Evaluation Question 1

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

Veronika
Anna

Camera work:

Conventions used:

Close-up shot - The close-up shot takes us into the mind of a character. It is used to reveal deeper emotions or show more detail. This is quite a specific shot which is used in drama film because it helps the dramatic storyline; it affects the audience much more.

We met this convention by using a close up shot on the girl’s feet stepping in the water without shoes used as the opening shot of our production to directly indicate the genre to the audience by showing someone’s vulnerability and making the audience feel sorry for the person. This straight away engages the audience and provokes questions about what is going to happen which makes them follow the storyline. For example, in the movie Now Is Good, they used a lot of close up shots when they wanted to reveal the girl’s emotions. Close up shots are also used in TV dramas like East Enders because it is a good way of showing emotions.

High angle - High angles make the object seem smaller and less significant. If a character is shown it makes them look powerless and miserable. This is a shot quite often used in drama films because we often see people struggling or having problems in drama movies so they are more likely to be shown through a high angle.

We used this convention because we wanted to have the effect that it has. High angle shot on the girl making her look powerless and helpless. It also shows her facial expression which seems to be very confused and this adds to the idea of her being lost and that suggests that she might be in danger and not aware of what might happen. There was a moment in the movie Django which even though is an adventurous movie they used a high angle shot to make the audience look down the person dying on the floor and it made him look powerless.

Conventions developed:

Long shot is usually used to set a scene, a location. For example in the movie Listen to your heart there is a long establishing shot of a big city in the beginning. The idea of the city used as an establishing shot suggest that cities are more dangerous, there is more people and it is easier to get attacked so the mood and the expectations of the audience changes. We used a long shot to give more information about the location and what’s around the characters but we developed it by making it a high angle shot and left it for longer to show that she is not actually alone in the ‘empty’ looking place, and there is someone behind her which is suspicious because of his look.

Conventions challenged:

We understood the convention of a city being very busy and surrounded by people but we showed her in an isolated place to show that even though there is people living in this place she is alone. This idea makes it even more dangerous knowing that there are more possibilities of getting hurt in a place, where there are people with a lot of different intentions. We understood this convention and challenged it by isolating her in the city. The likelihood of her getting attacked in this situation is increased. This will raise the possibilities of

 

 

Mise-en-scene

 

Conventions used and developed:

 

·         Atmosphere

Pathetic fallacy – rain is negative, darkness etc.

Pathetic fallacy sets the mood of the movie especially in drama films. The weather usually affects people’s mood and we used the rain and we also developed it by emphasising it when she actually steps in the water without shoes to create a better dramatic atmosphere. The bad condition that the girl is in, combined with the bad weather increases her vulnerability. Again, an example for this is the movie Requiem for a dream. I’ve noticed that when the weather is sunny good things happen, and when it is winter bad things happen. The weather could symbolise bad and good.

We worked hard to get the message across by using the rain but we couldn’t film in the rain because we didn’t have the necessary equipment or assistants.

·         How the characters are introduced:

There is evidence that most of the people start using drugs or start smoking because they have been influenced by their friends or people who they want to impress. An example of this could be the movie called Thirteen. It shows how friends can be bad influence. We wanted to use this convention but also try and develop it. We developed it by making the friend of the protagonist insist for the drugs expecting the main character to be the ‘victim’ but we challenged it by  not showing which one of them is the bad influence because there is nothing that indicates it. We tried to send a social message for young people, how peer pressure could be bad in society and also, to emphasise the fact that nowadays the accessibility of drugs is increased and through our production we show that even young girls can buy drugs.

Conventions challenged:

Usually attacks and bad things happen at night but we broke this convention by having the guy attack the girl during the day. The light of the day symbolises safety and white could symbolise freedom, but actually we challenged this in our production to show that bad things can happen during the day as well, especially when you are in a bad condition.

 

Editing

Conventions used:

Sound – The sad song that is at the beginning of the production sets the mood and the drama of the situation we wanted to emphasise the changes in the mood by creating a contrast between the two parts to transmit the different emotions of the two scenes. The ‘’happy’’ sound that we added in the second part changes the audience’s mood and makes them realise that this is actually the beginning of the film and the girls is just alright this time. This will intrigue the audience by wanting to know what is going to happen with the girl. A movie called The Lovely Bones is a good example of showing contrast through sound. In the beginning there is a happy sound introducing the girl’s life but that changes after she finds out she is actually dead, the sound changes into a dramatic one.

Conventions developed:

Colours of the scenes – usually in movies, girls are presented in different ways. For example, the clothes they wear, and their own room – it all represents their personality. Our character is more girly, and we showed this by her room being pink which represents girly, easy going, more innocent.  But when editing, we realised that the lighting affected this because it was a bit dark, so when we edited the shots we made them lighter.

Conventions challenged:

Titles – By doing our research we have noticed that Drama films have very simple titles because there is no need to exaggerate the titles when the drama is transmitted through the storyline. For example, the movie Big Fish and Pursuit of Happiness show this. We wanted to break this convention because we found a good way in which we could symbolise the meaning of our title which was Falling Apart. We had a glass breaking which was breaking the conventions of a normal drama title.

Started from the end of the film and broke the convention of a storyline going in order. We showed this by having the Glass breaking symbolising a life being shattered and destroyed. Going back reversed showed how everything was okay before. We also visually communicated saying 9 hours earlier.