Evaluation: Question 1

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

Genre

When producing my media product I used, developed and challenged several varieties of forms and conventions used in many typical drama films to enable me to produce a professional viral advert, film poster and final film. First to start my production I looked at different examples of films under the genre of drama/thriller, such as: The Descendants, The Godfather and The Help; I compared and contrasted the similarities between them all such as storyline, adverts, audience profile and their film posters.

  This research enabled me to understand further on how drama/thriller films appeal to their audience, which varies in gender, sex, age, location and so forth.  For example, drama films aimed at an older audience tend to have more realistic and relatable storylines, possibly films that are set in the past such as the subgenres of historical and period pieces which have truth behind them. Whereas drama’s aimed at a younger, youthful audience tends to have certain storylines based around themes such as love, for example, The Notebook.

Furthermore, dramas aimed at a younger audience are more likely to have sub genres such as thriller where the plots are slightly more tense and associated with energy, movement.  These are characteristics associated with a younger audience, hence why certain storylines may be appealing to them.

After looking at similarities between different films, I had decided that our film would have to have aspects of thriller and relatable context in order to appeal to our audience profile, being both male and females which are young adults. I started to plan a rough storyline and mind map simple, yet interesting scenarios which I could incorporate into a short film.  Creating a storyline was quite simple as I had a rough idea of how conventions in drama films worked, for example, how creating an opening, middle and conclusion helps to plan out a film.

Beginning:

Middle:

Conclusion:

The narrative I created follows certain conventions of a drama such as the exhibition real life situations with realistic characters. Destiny has lost her job, her tenancy and has no money to afford the basics such as food and shelter. This makes our characters realistic as our audience could relate to going through difficult times concerning money.

Another aspect of our characters that I feel is relatable is the way Destiny’s friend, Maddy, has to lend her money and support her which is a situation that people may have found themselves in before. Dramas usually portray a journey of character development within their storyline. This is shown in our film ‘Greed’ as Destiny develops from being poor, to a millionaire back to being poor. The purpose of this is to move to audience emotionally, seeing certain characters go through bad times in their lives such as having no money and having to kill themselves. 

A journey from being unhappy:

To happy after visiting the Loan Shark:

Another convention of a drama storyline is that they are structured with climax and anti-climax moments such as at the end of ‘Greed’ where Destiny finds out she has to kill herself which also supports the convention of a moment of realization as Destiny realizes she did the wrong thing when agreeing to the Loan Shark.

There are serious representations of real life situations within our storyline such as money worries and lending money. This follows the conventions of a stereotypical drama as there is no fantasy elements of ‘Greed’ that make the audience unable to escape within the film. These events during the film are represents emotions and situations at their true heights and dramatizes them, showing emotions at their best and worse.

Some aspects of our short film challenge the usual conventions of a drama. For example, happy endings/resolutions are included within a drama, bringing any conflicts to a halt and putting peace back into the equation. Our film ‘Greed’ has a negative ending; Destiny receives the letter containing the information that she has to kill herself at the end of our film. This is a tragic turn in the storyline and doesn’t support this specific convention of having a happy ending.

We used a male Loan Shark to follow the stereotypical role of the dominant character within Drama films. This helped create the innocent personality of Destiny as she is the one succumbing to the Loan Sharks contract and having to do what he tells her to do. This may appeal to the audience as it creates tension and makes them question what they would do if they were in that situation. If we contradicted stereotypes and made the Loan Shark a female, the character would not have been as brutal.

To conclude, our film does include many conventions included in the genre of a drama such as realistic characters and storyline. Our characters are dramatic and show emotions in their true height. However, some aspects of the film challenge traditional conventions, which could be because our film is a drama/thriller and also because when creating the storyline we wanted our film to stand out from any other drama film.

 Conventions

Within our film, we displayed continuity through match on action, shot reverse shot and 180 degree rule. Match on action is used in the occasions where we needed to add effect on a certain item, including the phone when she calls the Loan Shark. Match on action is important when adding emphasis to a film. Furthermore, it's a good way of directing the audiences attention to a certain object, such as the scene of Destiny laid in bed, which is full of Match on Action as we thought the scene would be too long as just one shot (Medium shot.) 

