Evaluation: Question one - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

"Codes and conventions: the familiar and predictable forms and techniques used by the media to communicate certain ideas or to convey a desired impression. Technical codes include camera angles, sound, and lighting. Symbolic codes include the language, dress, and actions of characters." - www.saskschool.co.uk


Short Film:
In order to show the ways in which my media product uses, develops and challenges forms and conventions of real media products I chose to show the typical and expected conventions of a short film through using and acknowledging certain aspects of a short film that is similar to our short film in several ways. The film I chose to use was 'About A girl', directed by Brian Percival and winner of the bafta for best short film this film is similar in both style and message to our short film. In doing so I allowed myself practice screen grabbing and annotating in terms of codes and conventions - this gave me a better understanding and a better grasp whilst doing the same task for my own short film.



'About A Girl'

1) I chose this particular screen shot of the opening titles due to the fact that it conveys to the audience an idea of what the film is about as well as a theme throughout the film - the 'text' type font and the audio of someone 'texting' connotes a childish/teenage implication within the film. As well as the visual connotation the title of the film itself implying the same thing. This could be seen as sticking the conventions of short film due to the fact that the title of the film relates to the theme and message of the film itself, this is also applicable to my short film 'Bruises'. 

2) I chose screen shot two as I feel it shows a good representation of all it's characters, the main character in the front as a 'forgotten youth' with her mobile phone out. Whilst you get an idea of her family in the back with her nagging sister and her mum scratching away at a scratch card. By having the girl in front it connotes that she is the main protagonist.

3) I chose this screen shot as direction clearly shows the girls isolation - her hands on her lap, slightly hidden in her sleeves and her face looking down sorrowfully. I also chose this shot because it when I first started becoming curious of what was in the carrier bag, as the girls thought trail becomes darker and darker, you become more aware of the carrier bag and what form of morbidity it may contain.

4) I chose this screen shot as it wraps up the whole story. Like every short film I have seen, there has been some form of shot or scene that wraps up any questions on confusion throughout the film. Like Home, which has a shot of a Donkey to clear up any confusion of what the man could be hiding in his flat. Again, I feel the use of an underwater shot also adds to the personal creative style, it shows how brutal things really can get for such an innocent young girl

5) My final screen shot is of the final credits of the film. They are simple black and white credits rolling up from bottom to top. The font is a sans serif font which connotes the youth of the girl as it is a curly and childish looking font.

After having showed the typical and expected conventions of a short film through the use of 'About A Girl' I chose use the same process to do a more in depth version for my media product - I used the same method in taking screen grabs and then analysing them.

My short film: Bruises.

1) This is a screen grab of our title screen - within this shot we are being subversive and challenging the conventions due to the fact that our title does not appear at the beginning of our film but appears after a shot roughly 35 seconds of film footage. However we also met the conventions of a real media product through the use of the simple style in which our titles our presented - white writing on a black background

2) This screen grab is essentially the first shot and opening of the film itself - as mentioned in screen grab one and within my post-production post we decided to begin our short film by entering straight into the footage - this challenges forms and conventions due to the fact that the norm is for short films to open with a title and plausibly other information e.g. key cast names and crew names.

3) This shot appears after the title shot, the dialogue within this shot is purposely distorted, the muffling effect used connotes Grace's daydream and conveys to the audience Grace's lack of focus within her class - In doing this we are challenging the conventions due to a lack of dialogue within the entirety of the film up until this point. However we are still participating in following the forms and conventions of a short film by majorly focusing on the central protagonist within the film due to the lack of introduction of any other characters so far.

4) Similarly to screen grab three I would say that this shot meets conventions of a real media product due to the fact that the focus is on the central protagonist and the only main character introduced to the audience at this point - as well as this similarly to screen seven it also conveys the desired message to the audience as they question why she is holding her arm paired with why is she so distracted.

