footage to choose from and speed up. Once we chose the footage and put it onto our sequence we then altered the speed of the clip, this then gave the sense of time going by, we then placed this in a few places near each other with clips of Noah and Liv in between them, this then enabled us to highlight that through this altered speed of the clip and shots in between that Noah was reflecting on his time with Liv and it is through this that we were able to show the development and construction of Noah’s character.
I am now going to move onto the analysis of how we used, developed or challenged the conventions of trailers from this specific genre;
5. STRUCTURE OF TRAILER AND TRANSITIONS
In terms of the structure of our trailer, this was quite hard to construct, this is because we wanted our trailer to flow from scene to scene however we did not want all of the trailer to be in chronological order as we wanted to keep our audience entertained and intreeged. Therefore in order to get inspiration for our trailer we analysed and looked at multiple different trailers in order to get a feeling of how a trailer should in fact be structured. After looking at trailers for ‘Place Beyond the Pines’, ‘Whats Eating Gilbert Grape’, ‘Rain Man’, and ’50/50′ it was clear to see that they all started their trailer with an introduction to the main character, it is through this introduction that then the rest of the structure is built around and as the trailer goes on you then get the construction of the protagonist. Therefore it is through us introducing Noah’s character at the beginning that we used the conventions of trailer of this genre, I say this because just like 50/50 we introduced the character before actually seeing him and then we both transition into a shot of that character on screen 
however we then actually also challenged the structure of social realism trailers as we put our trailer in practically chronological order, this is because we wanted to show the viewers how our film was in fact about the change of a young boy and how he grows into his own and without having our trailer in chronological order this would in fact not be possible as it would be too much of a mix about. However there is a section nearer the end where Noah is sitting and thoughts are rushing through his head, just like in ‘The Garden State’, it is through this that we are able to actual scramble up the trailer slightly and therefore this is the way in which we managed to keep out audience intrigued, because that way we were able to put our trailer in order but also not bore our audience.
6. TYPOGRAPHY
When it comes to titles and typography this is something that we had to think about for quite a while, this is because when placing our titles we did not want to obstruct from any key scenes within the trailer and we did not want the content of our titles to be too formal, we wanted them to be placed in places that would cause the trailer to run smoothly and we wanted the content of them to be more slick and unique. Therefore we not only analysed the trailers that I have mentioned already but we also analysed the titles and typography of another trailer for a film called ‘Inside Llewyn Davis’. It was evident after researching all of these social realism trailers and ‘Inside Llewyn Davis’ especially that for a social realism we did not want to have typography that we too fancy. Therefore we chose a sans serif font, this was called ‘Bebas Neue’, this font in fact worked we as it was plain, bold but it also had the exact impact that we wanted it to have on our trailer, giving us the ability to adhere to social realism due to the bareness of the font. However, when we placed the text into our trailer it was evident that at first it was not right, therefore we changed the tracking of the letters in order to give it the feel and look that we wanted it to, which helped us to highlight metaphorically Noah’s separation from those in ‘normal life’. Not only was it the font that we had to ensure was correct but also the colour of the typography, it was essential that we chose colours that went with our trailer. 
this is the typography from ‘Inside Llewyn Davis’ and as you can see they have used two colours, one for the information and another for the names. After analysing the trailer ‘Inside Llewyn Davis’ it was clear that the use of two colours was the favourable option, this is because it made the typography stand out a lot more, it made it so much more appealing and also a lot easier to read and look at, however we had to change our colour to white and duck egg blue in order to allow our typography to fit with our trailer, 
therefore through using the same type of typography and text we have used conventions from real media text, however in terms of the placing of the text we have challenged conventions of social realism trailers. I say this because, in most of the trailers we analysed it is clear to see that the text is placed in the middle of the screen when it is shown, however we have placed ours slightly to the bottom of the screen, this is because even that slight change makes such a massive difference in the look. It is through this that we feel we have in fact modernised our trailer and given our trailer a different feel.
7. TITLES
In terms of the content of these titles we went through different social realism trailers and ensured that what was written was something that would fit with our genre, we did not wish to include quotes such as ‘ nail bitting and action packed’ as this is not an action film trailer but a social realism trailer. Therefore we analysed trailers such as ‘ ’50/50’, ‘Whats Eating Gilbert Grape’ and ‘Place Beyond the Pines’ and it was evident after looking at these that the best text to show is simple text, that could have been said by any member of the public and text that seemed genuine and not exaggerated. Within ‘The Place Beyond the Pines’ they have this text, 
, it is through this that we got our inspiration for our text, 
, this is because it allowed us to think of something that wasn’t too complicated or glamourised, we managed to come up with quotes that were true and down to earth, it is through using this convention from social realisms that we were able to get our genre across and really help our trailer relate to our target audience.
