The ways my media product

used, developed and

challenged forms and
convention of real media
products…
 What Genre?
If I were to classify our film into a genre group, I would put it in a hybrid genre of
short film-drama. Our film was five minutes in length, which is a typical time
convention of most short films. Our film focused on actions and events that
occurred around and to our main character and so the background stories
and personality traits were not focused on. This is also a typical convention
of short films, mainly because of time restraints. However, Blumler and Katz
theory could also be used when explaining why short films focus on the
action rather than character profiles; it could be said that short films are
watched to satisfy a consumers wish for pure entertainment, rather than to
indentify with a character. Our film fills the consumers needs in this respect,
therefore making it a successful film with it’s audience.
Our film is also a drama as it follows a realistic story line with realistic setting
and characters. This is a convention of a realistic drama which focuses on
events that could happen in everyday life and can therefore me identified
with by the audience. Our film follows this convention by re-enforcing the
stereotype of a teenage girl and using recognisable settings like a school.
however, our film does challenge the convention slightly by ending with a
twist, which gives the story an ambiguous finish; something that an
audience could interpret to be unrealistic.
 The Importance of the Establishing
Shot
The most important shot in a film is the establishing
shot, as this is what sets
the tone of the film for the audience.
There are two main styles of establishing shots seen in
typical drama films:

PEOPLE/ACTION SHOTS
The establishing shot of ‘The Holiday’, shows a couple
kissing and laughing. This immediately tells a
viewer that the film is going to be about love.
Obviously, an audience would have some idea of
the theme of the film already through trailers,
posters etc, but this establishing shot would
emphasise the importance of this particular theme
in the film.

MOVING SHOTS
In ‘New Moon’ the establishing shot is of the sun, then
the camera pans down past old stone buildings and
finally onto a crowd. The mise-en-scene of this
portrays to the audience a sense of chaos and
immediately heightens the curiosity felt as to the
reason for the chaos.
The two shots also make a nice juxtaposition on the
screen, the calmness of the sun opposing the
chaos of the crowd. Or is it the fire and heat of the
sun that is the cause of the chaos?
 Our Establishing Shot…
For our establishing shot we decided to subvert the conventions of typical drama films slightly
by having a mid shot of a house, which is held on the screen for four seconds before a slow
zoom begins. This is atypical of most drama films that I have researched as it is just showing
a building, without any shots of characters or actions. The simplicity of the subject of this shot
and the simplicity of the framing could be connoting a sense of normality to the audience.
This was one of our main aims for all the aspects of our film; to make sure they showed a
conventional, normal situation that could then be destroyed.

Our establishing says the establishing

shot challenges shot needs to be fast
the conventions paced in order to
seen in films such gain a viewers
as ‘The Holiday’, attention; like the
where the frame opening shot of ‘New
of the shot is Moon’.
filled with a
person or people.
It also subverts
the convention of
drama films that
 Establishing Sounds
It is very common for a drama film producer to use sound, i.e. music, dialogue, action
noises, to accompany the establishing shot/shots of the film. There are different ways
of doing this, for example, in ‘Remember Me’, soft music starts to play as the
production titles appear on screen. Then the noise of a train can be heard for two
seconds before the establishing shot actually appears. This is a typical way of letting
the audience into the beginning of the film slowly. The technique should heighten a
viewers sense of excitement about watching the film, and it should also make them
start to guess about what sort of shot will come next, thus engaging them fully in the
film.
In the editing of our film, we decided to start the diagetic sound of the radio presenters
voice before the establishing shot was introduced on screen. This was to re-enforce
the convention of drama films mentioned above. The aim of this was to capture the
audience curiosity through their hearing before giving them anything to look at.
Starting with such a loud clear voice that was recognisable as a radio presenter
emphasised the timing of the opening of the film. The words “Good Morning”,
combined with the picture of a house and the sun just seen in the right hand corner of
the frame, with no other diagetic sounds from the street tells the audience that this
film definitely starts in the early morning. The date, spoken clearly and loudly, also
registers in a viewers brain and they can then recognise the ending as being on the
same morning; the point of the story.
 Establishing Character

