EVALUATION - PART ONE

CODES AND CONVENTIONS 

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

So I think its fairly safe to say that unlike my AS magazine production, I actually used a lot of conventions of short film documentaries! 

Although I do enjoy challenging conventions of media texts, I have learnt that it is slightly more challenging to do so when you are making a film. Last year, my main task for my Media coursework was to make a magazine front cover, contents page and double page spread. In this particular case I was only taking photos - there was no movement in any of my production, in fact the entire thing was images - therefore challenging conventions was something I found a little easier to do, because it depended mostly on how I chose to edit my magazine production. However this year my task was to create a 5 minute long short film - where the editing is not the only factor involved in determining the success of the material, resulting in the 'challenging' of conventions being more difficult, and I found myself using conventions far more, in order to create a great short film that potential audiences would be satisfied with.

Things that I believe I challenged include 

- Set ups: purposely setting up 'typical' scenes - although I had a rough idea of the structure of my short film, I refrained from manipulating moments and creating conventional scenes

- Talking heads - when I conducted research about short films in my genre, prior to filming, I found that many documentaries tended to use a familiar camera angle often referred to as 'Talking Heads' -  Although I may have used this relatively close up angle occasionally on my talent within my short film, it certainly was not the only|main angle that I used!

- A clear narrative 

- Personal Identity 

- Diversion 

- Escapism 

- Wish fulfilment

My short film has a key theme of culture and individuality, therefore in order for this to be portrayed clearly to a consumer I decided to use two protagonist characters. My aim was for the audience to 

Conventions I think I used: (There is a lot, embrace yourself)

- 'Real Footage' of events 

- Technicality of realism - I used natural sound and lighting the entire time

- Interviews with 'experts' - in my case the 'experts' where my talent, and key starring actors, I used interviews at the start to ensure that my characters were established quickly (due to time)

- Duration - 5 minuets (obviously)

- Use of text and titles - I added these in my editing process on the Apple Mac

- Sound non dietetic (I added my own sounds and music also in the editing process) 

- Visual coding - By this I am referring to Mise en Scene - I ensured that every scene was arranged accordingly when it came to locations - for instance I would make sure that bedrooms were tidy and characters were positioned in a natural, normal position in the room 

- Single camera production (hand held too)  

Conventions that I would like my film to have include Escapism as the consumer will be focusing their attention to something that provides a different situation from their lives which could be boring in their opinion and even if their lives are not boring, its still new interesting material to keep them occupied and at least entertain and teach valuable lessons to. Personal identity is apparent as I have purposely used characters that themselves would fit into my TA therefore making the protagonists people that my teenage TA can link with - meaning that the audiences can identify and relate to the talent I have chosen and their lifestyles that I have portrayed in the film. In addition to this, since my film has a beginning, middle and ending, I strongly believe that my short film has a linear structure as the events flow chronologically, leaving the audience satisfied with being familiar with the structure. Audiences may also use my short film characters and see them as heroines due to the fact that they are able to effectively embrace their make up and ethnicity and still be humble and compatible in any society, they adaptive and can change accordingly to any situation - this could be an element that many consumers respect, especially females, as confidence and individuality have been emphasised in a positive light - making it 'cool' to be different. - With this in mind, I would say that my short film is alike to documentaries that compare cultures such as 'West is West' or 'Bend it like Beckham' but with a slightly different perspective and overall message.
Due to the light-hearted nature of my film, I think that having some sort of comedic value is essential to understanding the film and not being offended by it. Therefore it could be argued that my film is a little post-modern due to the lack of seriousness it withholds. Having said this, whether or not my film fits into the comedic- doc category, is entirely up to the consumer to decide, making it a highly subjective matter based on personal opinions and a little general knowledge.