1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Media Studies – A2 Evaluation

Main Product – Short Film

In the planning of my film I had to carefully consider how I was going to film it and what would be included that would then match the conventions of a short film. From my research I found that one of the features of a short film is that they don’t usually feature many locations. This is a convention that my film follows as the majority of the film is set in one room. Usually, short films do not feature many characters as they are focused on one story which therefore doesn’t require so many characters and my short film follows this convention. My film contains two characters only throughout which conforms to this convention. The representation of character in my short film both conforms and challenges the gender stereotypes with Anthea and the Guide respectively. The character of Anthea appears to have no power over her situation at all, something commonly associated with females. She is also led by the other, more dominant, character and so conforms to the stereotype. The character of the Guide, however, breaks the stereotype of women as she is presented as being quite strong and has a lot of power over Anthea and things going on around them. The Guide is in complete control throughout the film acting as the more stereotypically masculine character.

Main Product – Short Film

There are two characters in my film which follows the convention of having very few characters in short films.

It also focuses on one location in particular, again conforming to the short film convention of not having many locations.

During the production of my short film I encountered many problems. The biggest problem I faced was the locations of my film. I had initially planned for one of the main locations to be a corridor which would then lead into the rooms the Guide takes Anthea to. The most logical and accessible location for this was the school corridors. However, despite being the best choice, it cause many problems. As it is a school there was no way of guaranteeing that people would not walk into shot or interrupt filming in anyway. Also, the majority of corridors had posters on the walls which I couldn’t take down for filming. Due to these issues I had to change the location to stairs at the school as, even though there were some interruptions, they weren’t as frequent.

ISSUES & PROBLEMS

Ancillary Product - Poster

For my first ancillary product I decided to create a poster for my short film. From my research into film posters I knew exactly what should be featured on my poster to make it as effective as possible. One of these common features is the use of an image of the main character, or characters. My film poster follows this convention as I have used an image of one of the characters, arguably the most important, which is the Guide. I have placed this image in the centre of my poster as this is the main focal point and where I have found the images usually to be positioned. The backgrounds on posters are usually a solid colour so as to not distract from the main features of the poster. For mine, I have made the background half black and half red. The reason I have done this is because it is meant to represent the Guide’s character as she is portrayed to be a rather dark and evil character. Behind the Guide are several people who seem to be disappearing into the background. These people are there to represent the past people the Guide has “helped” through purgatory and also then shows the fate of the other main character, Anthea, as time goes on they disappear and are forgotten. Another convention of film posters is that they feature the actors names, usually at the top. I have also incorporated this convention into my film poster as it is one of the most recognised conventions of film posters.

Ancillary Product - Poster

This screenshot shows the Photoshop file for the creation of the product. Next to the poster itself is the layers panel showing most of the layers included in the production of this poster.

Ancillary Product – Film Review

From my research into film reviews I knew exactly what it was that I then had to include on my film review to make it look professional and like it really came from a film magazine. The first thing I did on my review was mark out roughly where each section would go so I knew what would be most effective. Doing this before I actually started work on it then made it a lot easier to construct the review as I knew clearly what I was going to do with it. I have used a large image from my film, as I have found this is a common feature, and have a heading for the page at the top for easy navigation when flicking through the magazine. I have also added a list of details on the film as almost every review I looked at featured this. Although it is not seen on most reviews, I have included a synopsis of the film. I feel that this is a useful feature to have with a review as the reader may not have actually seen the film when they read the reviews and want to know what it is about. At the bottom of the page I have included a page number, the name of the magazine this review is featured in, the date of the magazine and also the website. I found a lot of film magazine feature these details at the bottom and this is the reason I have also included it as it then makes my review look a lot more professional and therefore more effective.