EVALUATION Q1

How does your product use, develop and challenge the

conventions of real media texts?

CHARACTERS, PROPS AND LOCATIONS

GRIMMERS – THE DRUG DEALER

Sam’s role in the group was to play the character of Grimmers who tries to force his

girlfriend (Mon) into taking drugs. He becomes easily angry so we had to bare this in mind when

choosing his costume.

In order to characterise “Grimmers" and bring him into his role of the drug dealing character,

costume was important:We dressed him in all black and dull colours as well as with a baseball cap on to slightly

hide his face in order to disguise himself slightly and to show his hidden life to drug dealing.

The black connotes that he’s a ‘bad person’ and the audience would pick up on this straight

away.

The prop needed was the drugs which was the main part of his storyline shown here.

DRUG PROP: SAFETYFor Grimmers and Mon’s scene, we used the storyline of Grimmers forcing drugs on Mon. We obviously didn’t get real drugs for this so needed a substitute which appeared to be real but were in fact

safe. For this, we used IBUPROFEN tablets.Here, Shadia has made a quick flow chart of how to make the ibuprofen look like they were drugs in our scene and below is how we used them in our trailer.

MON – THE GIRLFRIENDMy role in the group was to play Mon – an

innocent girlfriend who was being pressured into drugs by her boyfriend.

In order to get me into the character role we dressed my character in a costume showing my character to be a "normal teenaged girl" which consisted of jeans, a vest top and a leather jacket, very day-to-day and casual. A white vest top connotes Mon’s innocence too as

lighter colours would contrast with the darkness of the alleyway and of Grimmers’

costume.This gives off to the audience that “Mon” is just

a normal teenaged girl from the way she dresses, we also decided on minimum makeup

so that her scared/frightened emotions on her face show well through and also how fragile she

can be towards Sam. Her hair was also just down and straight to make sure the emotion on

her face was the only thing that stood out.

JP – THE GAY FRIENDJosh played the role of JP who we decided was going to be a homosexual character so we had

to choose his costume carefully.

In order to get JP into his character role; we dressed him from how we have seen

stereotypes in other programmes such as Desperate Scousewives with the gay married couple’s outfits. We dressed JP in tight denim

fitted jeans along with a pink polo top buttoned up to the top and tucked into his jeans, "geek"

glasses were also used to exaggerate his appearance on film. The pink would show the viewers his ‘feminine side’. We wanted new

audience to also know he’s homosexual by just looking at him so this was essential as we were aware that new viewers would be confused if

this wasn’t made clear.

SOPH – JP’S BEST FRIEND

Sophie played to role of “Soph” – the best friend of JP.

Soph's is a normal teenaged girl therefore we dressed her character role we dressed her in her

costume as a "normal teenaged girl" which consisted of jeans and a white top, very day-to-day and casual with her normal hair. Also, as

she has been filmed in a house environment we wanted her to look comfortable. We also

needed to keep all attention on JP’s storyline in this scene so we had chosen to keep all the

clothes plain and neutral colours.

HAL – THE RUNAWAYHarriett’s role was to play Hal who runs away

from her housemate (Shad) when she’s out the house after she’s been stopped multiple times.

As for Hal's costume we decided on dressing her in her parka coat as she will be travelling for a while if she is running away and the audience would know this as she is wearing big layers in the trailer. As for props, she had her mobile

phone which was most valuable to herself along with her bag of clothing and stuff that she

was taking with her on her travels which was in a blue holdall that could be a gym bag which is easily available for students to have rather than a suitcase. A note is written by Hal too which is another prop we needed to show that she’d ran

away.

SHAD – HAL’S HOUSEMATEShadia’s role was Shad who is Hal’s housemate and knows she’s having troubles but is there to

support her to stop her running away.

Shad is a normal teenaged girl in a home environment and has just woken up, therefore

we dressed her character role we dressed her in her costume as a "normal teenaged girl" which

consisted sweatpants and a top, very casual with her normal hair also as she has been filmed in a house environment we wanted her to look

comfortable and like she had just woken up. She has her phone as a prop to call Hal which

shows the audience her concern for her housemate and a mug.

A mug shows she’s in a comfortable home environment

THE KITCHENAn entrance door partly open gives the lazy student vibe as no one has shut the door behind them.

Basic white walls and light coloured table give off that this is the student flat kitchen – draws attention to the character’s housing.

The basic colours make sure the audience aren’t distracted from the characters during the trailer.

THE LIVING ROOMBeing in front of the characters makes the audience feel like they are the 4th wall so the shape of the living room was fitting.

Neutral colours show it could be a university common room.

Contrast of sofa and wall, darker colour could indicate there’s an argument about to happen.

THE ALLEY WAY Long alleyway framed by fences created great framing in camera shots and the feel of depth.

Grungey green colour of moss on the fences creates a moody atmosphere.

Trees over the top of the alley way so creates a shadowed mood – perfect for our drug scene.

When Mon stands in front of the red brick wall, it indicates danger so we found this worked well too.

THE TRAIN STATIONPlatform and railway make it clear where the setting is – easily accessible for target audience.

White sky and dull colours of the platform/train tracks gives a dull atmosphere to represent Hal’s mood.