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

Inception

0 The film ‘inception’ has many aspects of hyper-reality. During the film, the mind is opened into another reality which could be seen as more desirable than real life reality. This aspect of the film means a sense of a new, better and more sought-after world, so the audience are convinced that it is an authentic world.

0 The film has a ‘what if ’ style nature. It makes the audience question what the world would be like id we could alter peoples mental states. It also asks the audience whether is it right to invade a persons thoughts.

0 The film portrays a different shape of reality which allow the viewer to personally decide whether they prefer the ‘hyper-reality’ situation, or their own current situation.

0My short film is lightly based on the same concepts as the movie ‘Inception’. The both use the ideas of whether this dream ‘hyper-reality’ shows a better more normal reality than we currently live. I have developed the themes and ideal of the movie to help influence and create my short film.

0My short film itself is based on the fact that one person’s ‘Carter Evans’ reality is not the reality he believes it is. The can be quite confusing, and I believe my audience struggled with this at points of the short film.

0Yet with all the technological advances our society is experiencing, the audience is made to question whether or not this can actually happen to them.

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

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See my short film

conventions post

Length0 The length of my short film is just under 5 minutes (this was the

specification for my coursework). Yet this is a stereotypical length for a short film, many are even 2 minutes. I didn’t want my audience to become bored by watching a longer video, so I kept it within the suggesting time by the exam board to keep the audience involved and interested within the short film. I tried to keep my narrative up to speed by using a montage at the beginning of the short film, showing time passing and using faster cuts when the white room becomes more present at the end of the short film. The reason I did this was because I wanted to keep the audience interested because even though the length of the film is still short that audience attention can waver.

Total Length= 4:58

Budget

0 Actually I had to pay £2 for the creme egg mug to use/smash within this short film.

0 The budget on many films is very low. This is because they are made by un-professionals. I have made a link within my magazine review that I have previously made films, but I have decided to do the basics. This is because I haven’t actually used any money to invest into this short film. I have used all clothing from the actors own wardrobes, all equipment of my own, all props of my own and all locations I was able to use fro free. This means that I haven’t actually had to pay for anything.

Total Budget = £2

0 This is were I have stuck to the conventions that many short film uses. Many of the Un-professional short film makers have very little money, especially with many of them in their yearly twenty's and just having come out of higher education (university). The reason many people create short films is to be noticed by film studios or other film industry professions so they themselves can become a professionals and start working with bigger budget movies.

Characters/Extreme Characterisation

0 Short film usually only involve on or two characters at a maximum to keep the story short and uncomplicated as possible. This is so the audience can follow the story easily. I have used this model by only using two characters Professor Linton and Carter Evans. There isn’t much back story to these characters because I wanted to keep them as simple as possible so the audience member would concentrate on the themes and ideals themselves rather than understanding the characters.

0 Normally within short films extreme characterisation is used to get across certain themes or characteristics of the main characters. For example within ‘Black Button’ the good guy wore white while the bad guy wore a black suit. This is a simple way of inferring the characteristics of a character was using the colour of the clothing they are wearing.

0 I believe I use this to an extent. I dress Carter Evan’s in the room in white clothing to symbolise that he is the innocent and the ‘good’ character within the short film, where as in the reality I just cloth Carter in normal everyday clothing similar to the clothes we would all wear. I wouldn’t class this as extreme characterisation, expect from the fact that Carter is mad out to be an everyday/ordinary type guy.

0 On the other hand, I try and make out that Professor Linton is the ‘bad’ character within this short film so I dress Professor Linton in dark colours to show that he is not a character that should be liked or sided with.

A Hook/A Twist

0 A hock or a Twist is common in many short films. Especially as many leave the short film on a cliff hanger. (which I have used – when Carter wakes up in the white room at the end of the film, it cuts out)

0 The hook could be as simple as, what is that woman doing with the trolley (2:20 analysis). You want to watch to the end of film to find out this information.

