IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?BY KATE WISELKA

Evaluation Q1

GENRE CONVENTION

Genre ConventionThe genre of our film was Social Realism. This genre focuses on giving the audience a true indication of real life. Films directors such as Shane Meadows is uses social realism often in his work. There were some conventions that we had wanted to include such as:

producing the film on a low budget using unknown actors filming on location And particular camera movements such as long shots and (extreme) close ups.

Meeting these conventions: A low budget

Social realism films tend to have low budgets as one of their conventions. This is because many social realism films are independent and therefore have a much lower budget.  We met this convention well as almost everything used was sourced for free; we all sourced props, such as boxes and art supplies, from our homes and were able to use the location for free.  As our film would not be able to be vertically integrated, being independent, we decided to use below the line marketing using Web 2.0 and converged devices, such as the use of marketing on Facebook and Twitter. The distribution company we decided to use were StudioCanal UK and we decided to have Warp Films and Film4 as our production company.

 

Meeting these conventions: Use of unknown actorsThe actress we chose to use, Laura Wilson, has some experience in local theatre productions and training but only minimal film experience. We met this convention but also felt it was important using someone with experience as she could understand the character and the importance of using her acting to bring the character across.  However, part of this convention is using actors that have a similar persona to the character they are playing. Laura is outgoing and could be classed as an extrovert as she is happy around other people and comfortable in large groups. Therefore an improvement we could consider making if we were to remake the sequence is using an actress who is an introvert and has a personality similar to our character Milly. This would created a more naturalistic representation of introverts as they would be able to draw upon real life experiences that could be put into their acting.

Meeting these conventions: Filming on location

The location itself fit the narrative and was realistic however I think that we could perhaps have reconsidered the location as it is perhaps an unrealistic house that a post graduate would have straight out of university, unless she has come from a particularly wealthy background - however we had considered her to be more middle class. Therefore, although the location worked well, particularly the shed, it may have been worth considering using a different house, perhaps smaller and more run down, to connote that she is still young and cannot afford a nice house straight out of University.

We did all of our filming on location in oppose to on set which was conventional of our genre. 

Meeting these conventions: Camera Movement 

Long shots show the setting and allows the audience to meet the character for the first time.  The first shot that we used is an establishing long shot of the house; this immediately allows the audience to see our character's new home and establishes the first setting for the film. We decided to use this shot as long shots are a convention that is used in social realism as it provides a base for mise-en-scene and ultimately the narrative. It also allowed us to set a base for our character showing that she is in a detached environment, with limited face-to-face interaction.  We also chose to use a long shot when the shed is discovered as it allows us to show that the shed is of importance to the character and narrative. It also provides the audience with suspense as they are unsure as to what will be discovered inside.

Meeting these conventions: Camera Movement cont.

Within our opening sequence, we also used close-ups, in particular to enhance distinct emotions. Close-ups are a way for the audience to see an emotion come through and develop for the character but also allows the audience to focus on moments.  We used a few close ups throughout our opening sequence, many being within the shed. These close ups allowed us to enhance the reaction of Milly to her discovery but also so the audience could begin to see that there was to be a character development in the narrative. We used an extreme close up of Milly's eyes as we thought that this was a particularly important moment worth capturing as eyes are often seen as 'windows' into true emotion and eyes are often the most important part of acting as stories can be told through the eyes alone. 

Challenging these conventions: Diegetic Sound

Diegetic sound is sound that the character’s would hear, for example cars or a radio, whereas non-diegetic sounds are sounds which have been edited in during post-production, such as music or sound effects.

As the genre we chose focuses on being realistic, diegetic sounds are usually used.

We decided against the use of mostly diegetic sounds.This is because of the lack of dialogue in our opening sequence. Whilst working on our first draft, we considered using diegetic sounds then later bringing music in however when we applied the sound and music to our animatic, we decided that that as this is the opening sequence, we wanted to convince the audience to watch the rest of our film and without any other sound we could risk losing the interest of our audience.

Music enabled us to enhance the emotions that our character was feeling and we were able to achieve this by choosing to use a simple melodic piano score.

