A2 media evaluation

1. 1.In what ways does your media
product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real
media products?
By Alexandra Searle

2. There are four main
conventions of short films…
Having a
developed
character
Having a circular narrative
And playing with the
audience’s expectations..
Having a
catalyst

3. Audience expectations
The main way we challenged the conventions
of short films was through playing with the
audience’s expectations…
Our short film is a mockumentary based on
the idea of the last Zombie on earth and how
he survives living with humans.

4. However when we first came up with the idea,
we decided we that we wanted to start the
film off as though it where a zombie movie
that was going to scare the audience.
We thought this would make it more
comical when the audience first meet
Tony and realise he’s a friendly zombie, as
they were expecting a scary horror movie.

5. To start with…
We opened the film with establishing shots of empty
ruined buildings, and the shots where tinted red to make
the film look as though it was going to be a horror….
We also had a narration over the top, explaining that the
world had been taken over by Zombies, just like any
other zombie movie would start.

6. And then…
We had a zoomed in shot of Tony’s face, to
juxtapose the opening and make the
opening very comical and fit with our genre
of mockumentary….

7. A developed character?
We decided to develop the fact that short films only have one
developed character. Even though Tony is the main focus and the most
developed, we also included other characters who had their own stories
and even though they weren’t as well developed, they still had their own
lives and characteristics.

8. Why?
I feel this made the
film more interesting
and funny for the
audience. It also
allowed them to
reveal more
information about
Tony, making his
character even more
developed.

9. Catalyst and Circular
narrative…
For the
catalyst
…
We decided we
would use the idea
of having a catalyst
and a circular
narrative as they
make short films
work well.

10. We decided that each character would
be interviewed, and the questions they
were asked became the catalysts.

11. And for the circular
narrative….
We opened with a
narration playing over
the top of the opening
shots and finished
with the same
narration playing over
the credits.