Another important aspect of any film is the However, in a short film, it is hard to portray a
introduction of the character/s. In most drama’s character in depth because of time restraints. So,
this is particularly important as they focus of most short films stick to just portraying things
happening to the character. Our film re-enforces the
realistic characterisations that the audience can conventions of short film characterisation by
recognise, and so establishing the reality of the using simple shots of everyday
character early on helps this actions recognisable to the audience.
affect. For instance, in ‘Cruel Waking up, washing and eating are all
Intentions’, the main character common-place actions that don’t tell
is established in a shot of him us anything unique about the
in his car mirror. This seems to character. As the audience already
know at this point of the film that the
be connoting his personality as
character has to take her driving test
self-loving, and the shots of his obviously today, they are involved with the film
expensive car, combined with his comfortable by the event that they know is taking
looking position in the drivers show that he is a place soon, rather than the
privileged character. personality and the emotions of the
character.
 Title Credits
The use of title credits in a film is an aspect of film production that does not have many set
conventions. However, it could be said that ‘classic’ films or films that want to portray a ‘classic’
image, such as ‘Cruel Intentions’, mainly include detailed titled credits played over establishing
shots of the film. Music is also often played while this is happening, and the music usually fits
with the themes of the play. For example, in ‘Cruel Intentions’, an upbeat song that connotes
freedom and youth is played while the credits role and screen aerial shots of a motorway with
cars speeding along it. This style of opening credits gives information of the production team
behind the film, while also establishing the style and some themes of the play.
These are still from the opening
credits of ‘Cruel Intentions’. The
camera is moving very fast
across land with an aerial
viewpoint and tilts upwards as
we reach the view of the city.
Text is appearing and leaving
the screen as music plays.

Although we wanted our film to be in a classic sort of style, with no abstract of out of the ordinary
aspects, we decided to challenge the convention of opening credits, seen in ‘Cruel Intentions’.
Instead, we separated the credit text from the pictures shown on screen. In our credit sequence,
the three establishing shots (shown in slide 6) alternate with these three screens:
 This scene consists of one
shot, which challenges the Scene Three
conventions of shooting
conversations in films, like
the ones seen in the stills
from Lurhman’s Romeo and
Juliet, below. Typically,
when two people are
holding a conversation in a
scene, there is a varied
range of shots to give the
audience an interesting view
of each character. The most
common shots used are;
over-the-shoulder shots,
mid-shots and POV shots.
However, this conversation scene in our film challenges all the conventions mentioned. The whole thing is one shot, with
limited movement and no variation of angle. We added this shot in to give the impression of somebody watching the two
characters; it is almost like a CCTV camera. However, we knew that this could have negative connotations, so we
subverted these by using bright natural lighting and using no sinister music, as might be seen in a typical drama scene of
this nature. We aimed to give the audience a change in style from the very naturalistic look of the rest of the scenes
without making the film seem too stylised. We hope that the shot also served to increase the audiences curiosity about this
characters day by making them wonder who the character was if he was not important enough to be shown in close up.
 End shot
The final shot of our film re-enforced a commonly
seen convention of drama film endings; the use of a
similar, or exactly the same, shot at the end of the
film as that at the beginning. This is particularly
seen in Romeo and Juliet, where the beginning
shot sees a TV screen with a woman talking
(below.) At the very end of the film, the screen
again shows the same woman on the TV screen,
for a similar length of time. This technique gives the
film a firm beginning and ending, and heightens the
audience sense of connection to the film, as they
recognise the shot that has not been seen since the
beginning of the film.
Our film follows this convention for the same
reasons, although we also used the same sound
effects, because we wanted to emphasise the fact
that it was the same day again at the end of the
film.
. However, our film is also challenging
final shot conventions found in dramas
such as Romeo and Juliet by playing
music before the screen goes blank. Our
film has a sound bridge from the final
shot to the credits to emphasise the
ambiguity of the ending. Unlike most
drama films, which would end on the
final shot and then cut to a blank screen.
The music would then fade up or cut in
with the credits. In this way
 Main actors
My Poster Tagline/s

Plain
background

Cartoon
drawing
centred
on page

Includes all main production details

Big, bold font titles in block shapes
The conventions I took from magazines that didn't focus on just film, such as Radio Times, Sky Magazine and CSMA
magazine, were:

>The use of a three colour pallet.