0 This is similar to Entity, I have used this in respect of the white room. The viewer will see the white room at the beginning of the clip, than once they see it flash up again they start to get interested in what the white room could be and what it is doing appearing in Carters ‘reality’.

Arty Vs Experimental

0 Many short films are classed as experimental as experiment with their style, narrative and effects to create a new individual short film. I don’t believe my short film is as experimental as other short film have been. The only real thing I have experimented with is the effects of the white room, and how I could create an effect that helps make the white room look in a dream-state. For this is used Chromer Key and adjusted the brightness levels to create an almost blurred look. I have challenged this convention because I have kept my short film quite minimalistic by using, as I have said in question two, light colours and simplistic layouts that keep the products looking spacious.

0 Many short films are based on everyday situations or tasks that you find yourself in. This is because within a short film you don’t have time to set up elaborate fantasy worlds and create a back story for them so they keep the short film to small tasks and add twist to keep the audience interested, this can be clearly seen in the short film Black Hole. (A photocopier produces a black hole on a bit of paper and things turn bad from then).

0 I have also used this convention and kept to very everyday tasks and situations for my short film. The fact that I incorporate a dream into my short film was an interesting factor to me as dreams can be interpreted in many different ways. But the fact is when researching into the theme of a white room, no interpretation was found for a white room in a dream, which I thought fit the narrative and theme very well.

0 Other than that I have used everyday tasks such as waking up; making a drink; drinking; working; searching the internet to base my short film on. This will allow my audience to feel some sort of Da Já Vou while watching the short film as they themselves complete these tasks.

Everyday Situations/Tasks

Ways of Marketing

0 There are many different ways of marketing short films. But the conventional way is through the use of Social Media websites such as: YouTube; Facebook; Google+; Twitter and Tumblr. The reason they market the films this way is because the short film is then distributed to a wider audience and more people will see the short film. The reason this occurs is because the directors or even producers of the short films want these film noticed by someone of a higher power in the film industry, so through this hype that can be caused over the internet, the short film could be noticed.

0 I have used all the social media networks mentioned above to try and gain views and audience feedback for my film. The other thing that could challenge this is that one of my reasons for using social media to distribute my work is that many of the users that social media is targeted at are my targeted audience so this is a great way to distribute my short film to my target audience.

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

Please

See my short film

poster

conventions post

Type Of Poster0 There are many different types of posters, this include: Iconic; Interest; Name

Drop; and Character. These posters are created to create interest for the film itself. There are slight differences between short film and major feature film posters. These are listed on my Film Poster Conventions post.

0 Within my poster I have tried to keep it as simplistic/minimalistic as possible so it fits in with the tone of the rest of my products. It also keeps it separate from other posters as they can be quite cluttered to attract an audience to the film.

0 My poster is a mix of an Iconic and a Interest poster. This is because of the images I have used. The top image of George in the white room is an iconic picture from the short film, yet the middle section photo is a picture that shows George circling articles, this gives away a part of the film’s plot thus allowing the poster to create interest.

0 Another thing I have challenged when creating my poster is the use of more than one photo. I have used two. Many poster only use one photo for the whole poster. Unless it is a multiple famous cast film or a comedy. Yet this film is not a comedy and it only has two actors/characters within the film too!

Titles and Names

0All posters have a title and the named cast on the poster this is to create interest about the film itself and the cast that feature within the film. This poster is not for a short film that is originally well known or a sequel to another so It requires a title.

0The title of the movie is present at the bottom section of the poster. Whereas the cast has been placed at the bottom of the poster. This is so that they don’t look bunched together.

Image

0 I have used two images within my posters. The images in real poster normally encompasses the whole poster then text is layer on top of this.

0 In the case of my poster I have split my poster into three sections that would allow the audience to view each section separately. On the top section/middle section two film still have been placed to create the images of the poster. These two individual images gives a clue about what genre the short film is, fantasy and mystery. The two images will also give a clue into the plot of the film. This is good because this is how a film poster is used. So it creates a interest in the film.