5) This shot of 'Grace' sat in her classroom surrounded by her classmates whilst a teacher is stood at the front uses forms and conventions of real media products due to the fact that the shot establishes information to the audience about 'Grace' - it shows her age group, the fact that she is currently in school as well as the fact that she is currently being told off but that she is relatively quiet. The mise-en-scene employed within this shot as well as the recognisable school surrounding follows the conventions of a short film.

6) Screen grab number six could be considered to follow the forms and conventions and even develop them due to the creative camera angle used within the shot - the fact that the camera is positioned marginally higher than 'Grace' herself connotes the vulnerability of 'Grace' as well as the childish image she is drawing within the shot.

7) This shot follows forms and conventions and connotes a message we wished to convey in our film through the placing of props within the shot - the tablets loosely hanging out of a pocket of 'Grace's' bag puts a spin on her death later on in the film, it hints at mental illness/suicide rather than the obvious of her father killing her, however the fact that her father is still positioned in the doorway makes the audience question what happened therefore creating their own reading and taking their own message from the film -by doing this within this shot I would say that we are developing However, I think the different shot angle however develops these forms and conventions similarly to screen grab sixteen by exploring creative camera angles.

8) In this shot other than the fact that similarly to screen grab five a school environment and 'school-girl' character is created I believe that this particular shot I believe challenges and subverts the forms and conventions of real media products due to the fact that as a specifically placed extra walks directly past the camera elements of the shot change - the speed and clarity of the shot are distorted, done in the post-production editing phase this slow motion and blur edit is not a typical edit seen within short films therefore breaking the conventions of real media products.

9) Screen grab number nine challenges the conventions of real media products due to the fact that both character's identities are hidden within the shot - it is the first shot in which we meet 'Grace's' father and his identity remains basically this level of hidden throughout the whole film, with the audience never clearly seeing his face. In employing a hidden indentity for the father we have reinforced and connoted 'Grace's' fear of her father as well as his looming and intimidating presence within the film - creating this identity for the father could arguably being using conventions of real media products due to the fact that we are founding the 'evil' character within the film.

10) Within this shot I believe that we have met This shot uses forms and conventions as it establishes Grace's life, the the conventions due to the fact that this shot informs the audience of the location at which the next scene is taking place and in doing so creating an establishing shot of 'Grace's' home. As well as establishing 'Grace's' home it also establishes elements of her life - the loneliness within her life is reflected through the darkness surrounding her house and connoted by the fact that her bedroom light is the only light on within the house.

11) Screen grab number eleven develops forms and conventions within real media products the mirror into which the camera is shooting emphasises Grace's vulnerability and fear as well as making the audience debatably on edge and sympathetic towards 'Grace' due to the fact that the audience can see more than 'Grace' can, we are aware of her father entering the room before 'Grace' herself is - this element of the audience knowing more than the characters is not explored a great deal within short film, this is due to the fact that establishing this within a short film could present itself as difficult.

12) I chose this particular shot due to the fact that aids in the development of codes and conventions within our short film - it depicts the fear 'Grace' experiences when entering her own her, her rushed actions and panic whilst leaving the door open connote her anxiousness. The shot size; a long shot helps to  accentuate the emptiness of her house and enables the audience to relate and debatably empathise with 'Grace', therefore using and developing the conventions of real media products.

13) Screen grab thirteen similarly to screen grab fourteen uses forms and conventions by setting 'Grace' up as a vulnerable character - yet again it is her clothing and body language that connote vulnerability, the exposure of skin and the closed position she is sitting in.

14) This screen grab uses codes and conventions of real media products due to the fact that similarly to screen grab eleven 'Grace's' vulnerability is set up by the elements within the shot - the clothing she is wearing is typical of a young girl and the fact that she is showing flesh makes me seem more vulnerable. She is also presented as vulnerable due to the framing of the shot - the hidden identity of the father continues and almost implies to the reader that as he has no identity he can get away with what he is doing. Another factor that uses forms and conventions of real media products is the fact that we had to make use of a reflector, although additional lighting  was used within the majority of our shots the use of the reflector within this shot highlighted 'Grace's' father grabbing her arm - following this conventions allowed us to create a better quality film.

