Evaluation Question 1

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

Within our film 'Karma' we have stuck to many conventions from real media texts. For example, we used a real life setting that everyone can relate to; a school as well as using the main body of a subject in which everybody can relate to, weather or not this was from the victim's point of view or the bully itself.

We found that filming on a location that was familiar to the audience helped us follow conventions of a short film in that the audience needs to be able to recognise or relate to the surroundings quicker as there is less time. In this way, we followed the conventions but in areas such as the main character however, challenged the conventions. As the main character was played by a woman, and she was a bully, this is uncommon as in most films or even television programmes, the bully is seen as a male.

I think within the film, we developed the aspect of the relationship between Lucienne and her father had. I have not seen other short films that target this angle of her home life. With a wider understanding of the background behind why she is bullying is seen by the audience, this deepens the ideas about why some people may bully in school.

Also I feel that we have challenged the conventions, as there was no happy ending, unlike most short films. With our short film, our ending was more of a cliffhanger.


Here are 15 frames from our film that illustrate these above points;

Within this scene, although for a short time is not seen, you can hear what is going on in the house, and the audience begin to understand the extent that her and her father do not get along. This also challenges the aspect of the life around the bully that does not get shown very offen in films. Also, the idea about acknowledging the reasons behind the bullying is evident and this then develops the character, as the audience gain a better understanding about the main character and their private home lives that not many people see, and by addressing this aspect, develops and challenges the conventions.

These above images are proof that we have kept to the conventions of a short film, by having slides that give the audience information about the Producers, who helped make the film and the title of the film. This is needed so that the audience have an understanding of who made the film and exactly what film they are watching. The colours of a black background and white writing makes the information stand out and the darkness of the colours reflect the feel of the film. These are also typical colours for this aspect of the film.

Here is an establishing shot of the main character. This is needed as the audience can then understand the character, and through the dialogue in the previous few seconds, can understand a little bit about her. I think that the way we have shown her challenges the development of the character, as the usual convention does not involve first introducing the character by voice over.  Also, by using a female actor as a bully, this also furthers the challenging of conventions, as this is not common to see a female in the role of a bully in a film.  

 

From this screen grab, we have followed the conventions of a thriller, as she is worried about something behind her, when there is nothing there. This is also seen through out the film in various places.

In these scenes where the main character is bullying others, her 'friends' behind her slowly don't agree with what she is doing, and shows to the audience that this behaviour is frowned upon, and even her friends are starting to see that what she is doing is wrong, until they finally leave her, and walk straight past her at the end of the film. This shows another side to bullying, and reinforces the idea of social realism within my film, but then challenges the idea around the relationships with those of a bully and how they react around her.

 

With this scene where the main character is getting told off, this follows conventions of a short film narrative, as the audience would expect her to get into trouble as this is a social realism film.

Towards the end of the film, it becomes evident that the main character is quite alone. This scene where she walks all alone shows the audience how alone she is and that her friends have ditched her and challenges the usual conventions in a social realism film.

Finally, here are the credits which are conventional to a short film. They inform the audience on a larger scale who was involved with the film, who was in the film and also where the music was from. As this is only a short film, the credits are more important to the viewer as this is a way of showing talent to others around the world, and this information can advertise a certain aspect of the film to others watching.

Here is my finished postcard;

I think there are many aspects of my postcard that follow conventions as well as challenging them. Some of the main ways that I have kept the conventions the same include the use of a title, a tag line, a logo, a picture that reflects the film and the layout. The factors that do not follow conventions include the fact that I have manipulated the image through Photo shop. Here I enhanced the colours and made them sepia toned to add a feel for the film. This then showed the audience that the film had a slight horror feel to it, around this particular scene. Not only this, but I was able to add in some birds in the background. I felt that this fitted with the scene and the edits I had made. This also went against the normal conventions of a postcard.   

• Task 3: Insert an image of your final magazine film review page and annotate again illustrating your above thoughts.