EVALUATION – IN WHAT WAYS

DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE,

DEVLOP OR CHALLENGE FORM

AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL

MEDIA PRODUCTSEMILY GAUNT

Throughout media there are many different forms which challenge the which we think and is influential on our ideas and our expectations of todays society. The products, their forms and their conventions have an importance displaying example of products, in giving simple ideas to build on and developing research to then expand on own creative ideas. We had to know what was good and what was bad, to then follow on in creating Behind Closed Doors which challenged and developed for and conventions of real media products.

A common ideology of today’s society is the romance between a male and a female. The expectation that when a man meets a woman she will fall instantly in love with him/or visa versa and they will live happily ever after like a fairy-tale, there are many media products such as films from Disney which portray this ideal for the youngest generation to see and its carried out throughout time through more recent films which portray an unrealistic idea of love. Tis is from a strong influence of media product which are suggesting love is easy, therefore when it comes too real life there is expectations which cannot be met. Therefore from the start of this process to the end result we tried to challenge that ideal that media has influenced and try to encourage life to come as it is and if love or romance happens to face it by themselves not have expectations that they’re going to fall at their feet and that there will be a happy ending. Once it was clear of our goal, the production process started, therefore keeping real media product by our side to make sure we knew what worked and what didn’t in the creation of the short film, this being beneficial for us.

To be able to get a grasp of the forms and conventions of short films, research into the common forms and conventions is key. This should be looked at in greater detail, as we found out. From looking at typical conventions it was apparent that when creating the script, the use of a small cast is key in the audiences interest in the narrative. This is because the audience tend to relate to a casting which has two – four character rather then a huge range where they cannot relate to them. When watching real media products myself I find from some which I like I relate myself to a character and if the audience has 5 or more to watch in a short amount of time then there isn’t a way in which they can relate therefore losing interest in the short. What is also clear is that the actual duration of a short film. For an audience who know they’re watching a short fil if it expand on for more than 10 minutes, it becomes uninteresting and they start to get bored because the story isn’t as capturing as it was at the start therefore a typical convention of a short film should be less than tend minutes to keep the audience on the edge of their seats.

One of the most important aspects which we discovered was the narrative of a short films, tends to start with having an equilibrium, it is then discovered that there Is a problem or threatening situation which changes the balance of the equilibrium creating, the disequilibrium. It then becomes the purpose of the film to restore the equilibrium to its normal state. This theory comes from Tzetvan Todorov and is apparent in most of the short films we watched. This then gave us the idea to build into the script something which created the equilibrium to fall, but when it was to be restored, soon after it was to be broken again therefore challenging the convention.

One of the media products which came into use was the feature length film Devil. This was a film which was in the genre of horror, and filmed in the confinements of a lift. This film was useful in showing of how it was filmed within the lift and how all the characters were able to all be filmed with each character being introduced.

Along side the most common narrative we also used other narratives too, such as Levi Strauss Binary Oppositions therefore creating a more interesting narrative and being able to use this to then challenge typical conventions. Although the over complication of the film would have then resulted in the disinterest of the audience and confusion which isn’t our aim.

A final point when looking at common conventions is the scares budget which is used in low budget productions, a students producing a short film we too had a low budget, this meant keeping to using the basics in the most creative way possible, typical technologies like CGI which is used in more feature length films is relatively expensive therefore it isn’t normally seen within a short film. Therefore as not to distract or put off the audience we refrained from using any special effects because we found that Edius7 was just as beneficial in creating the scenes we wanted.

Through various watches of media product and the depth into genres, we came to like the idea of a romantic drama. This being a genre which stood out too us throughout all media products. Where romance is displayed and drama challenges its forms. It revolves around an obstacle, which creates a path for romance, emotive music is employed with this, and the ending doesn’t indicate whether their relationship progresses or not.

Example of this come from Wuthering Heights (1939) Gone with the wind (1939)

This is a genre which is widely explored by todays modern society and is popular in many recent and future films of the century. Romantic drama explores the romance between two people and the situation which bring them there. However doesn’t display the outcome of their relationship. Within a lot of the typical romantic film thy display an unrealistic expectation which becomes a ideal and is expected in the real world however romantic drama challenges this because of the element of drama it gives a more realistic outlook on the ending and what our expectations should be.