TageLine

0Normal posters feature a tagline of some kind to clue the audience in on what type of film will be. The taglines are normally quite memorable and short on the posters for easy of the viewer.

0 I have challenged this convention due to the fact I haven’t used one. This is because I wanted to keep my poster simple and I believed that a tagline would cause my poster to become cluttered and seem over-powering to the viewer.

Awards

0Awards on poster is a convention I have only seen on short film posters. The use of the awards allows the audience to understand that this short film is worth watching because it has been given awards due to the quality of the short film.

0 I used short film awards on my poster to create a professional looking poster that would use the conventions of other short film posters. Plus by using the film awards and layering them onto my poster it would make my film look professional and make it seem worthy of watching.

Additional Credits

0On many mainstream posters additional credits at the bottom of the poster are provided this information includes the other cast, director, producer, production company and even the composer. This can also be seen on many short film posters, but doesn’t always appear on all posters. I have challenged this because I have no additional credits on my poster as I have tried to keep the focus towards the images and title.

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

Please

See my empire

film review

conventions post

Conventional Film Review

0A conventional film review consists on a 2-collumn review solely focused on the behind the film interviews and interviews with cast members. Where as within this film review I have challenged the norm and created an interview with the main character George Sutton (Carter Evans), but this interview can be seen in a magazine called Empire. This magazine challenges the normality of a conventional magazine.

Large Pictures

0Large pictures are used within magazines to invite the reader to read the particular article. These pictures normally take over the whole page! And the little amount of text surrounds the picture. I have used this convention as such yet I have challenged it also.

0Within the short film review I have used three pictures that are of a smaller size and used more text. This is because I wanted more information about my short film on the review rather than pictures to describe my short film.

2 Column Article

0 Normal and stereotypical magazines only use a 2 column article. This is because magazines like to keep their articles less crowded and look more approachable because they writing doesn’t look as daunting.

0 I have challenge this and used a 3 column and a 4 column article within my double paged review. This is because the style of articles on each page. On the left hand page I have used 4 columns this is because it is a Q&A – so this isn’t particularly heavy to read so more columns still look approachable.

0 Whereas on the right hand page I have used 3 columns because it is more of a film review styled review so there is more texts, thus fewer columns would make it look more approachable to read.

Page Number/Issue Date

0At the bottom page turning corner a page number will be present this is so the reader can flick to which articles on each page.

0On the magazine I styled my article on at the bottom of the page they marked the page number, the issue month, the magazine name, the website URL and the subscribe URL to the magazine.

0 I have directly copied this onto my magazine as it gives my magazine a profession look and in keeps the information for the reader if needed.

Quotes from Cast/Director

0 Direct quotes from the cast and director are used within magazine articles/reviews as it gives the reader an insight into what the director/cast are saying within the article. The quotes sometimes have the names next to the quote as they are unrelated to the article, yet when some quotes are placed within the text, they are direct quotes from the article itself.

0 I have only used one quote within my film review this is layered over the top of one the film still I use. This is not a direct quote from the article but I have not signposted who said it. This is because I wanted t leave some mystery behind the project and thus not much other details are given away either.

Drop Catch/Additional Information

0 A drop catch is used in almost every magazine article I have seen or read. I have used a type of drop catch that is similar to the drop catch used within the ‘Empire’ magazine. This is to show the reader where to start reading the article.

0 I have developed this convention also by use a yellow arrow on my left hand Q&A page to show the reader where to start reading, this is so it keep in with the style of the page, but keep a fresh take on a drop catch.

0 The text for the magazines is size 11 and they use Aerial, but for my double page film review/Q&A I have used Times New Roman and the size 10. This is because Time New Roman looked professional and I had to use a smaller size front due to the amount of text I had on my page was to much for a size 11pt font.