1) In what ways does your short film, use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

In order for me to ensure that my film trailer is effective in the sense that it conveys and uses forms and conventions of a real social film trailer, I had to ensure that my film was produced and distributed by a production company that has previously created social realism films. I have chosen to use BBC films and National Lottery films as my production and distribution institutions as they have previous created and distributed social realism films such as Shifty and Kidulthood. By ensuring that I used BBC Films I believe that my media product uses real media products as it as well has used a production that is familiar in social realism film, as well as this by using this image at the beginning of the film trailer I have also ensured that the audience is spontaneously able to see that the film is not only a British film but more importantly it shows that it is a social realism film and they will identify with it immediately before the trailer even starts.

When creating the trailer I had to ensure that I was able to analyse social realism films carefully and configure what was most repetitious and what was conventional throughout the films. In most, if not all, social realism film trailers consist of violence and a key way to portray this is through police cars, stations or officers. I believe that my media product uses forms and conventions of real media products through the use of the police car as the police are used throughout a high majority of the productions. As well as this I have used the police car as a symbol of violence I wanted to ensure that I used an image that would portray what the trailer would consist of. However, through this scene, my trailer also challenges forms and conventions of real media products as a large number of media products use one set of equipment in this case cameras, a large number of social realism films tend to use one camera where as I have used two different cameras to ensure that I was able to create the best media product. Also, by using this symbol of violence, my target audience will know what to expect from the film from the onset.

Another way in which my media production uses forms and conventions of real media products is mise- en- scene. Mise-en-scene is what makes social realism films what they are and I have adopted this theory through the use of a knife. The knife is a key representation of social realism films as young people are notoriously known for either using or carrying knives and this has been displayed and used throughout various films for example Kidulthood (2006). Throughout the film the main actors Trevor, Mooney and also Jay are all seen carrying a form of weapon. By me using this form of mise-en-scene in my trailer I have clearly shown that I have conveyed with the codes and conventions of a social realism film.

Again, after watching a variety of social realism films and trying to understand their codes and conventions there is a high number of mise-en-scene that is used to show and give a representation of young people as violent and juvenile; I have adapted this by ensuring that I was able to use a form of mise-en-scene that would allow me to show a clear representation of youth. As well as this, the use of the gloves was importantandI had to ensure that I was able to use a specific camera angle that would allow me to show the importance of the gloves, that is why I ensured that I used a close up shot to as it shows the importance and the link that the gloves have to the trailer. Close-up shots are used quite a lot in social realism films as they allow the audience to see clearly what is going on (especially if the action taking place is against the law). By carrying this out I have ensured that I used and followed the codes and conventions of a real media product.

A large number of real media texts follow Laura Mulvey (1975) theory of females being a male gaze; through a lot of social realism films females are seen as the male gaze and objects or trophies for the main male actors. I have chosen to familiarize my trailer with this theory and I have ensured that I was able to use a “pretty” female character, this would not only help to raise awareness of the male audience but also idolised by the female audience as the is well behaved and throughout the film she is created to be the character that always does the right thing. This is a clear use of the forms and conventions of real media texts as they all use female characters to be of some support for the male characters and plan an influential role. Without her in my trailer it would be male heavy and I wanted to ensure that I was able to include female characters as the trailer is also targeted at a female audience.

In this particular shot I have chosen to create a mysterious character that also follows the forms and conventions of real social realism films through the use of his clothing. All social realism films ensure that their characters dress in a particular type of way, I have chosen to use black hoodies as part of the mise-en-scene as a high number of social realism trailers follow these forms of conventions and the “bad” characters are created to dress in this particular way. “Hoodies” are heavily associated with teens, as they created a moral panic within society – and this is what I intended to do with my character. As well as this I have researched what kind of branded clothing a large number of real texts make their characters where and “NorthFace” is one of the designers that a large number of trailers ensure that their characters wear. Wearing designer clothing is also another stereotype of teens as they like to appear more wealthy than they actually are, and this empowers them. I have clearly demonstrated this by ensuring that my main character also forms with the codes and convention of a social realism film.

Having credits at the end of a trailer is rare in mainstream films trailers, however; in social realism film trailers, the credits are included and used within trailers, as I wanted to ensure that I was able to come up with a way in which I was able to conform with the conventions of a real social realism film I decided that using the credits at the end would make the film trailer more realistic and help to make the trailer more attractive and more of a social realism film trailer.

Background music is essential in all film trailers but when researching social realism films, it was evident that they all use music which is very fast and very up-beat, however my film trailer uses very slow music and is only an instrumental; I chose to do this as it fit in well with the story. In this sense I have challenged the forms and conventions of a social realism film. I chose Adele’s ‘Hometown’ because the instrumental has been used in UK hip hop music videos (Krept and Konan – ‘Hometown’) throughout the song they talk about working class society and how they live and I know that my trailer is aimed at the same audience that they aim their music at. Both of these artists are British, and therefore are rooted and established with my target audience. By doing this I have also ensured that I familiarise the background music with the target audience in the same sense that social realism films do.

In this particular shot the main character (Omar) is seen going up stairs in the flat that he lives in. Flats are associated with social realism films as it’s seen as geographic statement that social realism films are filmed in deprived location associated with low or working class. However, as you can see throughout the trailer the flat is very clean and they even have signs saying ‘no smoking’, this is a clear indication that that he lives in a well looked after flat which is clean and well founded. By doing this I believe that I have challenged the forms and conventions of social realism films, however suggests that you can still be involved with crime and be deprived without living in bad locations.