Ganesh Pillai

Evaluation Activity 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real life

media products?

Our task set from the Unit G324 Advanced Portfolio was to create a short film which would last from 4-5 minutes approximately. We were also tasked to create a poster fo our short film and a film review.

For our films genre we had a choice from a wide variety. We as a group enjoyed a lot of comedy films and so were going to plan on creating a comedy but we instead decided to do an action thriller film due to the comedy genre not having as wide of an audience as an action thriller would. Also we found that executing a comedy would not be easy as it is hard to create a comedy which is suited to a wide range of viewers as some people just do not find some jokes funny. An action thriller is a common and popular genre which is loved and enjoyed by a wide variety of people which is perfect. Our action thriller is about a young man called Jay Chowdhury who has his bag switched when at his local park. When he arrives home he finds drugs within his possession and has to deal with what’s to come when the police come knocking at his door.

What are Codes and Conventions?Codes: a code within a media text is one which creates meaning for the audience to interpret.

There are two type of codes, technical and symbolic. Technical codes is the way in which equipment is used to tell the narrative to the audience. An example of this would be the use of camera shots to show the audience what is happening. Symbolic codes are used to show what is beneath the surface for example we can see how a character is feeling through his action. Music fits into both categories as it both technical and symbolic.

Conventions: Conventions are known as the normal or the accepted way of doing something. In terms of media and my short film, conventions can be applied to different aspects of the film such as the sound used or the cinematography. Genre conventions are used to show the audience what genre of film they are watching. This is due to many other films with the same genre having the same conventions used and so the audience will be able to tell what the genre is easily. We chose the action thriller genre which has many conventions. One which we displayed was a chase scene within our films, this is a convention commonly used in action films as it builds tension.

Ganesh Pillai

Forms and Conventions: Action Thriller Suspenseful music – used to create tension Chase scene Some sort of authority such as the police Good vs Evil 12/15 Certificate Low key lighting Unknown identity Hidden danger

Setting/Location:Within our production we used three locations. The first was the park which is the first scene and is where the bag swapping commences. We showed the audience that this is a park through the use of having a common park bench which is sat on by Jay. We can also see all the grass which surrounded the bench which further displays to the audience where they are located. This scene is quite short and so the main two locations which we used was Jay’s house and the interrogation room. These two locations take up the most screen time and is where the main part of the film commences. There is a clear distinction between the two locations, we used different lighting for each location to further the contrast. Within the house we used high key lighting and within the interrogation room we used low key lighting. The low key lighting was used to show the intensity and also the fear and worry which Jay had. We used a high angle shot when Jay entered the house to show how he was vulnerable as he was not aware that he had drugs within his possession. Within the interrogation room scene we used a single lamp to create the light within the scene, this is a common convention seen within interrogation scenes in films.

Park Inside Jay’s house Interrogation Room

Costume/Props:Costume and props are very aspects which go into when making a film, this is because costumes and props can be used to connote a lot of meanings. An example could be how we used a bench in our opening scene to show to the audience where we were. The costumes which is worn by the characters also allows the audience to get an idea of who they are.

Ganesh Pillai

Within the first scene we can see that the character who sits next to the main character Jay is shady. This is shown to the audience through the use of costume, he is wearing all black which connotes darkness and mystery. We can also see that Jay Is wearing tracksuit bottoms, this was used to connote to the audience that he just came from playing football with his friends. The use of dark clothing by the antagonist is very common convention displayed by films of the action thriller genre and also other genres. A very important prop which was used in our production was the drugs for without this prop the film would not make sense and thus would not work. Another costume which was shown to the audience was that of the interrogator who wore a black suit, this was done to connote to the audience that he is someone in a position of power as he is dressed smartly and professionally. We also used a prop which was a note book, this is used to reinforce the fact that he is professional and organised.

Editing:I took the role of the editor and so I had to make sure that I edited the work to the liking of the director’s vision. I also had to use some common conventions seen in action and thriller films such as fast pace editing to clearly illustrate the genre to the audience. There was not a lot of effects used in our film, we did however use an effect of duplication where we showed the main character Jay sitting on the sofa speaking to himself. We created two copies of Jay one which represents the good side to him and the other which represents the bad side, this reflects a sort of angel devil scenario. There were instances of pure darkness used to create suspense for the audience. This allows the audience to wonder what is going to happen and creates excitement. A shot reverse shot was used within the interrogation scene, this is a common convention used in most if not all films for when two characters are speaking to one another. A montage took place displaying the emotions which the main character Jay had after finding dugs within his possession. This allows the audience to understand what he is going through and clearly see the different stages of emotions he is cycling through.

Characters:

Ganesh Pillai

We chose to have our main character play the role of a stereotypical young man, this was done to allow the audience to be able to relate to the character and feel for him when things go wrong. Our main character is seen to be wearing tracksuit bottoms to display that he just came back from playing football with some friends. A lot of boys this age enjoy playing football with their friends and so it allows the audience to relate further with the character and make the film seem more realistic. Another stereotype which we used was for the protagonist, we dressed him in dark clothing. This is a common convention used in films as it creates mystery and also can allow the audience to not be trusting of this character just due to the way that he is dressed as he looks to be a person who gets up to no good. We also used the common convention for our investigator to be dressed smartly to show to the audience that he is someone who is a position of power and authority.

Titles and Credits:The first words to be displayed at the beginning of the film is that of our production company’s name. This was done as every short film which we analysed had this, this resulted in our film also beginning in this way. This allows the film to look and feel more professional as it is a familiar opening for the audiences to see. The next thing to appear on the screen is the name of our film, ‘The Delivery’. Both Titles were in white text on a black background, this is a common convention used in films. This is due to having white text on a black background makes the text more clear and makes the text look more prominent on the black background. Our film is an action thriller film and thriller films tend to have either red text to connote blood or a simple colour scheme.

Music/Voiceover:Within our short film we used a lot of non-diegetic background sound to keep the suspense within the film as it is a part thriller film. We used some fast past drumming score for the chase scene within our film. This allows the scene to seem more dramatic and helps to keep the pace of the scene. This also allowed for us to create some tension in the scene as the audience are not aware whether the main character Jay would get away or not. We also used some park sounds for the beginning of the film due to the amount of wind which there

Ganesh Pillai

was on the day of the shoot which sounded terrible. This score music sounded realistic as it was taken directly from a park. This helped make the beginning scene of being in a park be more realistic. We also used a voiceover in our production, this was recorded on a zoom mic. We has to adjust the recording to make it sound like the person was speaking from the phone and we also adjusted the pitch of the voiceover to create a more deep voice which helped keep the mood of the scene.

Conclusion:Within our production we used a lot of codes and conventions seen in action thriller films and in films in general. This helped make the production look and feel more professional as it followed conventions seen by a lot of films.