FORM RESEARCH CONVENTION

Form Research ConventionOur form was an opening sequence. There are a number of form conventions that we met and challenged, including: The order of credits Use of colour and it's effectFlashbacks Narrative and voiceover Action/Chase sequence Animation

Meeting these conventions: Opening sequenceWe based the order of our opening sequence on the standard order for independent, social realism films:

Studio Name Production Company Film Title Actors (main actors followed by supporting actors) Casting Director Music Editor Director of Photography Producer Writer  Director

Meeting these conventions: The use of Colour

The use of colour has a lot of importance in film because it creates atmosphere and different colours affect people in different ways.

We felt that it was important to consider the use colour in our opening sequence as art itself is based a lot around colour, but also, it is a way to enhance Milly’s emotions discretely.

Meeting these conventions: The use of Colour cont.

The colours we chose to focus on were blue and yellow. Both are contrasting and have different connotations.

Blue is a ‘cold’ colour and although can have positive connotations, such as it being a relaxing colour, it also symbolises ‘lack of emotion’ and ‘unfriendliness’; Milly is feeling detached from the outside world and therefore blue seemed an appropriate colour to start our sequence with.Yellow however is a warm colour with positive psychological properties; these include: optimism and creativity. By using yellow-orange lighting when Milly enters the shed, it connotes that things will begin to look up for her and she will develop a new self-esteem.

The reasons behind using these contrasting colours was to symbolise that her old and new-found life are going to contrast. Although she will still deal with a number of hardships, she is going to become more comfortable with who she is as a person.

Challenging these conventions: FlashbacksFlashbacks are also a convention of opening sequences; they show past events and often are a good way to gain audience’s attention as the events are revealed throughout the narrative. We challenged this convention as we decided not to use them.

This is because they would be out of place in our film particularly as we wanted to keep the film as naturalistic as possible. Instead, the events are revealed in chronological order starting from when Milly moves into the house, and the events that follow.

Had we been producing the whole film, we would perhaps consider other ways to bring the character’s past into the narrative; this could be done by the use of mise-en-set or use of dialogue.

Challenging these conventions: Narration and Voiceovers

Narration and voiceovers are a way to ‘talk’ to the audience directly. They describe information about the protagonist on top of the action that is on screen and often about their past.

Similarly to flashbacks, we decided to challenge this convention by not including it in our opening sequence as our character’s backstory was not relevant within our sequence. We were focusing on the present of the character and did not want to divert the audience’s attention to unnecessary information.

Challenging these conventions: Action/Chase Sequence

Action and chase scenes can be a very good way to open a film as the audience’s attention is instantly grabbed.

However, they are much more fitting in other genres such as thriller or horror, rather than social realism.

Challenging these conventions: Animation

Animation can provide a unique ‘stamp’ on a film, however it has to be used in the correct way as to not set the wrong tone for the film.

Because of this, we felt that it would not be appropriate to include animation in our opening sequence. 

Our film, being social realism, is about showing introverts in a naturalistic, realistic way. Animation would go against this and would also not appeal to our sophisticated audience - animation is often associated with children’s films or blockbusters.

THEORETICAL RESEARCH:Auteur and Narrative

Theoretical Research:Auteur Theory

Auteur theory is a way for directors to put their own personal ‘stamp’ or vision into their film. Some of the ways we considered putting our own auteur stamps on our opening sequence were:

The use of colour to create mood and atmosphere but also to create different effects on the audience.Using personal items in our mise-en-set.Showing the life of a private character.Exploration of the ‘double lives’ of characters.The planning and consideration of connotations that may come out of our sequence.

Theoretical Research:ColourColour was used as one of our main auteur stamps; we

used a contrast of warm and cold colours to enhance the mood of our character.

Blues were used at the start of our sequence to suggest a ‘cold’ environment – such as when Milly was walking to the door for the first time and whilst eating dinner – but as Milly became more comfortable where she was, yellows were introduced – particularly in the shed.

Colour was an interesting stamp to put on our film as it is often less considered than other auteur stamps. It is a good way to add connotations to the scene and add depth. However, getting the colour right is perhaps something we could further work on to ensure that it looks natural.

