Question 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Once all my media products were finished, the short film, postcard and film review I then looked at whether my work developed or challenged forms and conventions of real media products.
My Film
Late Bloomer
It is common for short films to begin with the title of the film and I have therefore stuck to this convention. In some ways I like this layout with the title at the beginning as it can give the audience clues to what the film is about through the title and is a nice way into leaading the audience into the opening of a film and giving clues into whats to come.
2. The second screenshot is of our crew names, this is also a convention of films, which I found in my research last year when looking at title sequences. These crew names in our case and also in other films are at the beginning of our film after the title these are our USP, as we are almost 'new to the business', audiences will not have seen a film made by this crew and therefore will not have seen the style or techniques that our crew have used making it different and unique.
3. The third screenshot from our short film is the first shot we see from the film, it is an establishing shot of James. Having the first shot of the film being the main character is very conventional, this gives the audience a clear welcoming into the film and establishes the audience with the main character to give them a nice, clear opening.
4. Throughout our film we have chosen to use text messaging. In the short films I have watched during my research I have not seen this, however from other research and previous knowledge, tackling social issues are usually caused through cyber bullying and this is what I wanted to portray when looking at my short film. Teenagers at school tend to communicate mainly through text and to portray their age group we used text to do this, we also felt that putting these questions to James through text also makes who they are hidden, this helped us to enforce the fact that the audience didn't know who Ashley really was. This therefore meant that to my knowledge texts broke the conventions of our film.
5. The fifth shot from our film shows an estblishing shot of James' girlfriend. In the genre of film we chose to use, the girlfriend is prominent and a major part to the film. In this respect we therefore did stick to the conventions. To also highlight her importance we chose to dress her in red as this symbolises lust and also danger. The danger is a minor hint to show something is not quite right between James and Roxanne and is a hint to show that he shouldn't be with Roxanne but with Ashley.
6. This shot also enforces Emily's character.However this breaks conventions as we see Emily from the first instance as a horrible character and not one that James should really be with. They are not seen as a happy couple, more of one that is they use as a convienence to holding on to their high status.
7. This shot is immediately after we see the revalation of Roxanne's character and this then straight away shows the caring and nice character of James as he picks uo the young childs books after Roxanne purposely knocks them out of his hands. James being the likeable character compared to Roxanne who the audience shouldn't like. This then leads the audience into being satisfied with the ending as the audience should find Ashley and James more of a likeable couple to James and Roxanne.
8. This shot is not a convention of our genre of film however it does link to the title of our film. Football is the main item that gives James his status and this shot that is shown in the screengrab shows James very engaged in the match we see James popularity through this, we see his confidence and we see the dilemma he has as he will lose this if he chooses Ashley over Roxanne.
9. This in my opinion is a very shocking scene within our film but however is almost a convention as well as a sterotype. This is a very prominent image that looks at the outcome of some of these issues found in society. This is a very gripping image and can target the audience to show them the outcome of somes actions and can teach the auience a moral lesson. From this part of the media product we can see that it sticks to conventions because it teaches the audience moral lessons and has a purposeful meaning behind the film which I found when I researched into other short films that had been made.
10. This image gives off a similar message to the one above. It looks at the socio-realist idea of bullying which happens to lots of people in their life. This image again is a convention as it looks at these issues and gives across a moral message that this is wrong which is found within many other films I have watched.
11. This is an image where the sound was dropped out which we were influenced by Jon-Luke Goddard. This usually isn't conventional in short films and many directors haven't used this however we felt that this was worked really well in this part of the film as it shows James shutting Roxanne out. This is another minor hint to show James is not interested, he has other things on his mind.
12. This image is very stereotypical and prominent and is very common in the genre of film we have used. It also shows a lot about the character of James as well. This is because it shows his character to be easily influenced and someone who will just stick to their comfort zone.
13. This is the second time when we see James in goal however again we see the sound dropped. This again has the same effect as before and shows that in this second football match he is not concentrating he is distracted. This is not usually conventional in films however has a purpose within our film.
14. This shot shows a football match. This is not conventional within these types of films but however is used as a symbol to show James' masculinity. Football is his comfort zone and what gives him his 'Status'. Rather than a convention this is a symbol to show his masculinity to take away the audience realisation of the twist.
15. This is a prominent image at the end of our film and finishes it off nicely. This shot within the film is very conventional of the genre of film and also in a lot of short films as well as mainstream films that I have watched they tend to end with a prominent image. One that will leave the audience satisfied. From my research however it is known that American films tend to leave the audience in a happy state whereas British films tend to be more troubling and finish on a sad note. An example of this is in the film 'The Vanishing' where in the British version the woman dies whereas in the American version the woman survives and we have a happy ending. In our film and especially in this shot we wanted to leave our audience satisfied and in this sense we broke conventions as our aim was to produce a short British film but instead of giving it a sad ending we left the saudience satisfied that it was James and Joel that were together.
16. This is very coventional of films and especially short films, this creates a nice ending giving credit to all the actors involved and showing the audience which actors played their parts. In most short films and also other longer films I have watched their are rolling credits at the end of the film to finish it off.
My Postcard
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