Q1 media individual evaluation

7/30/2019 Q1 media individual evaluation

1/8

Q1. in what ways does your media

product use, develop or challenge

forms and conventions of real mediaproducts?

Leanna Ioannou


2/8

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

media products?

Ways in which we have explored and represented our chosen genre; the mystery genre, was through

watching films of our chosen genre and identifying how directors have used common conventions of

the mystery genre such as the famous mystery director Alfred Hitchcock.

His films always include a theme of murder/ crime so we chose to use this same theme in our film, of

basing our film around a mystery murder. Looking at some of the films that Hitchcock made we

identified the common conventions he used with in the style of his camera work, such as forcing the

viewers to engage (uses and Gratification theory)(U&G) in a form of voyeurism, for example how our

audience observes our characters in our film connected through Laura Mulveys male gaze and female

gaze through our characters Anastasia Robinson and our interviewer PC Laurence Grey. We usedHitchcocks camera techniques such as extreme close ups on characters features such as eyes, hands

and lips to create maximum anxiety, fear and sense of sexual attention especially through the actions

of our actress Anastasia.

In our opening sequence we have used typical conventions of the mystery genre such as a mysterious

soundtrack playing very subtle in the background as we have a voiceover of Anastasias voice playing

on top as we see flashbacks from the interview scene to the day of the suspected murder as she

voices over the flashbacks of what she did that morning. Taking into account the conventions that we

researched into, when creating our mind map, of the stereotypical conventions of the mystery genre.

Allowing us to perfectly create tension within viewers creating a sense of anxiety and engaging with

them drawing in the audiences attention as its flashes from flashbacks to interviewer scene slowly

building up tension (U&G). We have also used dark mysterious lighting again to create tension we have

used typical film conventions at the very beginning of our film such as film production name and logo

stating on a black screen before the film plays and we have also used stereotypical titles and fonts asour opening sequence starts.


3/8

The types of conventions we have challenged in our opening sequence is the crime genre and also

hints of the romance genre. This is because we have used the idea of a police interrogation

interview scene but the audience are unclear of why, and whats actually happened and also we

have used hints of the romance genre through the seductiveness of our main actress Anastasia as

she holds a flirtatious persona throughout the whole opening sequence attracting the male target

audience through the male gaze and also the attention of PC Laurence Grey. As she discretely flirtsthrough her actions of lip biting and twirling of the hair whilst being interviewed and various close

up shots are used to capture her actions so audiences also are appealed and identify what she is

like as they begin to learn more about her character. So there for these following challenges in

genre start to lead our audience into confusion about the narrative of our film, working perfectly

in creating our film into a mystery.

Examples from real media products that helped us inour opening sequence in choosing the way our titles

will come up, was through the research of the police

investigation TV series Life On Mars we like the way

the titles came up in block capitals and the white

colour font was bold and eye catching against the

black background.

The bold capitals creates a serious tone, it connotes

a sense of importance and almost documented like

the font is being used in some sort of documents

like in a police investigation document, similarly to

our film we are investigating a murder like the

series Life On Mars. So choosing this font was

appropriate choice of font.


4/8

We also looked at the fonts and titles used in opening sequence of The Girl with

the Dragon TattooThe director has chosen to use a black

background in binary oppositions to the whitefont again in creating a serious atmosphere

and tone. Engaging (U&G)with our audience

causing them to feel a sense of tension and

enigma, as they are unsure of what the film is

going to be about, but are able to identify

through the theory of uses and gratificationthat its of the mystery genre. Because of its

stereotypical conventions of being a mystery

film dark colours stereotypically connote

danger, darkness, and the unknown. Theses

are Conventions of a mystery genre that we

thoroughly investigated through our research.We have used the same conventions that the

director has used in our title sequence which is

seen through this screenshot of our titles

(unapologetic)


5/8

Further more I researched into media products that have used the idea of a police

interrogation scene. By watching various clips from films such as basic instinct(1992)

and from the town- interview scene and also the interrogation scene from the Lord

of war. I was able to gather conventional research into how stereotypicalinterrogation police scenes take place. How they composition the overall Mise en

scene of the scene and the conventional technical codes of an interrogation scene.

For example whilst watching clips of Basic

instinct this was a massive guidance in helping

us find out information on how our mainactress Anastasia can act flirtatious, seductive

and grab the attention of the male and female

audience though Laura Mulveys male gaze and

also by watching I was able to take actions that

the female actress does in the interrogation

scene in basic instinct and put them into ourinterrogation scene. For example the use of

close ups, long shots of her body language,

facial expressions such as the smirk on her face

which we similarly have in our opening

sequence.


6/8


7/8

In addition whilst researching current examples of media products that included an

interrogation scene, I investigated into one of the many technical codes which was

lighting. The interrogation scene from the movie the lord of war inspired me, I liked

the use of spotlight lighting focusing on the main character of the scene, for example

the victim. This worked in focusing the attention on the victim making them look likethey have a sense of hyeraki and dominance in their role.

This here is a clip from the lord of war which

uses this idea of spotlight lighting. Below is a

screenshot of our interrogation scene which

shows how we used lighting and the idea ofthe mid 2 shot of both characters so audiences

are able to identify that they are in an

interview however having the main lighting

focusing on our actress Anastasia enables the

audience to identify(U&G) that she is the

victim of the scene and that she has powerand dominance e within her role.

Similarly both screenshots from our film and the

shot taking from lord of war have the light focusing

on the victim that is being interrogated and the

interviewer has less attention and is mainly in the

shadow and darker lighting of the image.


8/8

Ways in which we applied the narrative theory with in our scene is through starting with a fairly

subtle equilibrium and as the interview scene goes on Anastasia replies back to back to one of pc

greys question with well where shall I begin? This immediately causes dis equilibrium as its acts

as a trigger in allowing the audience to identify (U&G) that something has happened.

There is also definitely a sense of timeliness with in our opening sequence as the film starts at the

end of the film this shows that what they are interviewing about has already happened and in the

past and the flash backs help to show this. Revealing that whats being viewed has recently

happened. The sense of proximity between our characters also helps to explain the narrative due

to the fact that they are sitting opposite each other and that they are not very close yet there is a

sense of flirtatious tension in the atmosphere challenging the narrative slightly as audience are

misled and are unaware of what may happen next. The ways in which we represented our

characters Anastasia and pc Laurence can also help in identifying the stereotypical conventions of

an officer for example his actions, the way he speaks to Anastasia with authority and the

stereotypical terminology he uses clearly helps the audience to identify pc Laurences profession as

an interrogation officer.

The same goes for Anastasia, audiences can identify that she is the disequilibrium with in the film

and that she is the main character, through the typical convention of a mystery film and like many

other genres, by having the main character focused on throughout the film, a variety of close up

shots are used on her face so we can see how the character looks and feels its more personal and

the use of close ups on her eyes makes audience feel they have direct contact with her making the

film seem more realistic and suspense building typical of mystery films.

Documents

Q1 media individual evaluation