The short film the nice girl is a film In which a girl who has finished her day at work is walking to her car to go home. Where she has parked her car is quiet dingy and dirty and as she is walking she spots a man next to her car. She asks him if he needs money or anything because she start to become worried about his presence and he asks her is he can drive he home. At first she refuses and tells him she doesn’t live far, he asks her where she works and she tell him she doesn’t she justgot fired for standing up to her boss something she doesn’t normally do because she is too nice. Whilst he is driving her home to conversation continues and she starts to relax in his company, Once they have pulled up at her house she thanks him for taking her home and is about to ask him for her keys back when he tells her he is stealing her car. This completely changes the story and we see that she has entrusted him when his whole intention was to take her car.

This film was a film we looked, we looked at how the narrative change so quickly, as well as the main location of the shots was filmed in a care therefore it was influential to us on thinking how we could film like that and be able to keep our narrative as close so that it is unsuspecting for the audience. This is then why we went on to look at filming in small spaces and how we could do this effectively.

Our main priority within the creation of the film was to make it look as professional as possible. Therefore when filming shots,making sure we kept with the continuity and didn’t have any shot which felt like they jumped or didn’t fit in with the scenes. This was made possible in the editing as I made sure to keep checking and progressing with the editing to make sure to get the best possible outcome. An example of this would be from the shots which were filmed mainly in the lit. when the scene faded to black, making sure that when the scene came back in there was a difference in the shot, so a different stance or jacket taken off etc. ###which then showed the change din time as they were stuck in the elevator.

Being able to challenge the real media products was our key aim for the production. We wanted the film which we produced to be different in relation to some of the media products which we see today. However for the audience to relate to them we had to make sure there were similarities to real media products for them to watch it. We wanted people to perceive it as a romantic short film because that’s what the audience would assume when they see the opposite sec engaging with each other. Challenging this convention in our film came from the ending. E had not seen other than The Nice Girl there weren’t any chich we came across which had a completely different ending to the narrative than expected.

When challenging typical conventions also the role of the female protagonist is often thought to be no where near as popular as a male protagonist is. We see in todays society, most films have a male role – model who plays the lead this is mostly sexualised by the enjoyment of the male viewer. Therefore women are greatly underestimated in some lead roles which they play, this then not giving the true expression of talent from many female actresses. This is therefore an unfair representation of women in many media products. Within our short film the challenge of the is slightly evident as the female protagonist brushes off the male protagonist when in conversation and seems to portray a woman who is of higher status than he is whenever in conversation. As the film continues there are glimpses of the film where the male protagonist over shadows the female protagonist therefore thus not challenging the convention fully.

From the creation of our narrative and the feedback given, it clear that our

simplistic narrative had an effective ending. For this to have been different

from common we had to challenge this. Therefore this is why we didn’t just

spend the duration of the film within the lift. For it to challenge we had to use

different locations which would shake thing up so the audience didn’t get

bored of one location. The location which we used the most is the lift, for our

group to be able to film within the lift there was a lot of preparation that needed to be done. When looking at the table we created for the time

management, we needed to make sure wee kept with it for most of the time

that we could because it was crucial that we got the lift at times when the

area was quiet, so there was no background sound. We also had to make

sure we weren’t taking up other peoples time because of the location we were in. It was also very trick to be able to use the office space when it

wasn’t at its busiest times. Therefore there was a month long display where

we couldn’t film shots in their because of the spaced being used all the time

justifying why some of the shots which are in the office at the beginning are

relatively bright.

We were able to develop the real media products which we viewed to then give

us guidance for the production of our film. This was from taking inspiration from clips

and scenes we have seen through the different varieties of short films and building

on those ideas. What was most influential was the change of narrative we did to

create a twist in the film towards the ending. We wanted to created our own

change in the narrative and by creating something which is original meant the

audience hadn’t seen it before so it came as a surprise to them, therefore it was

more significant than others we had previously watched.

We also made sure that there was a clear indication where the music came from and that there was no breach of copyright laws and everything was kept in line. Y

finding someone who produced music which we could use by tagging his name

we were able to create emotive scenes which the audience could relate too

therefore compelling them to want to watch more.