By Jack Archer

In what way does your media product use, develop, or

challenge forms and conventions of real media

products?

Evaluation Question

1...

For our genre of social realism, these were the conventions that we wanted to either adhere to, or challenge:

Locations are either mainly urban or in the suburbs. Use of debut/ stock actors (who may have entered films cross media

from other forms). Music from the era (i.e. Present day). The plot should have a realistic approach/ perspective to lives of those

concerned. Having characters that appear to be in the lower working classes (i.e.

In the D2/ E income bracket). Evidence of the exploration of wider social issues through the

emotional or dramatic stories of characters. Possible erosion of regional identities The inclusion of both humour and seriousness and also triumph over

adversity.

What were our conventions to start

with??

Generally, our locations were conventional to the genre, as we included shots in a high street environment and also a city centre park. Thus, we were able to optimise our interpretation of expressing various ideologies.

Also, the majority of our actors (excluding Liam Wilkinson and Rosie Jones, who are debut film actors, but are stock stage actors.) do not have much experience of acting. All of our actors certainly did not have any experience in filming. Therefore, as they are not professional actors (i.e. Are not paid for their service) and we have met this convention. In addition, as the majority of our actors are school aged (16+) this reflects the process that our production company would have to undergo in the real life. For example, our actors would have to first audition for their roles, like how Shane Meadows did when he found the actor Thomas Turgoose, after auditioning kids in Nottingham school for his film ‘This is England’ (By Warp Films).

Furthermore, we used modernised music to reflect the setting of the film, as we produced a rendition of a rendition (!) of the song “We Own It” from the film “Fast and Furious 6” (2013), consequently keeping our opening sequence conventional to the genre of using music associated with the time setting, thus generating a high level of veri- similitude. This process in itself, is unconventional as in the real world, we would use synergy marketing (i.e. having Rosie who played our protagonist as our artist and rapper and consequently guaranteeing cross-media production.)

Genre conventions... Where did we meet and/ or challenge them?

In addition, I feel that our narrative has adhered to the convention of it being realistic particularly due to the rise of peer pressure and bullying. As Laura joins the gang to initially make new friends, she is then peer pressured into committing criminal offences such as theft. Which is possibly a common situation for people in the working class. Furthermore, as our production is a sophisticated product, we have questioned stereotypes which relate to our present political climate, which we ask our primary audience to question. For example, at the end of our whole narrative, Laura is sentenced to jail as a result of the joint-enterprise law. As this law is currently under discrepancy, this further connotes to the injustice of the law as opposed to the reality of working class young people.

What's more, I feel that our narrative/ opening sequence explores the wider social issues within society quite well. The inclusion of bullying, fear and peer pressure are common issues that arise and are experienced by people from all walks of life and therefore, I believe that Laura in our narrative is relatable to many people as well, as our audiences are able to decide whether to actively consider their viewpoint on these issues for social interaction, or simply gain personal identity from Laura/ The opening sequence (according to Blumer and Katz’s uses and gratifications.)

Genre conventions... Where did we meet and/ or challenge them? (con...)

Finally, I believe we have shown people from various classes as according to the Income brackets, if the characters were actual people, the gang members and Laura would mainly be categorised as those in the D2/ E income bracket (the lower working class) and the policeman for example would be seen as middle/ lower middle class (the B/C1 income brackets).

Genre Conventions…. Continued again!

Most opening credits follow this common conventional order:

Name of studio Production Company Producers/ Directors Starring... Film Title Casting Director Music Production designer Film Editors Directors of Photography Producer Director (Based on... True story/events, the novel by etc.

What were the Form Conventions??

An opening sequence is designed to instantly engage its audience and should introduce, genre, narrative and character. This is particularly evident with our use of conventional establishing shot of our inner city location and the police station. This example of a binary opposition with locations

For our production “The Longing” we in a way challenged the convention of opening credit order. This is because throughout our research, planning and production, we used the film “This is England” for inspiration and subsequently, we used a similar opening title sequence to “This is England”. This was mainly because this film is of the same genre as our film.

Despite this not following the convention, I don’t think that the order is necessarily important, as long as the order makes sense and ‘flows’.

Form conventions... Where did we meet and/ or challenge them?

Although the script was limited due to the majority of the opening sequence being overlaid with our rendition of “We own It”, I feel that our script could have been improved either by including more serious and/ or humorous text or even have sections of semi- improvised dialogue in order to make character interaction appear more natural and realistic and more conventional to the genre of social realism.

Following on from this, through either the script, iconography or shot type the opening sequence could have introduced more political/ social issues such as those relevant to race and cultural differences, as our production included people of different ethnicities.

Where could we have used (or not used!) these conventions better?

Furthermore, I feel that we also should have included more hand- held shots in order to promote the ideologies relevant to our female protagonist in particular, and aid to connote certain emotions too.

Generally however, although I think that the genre social realism is appropriate for our opening sequence, as our narrative includes criminal offences driven by peer pressure, I think that the conventions of the genre crime should have been considered as well, with its conventions also.

How else??

Here are the two main theories that applied best with “The Longing”:

AUTEUR THEORY: As this theory derives from the idea that a film reflects a Director’s vision and is a unique idea, this shows that our production is also unique, especially as we have a female protagonist as our main character and our production goes against common conventions of our genre.

HEGEMONY THEORY: Due to the nature of our narrative, Hegemony is also relevant to our production, particularly as we have a female protagonist passive audiences (such as people in the lower income brackets) would initially believe the dominant ideologies present in the film, such as women can achieve triumph over adversity like men can.

What theoretical theories were relevant to research, planning and production?