1. In what way does your media product use, develop or chall

Camerawork and Editing

Conclusion

Plot and Narrative

Special effects

The special effects that were used in our film developed the existing conventions of real media products. This is because we used certain special techniques that may not normally have been used in a drama genre; but we do not consider this to challenge existing conventions as it is still applicable to our genre. For example, the way we zoomed in on the clock and added a ticking sound effect would of usually been used in a comedy film or thriller and the sound effect would of been used for comedy or nervousness, in our drama we chose to add it as it adds to the reality of a teenager in school; waiting for a lesson to be over. We also used special effects to control lighting, sound, transitions, and continuity.

Our film used the conventions of plots for a drama; most plots are based on social, economical or political problems with aspects of exaggeration and reality involved to add to the dramatic effect whilst making the film more realistic. In this film, our social problem was bullying, an example of the exaggeration was where Ava ran away from home. After a fight with parents a teenager would not usually run away from home but we wanted to add dramatic effect; however, we did not want to make it overly dramatic as in most bullying films the victim ends up taking their own life and we wanted to show another side to bullying. This is a way that we challenged the real existing media products as we chose to show a different side of how bullying affects somebody.

To summarise, we used forms of existing media products with our plot by looking at similar films like cyber bully and researching into the drama genre to understand how a plot is built, However, we also challenged conventions of a drama and bullying film as we did not end the film as it is usually popularly ended.

To conclude, throughout our film we have used and challenged forms and conventions of real life media products in many aspects of our film such as plot, special effects, characters and setting. However, we did not often develop existing conventions of real media products as much as we used and challenged them and if we were to make a film again we would develop conventions and forms more.

The camera work and editing did not challenge the existing forms and conventions of real life media products. In drama's there are lots of close up to show character emotion, our case, to show Ava's distress. However, one way we did challenge conventions is through our editing. This is because in Drama's fast editing is not used as it builds excitement amongst the audience and in a drama we want the audience to have sympathy with the characters; we used fast editing in a certain part of our film, at the bus stop, with lots of music to create a feeling of being overwhelmed to the audience which has been done in drama films but are more prominent in thriller films

Costumes & Props

In drama, props are usually used as symbols and are heavily involved in the continuity of the plot. Our film challenges the conventions of existing media as we do not rely on props for our story to work; however we do still use props to infer things and add to the realism of the film. For example we made sure that the bedroom looked that of the bedroom of a teenage girl (posters, pictures etc.) and we used the mascara prop to reinforce her identity as a teenager. Another prop that we used was her mum holding the wine glass, we did this to show the isolation that Ava felt as her mum had other priorities.

With costumes we did not challenge real media conventions- we chose costumes that matched our genre and that were realistic of a teenage girl.

Settings/Location

With the settings and locations of our film we chose to follow the traditional existing conventions of a drama film; the settings were places closely linked to the character and that showed insight into the characters life. For example, our opening shot in our film was Ava in her bedroom, which is obviously a personal space- another location we had is a school, which is typical of a teenager and where they're likely to spend a lot of their time. We also had a bus scene- relevant because Ava is a teenager, she hasn't fully reached the independence of being able to drive a car yet but is still independent in her own way. These settings were an accurate representation of a teenage girl; they suited her life and matched the existing conventions of the drama genre.

Titles

To summarise, with the settings and locations throughout our film we followed typical conventions of pre-existing media products for example Dramas like Cyber-Bully.

Evaluation

The title of our film followed the traditional conventions of the Drama genre as it was bold and simple which most drama title sequences are, unlike genres like horror , sci-fi and thriller where title sequences tend to be more linked to the film

For example, the iconic Sci-Fi/Thriller film Jurassic Park is well known for its use of titles to brand their film and merchandise.

Also, we did not really have the resources to make titles like the ones in Jurassic park and they did not follow the conventions of a drama genre which typically is a simple but bold title sequence synchronized with dramatic music.

So despite us choosing to follow the conventions of a drama title sequence we challenged forms of the convention by choosing not to use dramatic music with our title sequence or playing our titles in with opening shots of the film; we had our production company at the start of the film and then after a series of opening shots and character establishments we played in our main film title which also showed the audience the film was based on the character Ava who we had introduced within the first opening shot of the film.

To conclude, our titles used existing conventions of Drama films but also challenged them as we decided to not use dramatic music.

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