Most mainstream magazine articles use three colours in one article to heighten the appeal of the aesthetics to a reader. Also, when
used consecutively throughout other articles, the pallet creates a sense of cohesion.

>The nearly even balance of picture to text.

Although I originally had less text, even after I had added more, my article still resembled the equal picture/text style of most
mainstream magazines' film review pages. I wanted to use this convention to carry on my idea that our film should have a secondary
audience of families. This page should hopefully appeal to someone who doesn't have the inclination to read a long, opinionated
review articles but would watch a film because the pictures look interesting and a popular magazine thinks it's good.

>The use of features and add-ins

This is a convention that is also seen in some film review magazines, with small, side-boxes with statistics in, which are hardly
different from the main body of text. However, I challenged the stereotype of this style of feature by using block colours with bold-
font text to differentiate it from the text, as per the conventions of mainstream magazines.
 Cohesion throughout ancillary task
and main product

One Day…
Same colour
pink used
throughout

Throughout our film and the ancillary texts, we managed to keep to the same colour
text for the title of the film. The font was kept simple, although if we were to do the
whole project again, I would make sure we used exactly the same font instead of
switching between Times New Roman and Arial, as we have done. This technique is
a very common convention of media products as it brings all the products to do with
the main production together and helps with the audiences recognition of the
particular media text as a whole.
How effective the combination
of my main product and my
ancillary texts was…
 Poster
For this ancillary task I researched into all different types of film posters and other
promotional texts. I looked at very popular blockbuster films first and found that they
mainly followed the same convention; having the character/s of the film as the main
subject for the poster. This is because blockbusters like Indiana Jones and James
Bond rely somewhat on the credibility of the actors and the popularity of the
characters they play. As our film is a short film, I decided to keep with the idea that
our audience should be more concerned with what is happening to the character.
Because of this point, I decided to research into more independent films which
would follow the same sort of ‘abstract reality’ themes that our film plays with. Indie
films such as The Savages and Juno, were very popular but still independent and
unusual and this is the type of ideal I was looking for in our film.
So, I took the idea of using drawings instead of photos from many existing posters.
The cartoon on my poster connotes a childlike innocence which is emphasised by the
subject of the drawing; the perfect image of a house. I wanted to portray a sense of
almost false security with the audience but in an obvious way. I wanted a consumer
to look at the poster and already begin to realise that something was going to wrong
in the film, because of the way the positive image was represented.
Overall I felt my film poster worked very well in connection to our film. It portrayed a
sense of simplicity that is also seen in the mise-en-scene of the actual film and it
could be said to be as ambiguous as the ending. It also linked well to our film
because it connoted the same sort of innocence that the situation our character was
in; one of happiness, where something is bound to go wrong.
 Film Review Page
For my magazine review page I decided to research into publications such as The Radio Times and Sky
magazine, which are more mainstream and have a wider audience than exclusively film magazines such as
Total Film. The reason behind this was because I want our film to be able to appeal to a wider audience,
such as families, as well as the primary age group of 15-25 year olds. Looking at these mainstream
magazines I found that they often focused on certain aspects of the film, rather than simply reviewing them. I
liked this idea and so decided to make my article from the angle of being ‘on location’.
For this I knew that I needed suitable pictures, so Ieuan and I decided to take some ‘behind the scenes’
shots, featuring actors and crew at work, filming and rehearsing. We succeeded in this by using natural
lighting to give a realistic look to the pictures. We also took the pictures while the subjects were moving
around, not posing, so that the action effect was emphasised. Also, we tried to fill the frame of each picture
as much as possible to give them a busy composition, which added to the sense of action seen.
Also in my article I used large bold prints for the title and the quotes and had a bright colour pallet. My reason
for this was because I had seen in research that magazines such as Total Film usually have a very plain
layout and colour scheme for their articles. I felt that, although this look is sophisticated, it can sometimes
seem that the magazine is un-interested in the film. So, I used an interesting layout with plenty of pictures
and a ranging colour pallet of pink and yellow to give the article a bright, attractive look that should appeal to
a wide audience, particularly my target audience.
My article talked about the experiences of the lead actor, mentioning her own stories and quotes. It also
talked about the film as a whole in a positive light. I wanted to keep the opinions of my article simple because
that fit with the main conventions of mainstream magazine reviews.