8. INSTITUIONAL INFORMATION
In terms of institutional information, it is through analysing and looking at all the different trailers that it was clear that institutions such as ‘Studio Canal’ and CBS are present (for example in ‘Inside Llewyn Davis’), this is because most social realism films are in fact made and produced by independent institutions as social realism films do not need high budgets in order to be made. Therefore at the beginning of our trailer we decided to use this convention of social realism’s and include CBS and Studio Canal as our institutions 
. We also ensured that we placed the date of release at the end of our trailer and the green credit block, this then enabled our trailer to look far more professional than it would have looked if it did not include these things and it also allowed our trailer to fit into the social realism category of films.
9. SOUND
When it comes to sound used within the trailer the main trailers that we looked at was ‘The Place Beyond the Pines’ and ’50/50′, it was clear to see that when looking at these social realisms, sound is critical, it is through the sound that the feel of the trailer can be altered and changed dramatically.It was clear to see that the sound tracks put into the trailers where not songs that are too well known, this then adds to the uniqueness of social realism films and independent art house films, by using songs from unknown or barely known artists, this then allows the audience to relate to a feel more connected to the trailer, as it could have been them that produced the sound track as the artists are usually that unknown. Therefore, we ensured that we choosing our sound we found pieces from artists that are not world wide hits, this enabled us to keep our social realism trailer down to earth and gritty. However at the end of our trailer we also challenge and develop the idea of sound because we use a song by ‘Snow Patrol’ called ‘Set theFire to the Third Bar’, 
however we have still managed to use this and stick to the genre of social realism because we only used the instrumental from that song and we also recorded the instrumental ourselves, which then allowed us to stick to the social realism feel because the instrumental kept the feel of bareness and grittiness that a social realism trailer should have. Not only was the type of sound used clear when analysing those trailers but also the way they used sound within the trailer. Within ’50/50′ and ‘The Place Beyond the Pines’ sound bridges can be seen and heard throughout, for example in ’50/50′ sound bridging is used throughout in order to carry the narrative through the trailer. Therefore we as a group used this convention of sound bridges in order to carry our narrative also in some areas where our voiceover is not used, for example,we used a sound bridge of our protagonist talking about social skills and how they are developed and moulded, and this sound bridge is matched with clips on screen of Noah experiencing the things that mould social skills, but as the sound bridge finishes there is a shot of him sitting on his own, this is highly ironic because really there we donot see how he is experiencing those things but instead how he is just living them and really they are not able to change him as a character due to his social disability. Not only is it through sound bridges that we carry our narrative but also through a voiceover through the trailer, this enables us to adhere to ‘the coming of age’ story type that we wished to achieve and also allowed us to highlight the narrative in a different way that kept the audience intrigued. We also used the conventions of segways in areas where the narrative was at its peak, we used this convention from the film ‘The Place Beyond the Pines’, here within the trailer a segway is used when there is a moment of impact and the storyline changes, enabling them to create a diversion in the tone of the trailer. Therefore we used this convention in ours by placing the segway of the sound where the narrative reaches its peak, it is through the segway that we were able to highlight the characters downturn, this in tern then allowed us to highlight the nature of a social realism film as it is full of problems that many people in society face.
10. EDITING
When it comes to editing, this is a key element that enables you to alter, change and define the feel of your trailer and how it comes together to become a final product displaying social realism. Therefore when analysing the trailers in terms of their editing and how they have been put together, it was vital for us to look at the pace of each shot and what the shot added to the trailer by it being in that specific place and what it meant. After analysing all 5 trailers it was clear to us as a group that in terms of the exposition of the character, shots where slowed down or elongated and this enabled the audience to form a connection or bond with the protagonist, through these longer shots as opposed to longer shots of other characters or situations. We not only used this convention but we also developed this convention by coupling these elongated shots or multiple shots of our protagonist with a voiceover narration from him, this then enabled to audience to relate to and form an even stronger bond with the protagonist Noah. We also realised that in ‘The Place Beyond the Pines’ as the shots got quicker the pace increased within the trailer and due to this the narrative also developed, it is through this that they were able to highlight the main themes and running themes throughout the trailer/film. Therefore we also decided to use this technique of cutting multiple shots in order to increase the pace of the trailer (this occurs in the middle of our trailer), we were able to highlight how Noah was a changing character and it is through the shots that we were able to show what he as a character goes through throughout the length of the film. However, at the end of the trailer we challenged this convention as we actually slowed down the shots of Noah and what he was experiencing, this then enabled us to give more time for the audience to connect with Noah and feel sympathetic towards him due to what he as a character has been through and what he is going through, enabling us to adhere to and create a social realism feel throughout the trailer in different ways.
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