Evaluation - In what ways does your media product use, develop

or challenge forms and conventions of real media

products?

By Harry Pennington

Characters

– After much deliberation about possible variety we could have that may not have conformed to the stereotypical characterisation of those in a British Crime film, we decided that we would just go ahead and adhere to the codes and conventions of our genre.

- This means that any potential viewers of our film would already know what to expect and therefore we could use this to our advantage.

- We were originally going to try and have some female characters in our film, but our choice resulted in an all-male cast, with each character exhibiting the kind of masculinity that would normally be associated with male characters in British Crime Films.

Narrative

- Because of the genre of our film and what we wanted to achieve, we decided to utilise Barthes' Narrative Theory, setting up our product with an action scene right at the beginning, thus being rewarded with the viewers attention.

- We decided to use this theory again by creating a certain enigma with the lighting for the character and mannerisms of “The Suit”, and this is in order to keep the viewers intrigued and interested in the kind of role that this mysterious character will play in our film.

- This goes against one of the main stereotypes as there are hardly ever characters in these kinds of films who are shrouded in mystery right from start to finish.

Lighting

- It is clear that many of our shots are in low-key lighting and this is

definitely conforming to the general codes and conventions of

our genre of film.

- However, we agreed to set the scenes with “The Suit” in chiaroscuro lighting and this is furthering our attempts to cast a shadow of doubt over who he is, what he wants or even if he is a villain, though we of course know that he is the boss of the group.

Sound

- The narration of our film is far less prevalent than what is usually expected for a British Crime film, this and the music and other sounds in general are the main representations of ways in which we are going against general codes of these kinds of films

- The music is slower and quieter than usual, thus making the atmosphere different to most Crime films. There is still action, but the music used gives a different perspective on what could be happened, as opposed to the common fast tempo music that goes with senseless violence.