Evaluation - Question One

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

SHORT FILM
When creating my short film, I believe that I used and challenge forms and conventions of real media products in different ways. I used some of the existing conventions to to enhance the chance of my short film being successful however I thought it was key to challenge some media conventions to show that this short film has my own twist on it.  When planning for my short film, I was looking through the conventions of many different genres, for example action, thriller and romance. However, after my extensive research, I decided to chose an action/thriller film. I made this decision as I believed that I could use some of the conventions within my film yet challenge some of them to put my own stance on the film.  Below is an example of a piece of research I carried out, however this piece of research is based around horror which I decided to go against due to the conventions of horror films.

Genre Ideas

Another convention I had to take into consideration was Todorov's narrative theory, which is the idea of the seperate stages that a narrative of a film should have. Todorov's five stages go as follows:

1. A state of equilibrium (All is as it should be.)

2. A disruption of that order by an event.

3. A recognition that the disorder has occurred.

4. An attempt to repair the damage of the disruption.

5. A return or restoration of a NEW equilibrium.

However, when creating my film I decided to challenge Todorov's narrative theory by taking a different approach to how the narrative in my film flows. My film does start with a state of equilibrium however the following steps do not follow this renowned theory. The fact I challenged this convention highlights how I wanted to have my own input into how my film was produced, even though many short films follow this theory, by swaying away from the idea I am showing initiative to produce something different. 

However, the use of existing media conventions was shown in my short film as I used many thriller/action conventions. For example, suspensful music, guns, shootings etc. I decided to follow these conventions as for a thriller/action movie to be successful, it is key that we see some action between characters, which is supported by the suspenseful music.A key convention of action/thriller films is action such as fighting and shooting scenes, by following this simple example I believe that I have been successful in applying a genre to my film.

FILM POSTER

When creating my film poster, and article I decided to use the existing conventions as I believe it is hard to add your own input into two products like this. Below are photos of my two ancillary tasks; a magazine article and a film poster.

As you can see from this image I have followed the simple conventions of a film poster. The title is in a bold black and red font which in my opinion really stands out on the page due to the alternating red and black for each letter. Below the title, I have a slogan "is gambling a mugs game... or a thugs game?" the use of italics and rhetoric in this slogan lures the audience into wondering why that question has been asked. A slogan like this is a convention that you would expect on a film poster. Thirdly, I have a main image which is a convention used on every film poster in modern society, the main image is there to give the audience an idea about the genre and story line that the film possesses. Finally, I have included the name of the cast and directors/producers etc which is also a convention you would expect to see on the majority of film posters. I decided to follow the generic conventions of a film poster as I think it is very difficult to put your own stance on a film poster.  Underneath my film poster, I have provided the film poster of a film called 'Poker House' which is based around the same story line as mine, poker. Poker Houses' film poster follows a basic structure, similarly to mine, including a title, name of actors/cast and a main image. I believe that by following the conventions of film posters, my film poster was overall very successful.       

FILM ARTICLE
Similarly to my film poster, I decided to use the conventions of an article rather than challenge them as I think articles follow a similair style throughout so by doing this I was ensuring my article page would be successful.

The conventions I included was the name of the film 'Sleight Of Hand' and a text box containing information about the film which is something I discovered after researching magazine articles.

                                    

I also included two paragraphs of text, one paragraph being titled 'plot' and explaining a shortened version of the plot so that the audience have a general idea of what the film is about. The second paragraph I supplied was background information of the directors and actors in the film, which is another convention I discovered after researching article pages, however this convention wasn't a reoccurring one.  The paragraph based around the plot would be seen as a regular convention however I swayed away from the conventions with the second paragraph, as the paragraph on background information is not a regular convention of an article. I decided to do the paragraph labelled 'Behind The Scenes' as I believe it is a convention which would lure the audience in to watching the film, even though having background information about the actors/producers isn't key, it is still something which I believe would make the audience want to see the film.