In what ways does your media product challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Grand Narratives
One of the first things we wanted to do with our trailer/film was to defy grand narratives, a term introduced by theorist Lyotard in 1979. This first took the shape of wanting homosexual characters to be the main focus - but without their character being soully about homosexuality (for example 'Looking for Mr. Goodbar' in where a closeted homosexual gets more than just murdered, see to right), reflecting real life in that it doesn't matter rather than the easy option of going for a sob story. However, this fell through and then we ended up with the heterosexual couple of Kate and Ben.
We still had other ways we challenged grand narratives, such as the tired trope that the boyfriend murders the girlfriend. In the trailer it is left possible (otherwise the trailer would give away the reason to see the film however in the pitch, which can be accessed to the right, we outlined it was actually the clone of the deceased (the pitch was written at the time we were going to be using a homosexual couple and that is why the characters Dan & Daniel are referenced instead of Kate & Kaitlyn).
Semantic Code
Although basic concepts like colour connotations are not regarded as interesting or complex in today's media they are still very much used explicitly. A recent example can be seen to the left, a clip from Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Ben Solo is torn between the light and the dark (the good and the bad), which is literally shown on his face, but as the light fades he makes his decision for the dark (sith/evil) and his face is bathed in red, connoting the murder he is about to commit. We decided that we wanted to challenge the semantic code to help misdirect the audience. We had Ben, the boyfriend, dress in dark colours, connoting evil, so that when the reveal came that he didn't do it it would be a contrast with how he had been represented.