Shot reverse shot is used within Destiny's conversations with Maddy and the Loan Shark. This use of editing gives our film a pace and makes the film more interesting to watch. During shot reverse shots, the audience is also able to see the characters facial expressions which is crucial within our film as it shows how Destiny is feeling when speaking to Maddy about not being able to give her the money back and the Loan Shark when he is telling her that she has to kill someone for the money she wants to lend. This technique of shot reverse shot is used within existing films such as Shutter Island, where they are in conversation and it shows the characters facial expression whilst speaking.

During these conversations we used sound bridges to smooth out the cuts between shots, which makes the scenes seem more realistic. It makes it look more realistic as it leaves necessary gaps between the characters speaking and answering. We also used a sound bridge over the office opening where Destiny knocks. The knocking sound was added with the Loan Shark's speech over the top, to make it seem like the Loan Shark was saying "Come in" whilst Destiny was still  knocking. This gives the Loan Shark a eager, rushed kind of persona that we wanted him to have.  As always, we also applied the 180 degree rule to all conversations.

 Furthermore, we included a montage within the ending of our film. This montage included quick editing and music that follows the beat of the shot cuts. This makes the film more energetic and appeals to our younger audience. Within this montage, we haven't used any continuity shots, which breaks the rule and follows the emotions of the main character, Destiny as she goes on her spending spree after receiving her money. Other films include montages to show a change in time and build up a fast pace. We decided to do a montage after watching Ghostbusters and the montage they used to show the amount of things they did in a short amount of time. Our montage is based around 1 week, so this could also be an effect of ours. 

 

However, within the rest of our film prior to the montage, the use of Mise en sine and continuity is important. The film wouldn't make sense without continuity and with a plot like ours, with a twist, the audience would need to understand what was happening throughout the whole film. This also makes the film look more realistic to the audience, as when watching, it will just flow. This was specifically done through costume, props and scenery. When filming the scene within the park, we encountered an issue with the lighting. To resolve this we filtered the film with colour correction to darken the shots of Destiny to match the lighting of Maddy's shots. Also, another continuity issue was within the Loan Shark scene where the pieces of paper were different on each shots as they were filmed on different days. To solve this problem we had to wire frame the medium shot to crop out the sheet of paper. Contrary to this, we had a few advantages including planning beforehand, where we created production day packs to keep a track of where we were at and what needed to stay the same such as clothing, props and scenery. Furthermore, we needed to keep our continuity consistent, so this helped us to do that along with remembering the scripts that were necessary.

Before:

 

After:

Audience Pleasure

During watching our film, our audience should receive some pleasure from viewing our storyline in the way we have filmed it. Richard Dyer's theory relates to why we watch films, including: Energy, Abundance, Intensity, Transparency and Community. Our film supports this theory as our film shoes energy within the montage at the end of the film. This burst of energy may provide audience pleasure to our audience and make them want to watch it as they want to be energised and motivated. Usually films use action and fight scenes to create this effect however within our film we use fast pace editing during the montage. This grasps the audiences attention. Abundance is also included in our film as Destiny gains money which she spends on a house, car and paying all her friends back. This captures the audience in a dreamland and makes them question what they would live like and spend the money on if they won them lottery and had all that money themselves.

This burst of energy is also shown in the film Rocky, where the montage shows him training for the fight. This, followed by music made a fast pace montage that helped the audience to understand how hard he trained. 

Uses and gratifications theory plays a vital part in the pleasure our audience will receive. This theory is based around the audience using films and not getting used by the film. Our film has morals about greed within the storyline, this means the audience may use our film to escape into our films 'utopia' and question their own abilities with money and how they're coping. The audience for our film may gain pleasure from watching our character suffer financially, as it makes them feel better about the situations they are in themselves. This gratification is not forced upon our audience, but the opposite. Our audience can either reject, use or play with the media we have provided for them. However, there are many reasons in which our audience would use to use or play with our film rather than reject it. 

This is similarly portrayed in films such as Jumper where a man is able to steal money from a bank without getting caught due to his ability. This creates a Utopia for the audience as they imagine themselves with money and the ability to do what the main character did.

Other that escapism, our film is an example of a diversion. The character, Destiny's story provides a diversion for the audience, as it lets them forget about their own problems whilst basking in the characters. Furthermore, this links in with the fact that the audience can compare the characters choice of lifestyle with their own. Many people may enjoy doing this, as they may believe they would have known a better thing to do in Destiny's situation. As the audience is in control, the consumption of the media helps them gain emotional satisfaction and nag help with the issues of personal problems. This means that our audience may come to conclusions about what they should do in any situations of their own by watching our characters make the mistakes they don't want to make.