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

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

GenreThe genre we decided to go with was mainly a romantic drama. We found that mainly older women watch romantic films but we decided to target younger females as they are more likely to watch short films. This is because younger people are more likely to actively seek out short films as most short films are accessible through the internet. Our target audience is niche as only a few people are likely to watch short films.

Short filmMain production

Conventions we used

White textI found that a lot of romantic, short films used white text for their opening titles. I therefore used white font for the opening credits. As well as using a handwritten, "romantic font. I used a curly, calligraphy font called Edwardian. The font carries connotations of handwritten love letters giving a personal feel which links with the romantic genre meaning that the audience would be able to recognise what genre our film was.

Voiceover We found that in a lot of short films there was a voiceover so we decided to have a voiceover throughout. We believe this explained the narrative as we didnt want to have diegetic dialogue. Therefore by using a voiceover we were able to create distance between what was happening on screen and the narration we wanted to while also getting our story across to the audience.

RepetitionIn a lot of short films such as Lichen a lot of shots are repeated as in the composition of the shot. For example in Lichen they have the same recurring shot of a cabinet. I decided to repeat the composition of some shots and edited them together using face paced editing. This is different to Lichen as they used it in between scenes to introduce the next segment whereas I used the shots close together.

Examples of RepetitionMy short filmLichen

Close-ups

A convention of short films is having a lot of close-ups. However I found that in actual fact most feature films have close-ups. We challenged this convention in a way by not using many close-ups but we did include extreme close-ups.

Conventions we challenged

Tilt shotsA lot of the films I looked at I found a common convention was not to have any tilt shots but to have a lot of tracking shots. Yet in my short film I didnt use any instead I used a tilt shot at one point. This made our piece different to a lot of similar short films to appeal to the more niche audience that watches short films.

Drawer shotI challenged some conventions, especially with the shots I used. For one shot I put the camera into the drawer to create an interesting and unusual shot. In all the short films I watched, I didnt see a shot the same as the shot I did inside the drawer. By using an interesting shot it would appeal to our more niche audience.

Hegemonic view of genderIn a lot of romantic films the view of gender is hegemonic, showing women in a stereotypical way. This is because a lot of the stories are based on a man and womens relationship. However in our short film we decided to challenge this convention by having a female lead who had a girlfriend. Our piece doesnt even mention or focus on men which gives a more pluralistic representation of gender.

PosterAncillary Task

The purpose of the poster is to mainly advertise the film. Therefore in needs to be designed in such a way that it would entice an audience to seek out the film. Therefore you could apply uses and gratification theory to the film poster as it suggests people actively seek put certain media therefore after seeing our poster our target audience would then go on to see the film.

TypographyThe font I chose was white Edwardian script. The reason I chose this font was because it was the same font that I used in the film therefore creating a sense on continuity and brand. I found a common convention of posters was to have white font, especially romantic films. The colour white is related to a more upbeat and romantic feel. I decided to stick with the convention which helped the audience identify the genre better.

ReviewsA common convention was to have reviews and awards on the poster. This gives the film credibility and makes the audience more likely to watch it. I therefore decided to include an award the film had received to make audiences more likely to watch it.

taglineWhile looking at posters of short films we found that although nearly all feature films had a tagline short film posters did not. We decided to stay with the convention and not include our tagline.

Feature film tagline

Hermeneutic codesMany posters produced hermeneutic codes. The purpose of this is to draw the audience in and make them watch the film. My poster produced questions like Who is this girl? and What is she doing? therefore Barthes's theory could be applied to it. Hermeneutic codes entice the audience in and make them curious to find out the answers.

Review PageAncillary task

Film stillA common convention that I found on every review page we looked at was that most of the page was filled by a film still. The purpose of this is to give the reader a feel of the film. I decided to stick with this convention and had the top half of the page filled mostly by a still from the film.

My review pageExample Review Page

titleI found that the title of the film is always featured on the picture in white text. This allows the reader to know what the film is called. I stuck with this convention and had the title and tagline in bold, white font on the picture.

My review pageExample Review Page

Star ratingMost review pages I looked at featured a star rating or review of some kind. I decided to have a star rating at the bottom of the review. This allows the reader to get an idea of how good the film is quickly without reading the whole review.

My star ratingExample star rating

LogoA common convention of review pages was to have the logo of the feature in the top left or right corner. I called my feature On Screen which was over a picture of a film clipping. This means that regular readers of the feature can easily navigate to that page.

My LogoExample Logo

columnsI found that all review pages had 4 columns. Originally I had 3 columns however in the end I decided to stick with the convention and have four. I felt it gave a more in depth and professional feel.

My review pageExample Review Page