Theoretical Research:Mise-en-set

Mise-en-set is what is put into a scene or frame. It can communicate essential information to the audience, particularly about the setting and character. Two main elements of mies-en-set are: settings & props and costume hair & make-up.From our theoretical research we learnt that mies-en-set could be used as an auteur signature in the way that personal items are used as part of the mise-en-set.Therefore, we tried to source personal items, particularly as set dressing.

Many art supplies used had been personally used by some of our crew and had personal significance.There were also books that were similarly used.

Theoretical Research:Showing the life of a private character Another auteur signature that we thought would be

appropriate for our opening sequence is showing the life of a private character and the idea of showing a ‘double’ identity.

Introverts are naturally private people and as our film is social realism it plans to be as realistic as possible. Therefore, by exploring introversion, we are naturally showing the audience the life of a person who doesn’t show much of themselves. However, as the opening sequence of a film is so short, it was difficult to show much of the character’s life - particularly as there was no social contact between Milly and another character. Instead, we tried to make it clear through acting and behaviour; Milly appeared reserved and uncomfortable and good at hiding her true feelings as she told her mum she was okay when she was clearly feeling lonely.

Theoretical Research:‘Double’ identity

The ‘double identity’ theme auteur is one that shows a character in two lights.

This is a signature we had a look at doing as because the character is introverted, she could be shown to be uncomfortable around people but becomes much more content and reassured whilst pursuing art - a hobby she is good at. Similarly to showing the life of a private character, as only a small part of the film was produced, we were not able to explore this signature in much depth. We did however, show that art was going to make a positive impact on our characters life through facial expression and body language.

Theoretical Research:Narrative Theory

The narrative of a film is it the way that it’s ‘story’ or ‘plot’ is structured. Our film best fitted into Todorov’s Equilibrium theory

Often not all the stages are relevant, particularly in the opening sequence alone.

Equilibrium Everything is ‘as normal’, the scene is set.

Disequilibrium Something happens, maybe a change or something goes wrong

Recognition of the disruption

There is a realisation of the change

An attempt to repair the disruption

The protagonist attempts to fix the change.

New equilibrium The ‘problem’ has been solved, but the outcome is different the first

equilibrium.

Theoretical Research:Narrative Theory

Narrative theory applied to our Opening Sequence:Equilibrium Milly is moving into her new house; and although is uncomfortable with the

change, attempts to make this house her home.

Disequilibrium Milly looks outside of her window only to discover the shed; she is curious as

to what is inside.Recognition of the

disruption N/A

An attempt to repair the disruption

She goes into the shed in attempt to see what she will discover.

New equilibrium The art equipment is discovered and she realises that her life will take a

positive new course

Another narrative theory is Propp’s theory of Character Types; this is a theory that believes that all narratives contain the same types of character:

Theoretical Research:Narrative Theory

Hero The protagonist that seeks somethingVillain The antagonist who blocks the hero’s quest

Dispatcher A character who sends the hero on their questHelper A character who aids the heroDonor A character who provides and object to help

the hero’s quest

Princess The ‘reward’ for the hero and the object of the villain’s plots

Father Acts to reward the hero for their effortsFalse Hero Appears to be helping the hero but disrupts

the quest.

Theoretical Research:Narrative Theory

In our opening sequence, the audience only meet Milly – the ‘Hero’.However there are other characters that are relevant of Propp’s theory:

The donor: the person that left all the art supplies. The dispatcher: could also be Milly as she creates the ‘quest’ to art for herself.

Later on in our film, had it been produced, it is likely that more characters would be introduced that would fit into Propp’s theory.

Theoretical Research:Narrative TheoryThe other narrative theory we could apply is Levi Strauss’ theory of Binary Opposites. It is based on the idea that there is a more desirable side to opposites that society expects. In our film examples of these could be:

Extrovert – IntrovertTogether – Alone Happy – Sad

Our character could be seen as challenging certain binary opposites as she is challenging the misconception that being introverted means being lonely and sad; she is still able to be happy, despite feeling the need to be around people all the time.