Over all, I feel my article followed the conventions of the magazines I felt were most appealing, and this
meant that my aim to make our film appeal to a wider audience was being succeeded in. However, if I were
to repeat the process of this ancillary task, I would research film magazines such as Empire and Total Film,
to see what advantages they had over the mainstream magazines I looked at this time. I would then maybe
produce another review page to see which one suited our film best.
What I learnt from my audience
feedback…
After we had finished the final editing of our film, we gave a showing to our class. This was our first
experience of interaction with our target audience after the film was finished and therefore we knew
that their impressions were important. We had some positive feedback verbally after the showing,
although it was hard to take the opinions as totally valid because we were judging other films at the
same time and so there was a lot of comparison occurring.
However, after comparing the reactions of people outside our target audience; teachers, parent etc,
it was useful to know that in comparison, our film did appeal to our target audience more. We found
out that this was successful because members of our target audience were able to relate to the
situations and environments that our character found herself in.
In order to gain more accurate audience feedback, we produced a questionnaire that asked our
target audience a number of questions about their opinions on the film. From their answers we learnt
that our judgement was right about having a twist at the end, as everyone who participated in the
questionnaire said they enjoyed this. We also found that our choice of music was good because
everybody said they thought the four song choices used fitted the film. The only negative reaction we
got was with some of the editing, particularly in the scene where the character played by Matthew
Loft is asking out Lydia. The sound quality was said to be not as good here as in the rest of the film
and this is definitely something we will keep in mind for future media productions.
When I first drafted out my poster and my film review page I made several attempts. The other
examples of posters can be seen on my blog were discarded because I learnt from audience
feedback that they didn’t seem to fit the ideology of our film enough. However, I stuck with my last
attempt because I learnt that several members of our target audience felt that they would go and
watch the film that that poster advertised. My review page was generally accepted by my target
audience, once they understood that I wanted to look at this task from a more mainstream angle, in
order to gain a wider audience. However, if I were to produce another review page I may try to make
it more like the pages seen in less well known film magazines, as this might appeal to members of
my target audience more.
In all I learnt that our film, and my ancillary texts, were pretty much successful all round, but each
had a few minor problems. The film was said to be enjoyable, but there were a few bad points when
it came to editing and sound quality. The ancillary texts were mainly accepted as linking to the film,
but the review page could have gone in a completely different direction and may have acquired more
praise from members of my target audience because of this.
My use of New Media
Technology…
New Media Technology – Sony
Vegas
We used Sony
Vegas video
editing software
to produce our
film. We had
neither of us
used this
programme
before, but found
that it was very
easy to use
while still having
a vast range of
very useful
features.
New Media Technology - Adobe
Photoshop
I only ended up using
this programme once
throughout the
production of our film,
on a picture for my
article.
However, I know the
benefits of using
Adobe from previous
projects and would
have liked to have
used this more in my
production, if I had
been given the
opportunity.
 Word
I used Microsoft Word
for both my article
and my poster.

Microsoft Word is not a

new media technology to
me but it is still a very
useful programme to have
because of its simplicity
and ease of use.
 ‘Scribd’
New Media Technology - ‘Scribd’

I used Scribd to upload this presentation. This

meant that I could then publish it onto my blog
with ease and it could be viewed easily by
anyone.
 Blogspot.com

New media technology

Blogspot.com was the most useful site when it came

to uploading work for my peers and the public to see.
It was very useful as you can add anything to it and
so my teacher was able to see what stage I was at
with work, and my classmates could use my posts as
prompts for their own work. It was also useful to be
able to keep entries up to date as to where I was in
the production, which helped me stay organised.