15) This shot both subverts and conforms to codes and conventions of real media products - the red lighting of the shot, created by the TV suggests an 'evil' undertone to both the scenario within shot and the character within shot, 'Grace's' father. However the subversive elements within the shot stem from the fact that the central character within this shot still has their identity hidden hides a lot from the audience e.g. what happened after his fight with 'Grace'? Did he kill her?

16) This shot being one of the final shots in the ending sequence of the short film challenges codes and conventions of real media products due to the fact that it is an extreme close up - this closeness of this shot means that the audience are not fully aware of what the shot is actually of, the shots piece together what the eventual outcome of the film is. In creating this ending I believe that we have developed conventions that are used within media products by using creating angles within our shots - we have used basic shots but mixed with these the shots could arguably be an interesting combination to watch.

Postcard:

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In terms of designing my postcard I attempted to follow the codes and conventions of and the general design of the professional postcard designs seen to the right (img.1). When considering the front design of my postcard I have attempted to follow strictly the codes and conventions of real media products, as described in post sixteen which consisted of the research I carried out into already existing examples of postcards for short films, once I had gathered the examples I analysed them; I looked at the layout, the images used, the production logos, the additional information and the tag lines.

I then set about creating my own designs with the codes and conventions in mind to enable me to create a postcard to a professional standard, in order to achieve this I used a high quality camera digital SLR camera (provided by the school), I also used appropriate editing software - photoshop as it was the best option and employs a large range of editing options available. As made clear from my above postcard design I have attempted to create a professional postcard in both physical appearance and in textual referencing - I have chosen to break certain conventions for tactical reasons, the shaping of my postcard is not that of a normal 10x15 postcard, the width of my postcard is much larger than it's height, this leading to my postcard being more rectangular than a normal relatively square postcard. Not only does this design allow for my central front image to look more effective but also creates an individual and creative style to my postcard, thus making it memorable and eye catching to the viewer and in doing this ticking all of the boxes for what a postcard as a marketing strategy should do.


In terms of the back of my postcard apart from the previously mentioned convention break in terms of the shape of my postcard I believe I have both used and developed forms and conventions - yet again after carrying out research several vital elements to include became clear: relevant film production information, cast information, the title (if not employed on the front), space for a stamp as well as the production company logo - I proceeded to follow all of these conventions, I developed the convention of the title being on the back by linking it to film - the brush effect on the title links to the central protagonist's artistic side portrayed throughout the film. 

Film Review:

After my research into film reviews in post seventeen I decided that within my film review I would write in the style of and stick to the conventions of 'Empire' magazine - however, due to the fact that neither 'Empire' monthly magazines or 'Empire' online have a short film section I decided to merge the conventions of the 'TV' section within the magazine and the 'Cinema' section within the magazine to create my own conventions for the 'Short Film' section within empire. In doing this I feel that I have used conventions and have reflected real media products within my own film review. I chose to use a double page spread for my review due to the fact that after reading many reviews from months worth of 'Empire' magazines I believed that a double page would both present itself as a challenge as well as displaying more conventions presented within a film review than a single page spread out - I chose to scan a double page layout from a copy of 'Empire', in doing this I allowed myself to follow more strictly the conventions used within the article as well as giving my review a realistic finish.


Despite as previously mentioned there being no set conventions for short film articles within 'Empire' I have used conventions of other articles within - the first being noting certain facts about the film at the beginning of such as; certificate, cast, running time and a synopsis. As well as fitting my film review tightly within the physical structure conventions as well as the writing style conventions of 'Empire' I also added in a tag line where appropriate and kept the adverts, in this case advertising new DVD releases from the original scan I made from 'Empire' to give the article a realistic edge. Debatably  unconventionally in terms of 'Empire' magazine I added a verdict to the end of my article. Also within this I chose to add an advertisment for a shor tiflm festival, this is unconvetnional but as previously mentioned, this adds to the conventions I am creating for a short film section within 'Empire' magazine. Overall I feel that I have used, developed and created conventions for an article that does not generally exists within 'Empire' magazine.