The document discusses how the student's media products for their Advanced Portfolio either conformed to or challenged conventions of crime drama genres. For the film, it initially planned to fully conform but later introduced irony by misleading viewers into thinking a crime occurred when it was actually about a man reuniting with his child after neglecting him. The film poster fully conformed to crime drama conventions to attract that audience. However, the radio ad challenged conventions by using depressing rather than suspenseful music to portray the story as a suicide note rather than typical crime drama.

1. Evaluation question 1: In what ways does your media product
use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media
products?
By Emre Kebir

2. How and what did I research about the
conventions of Crime Drama films?
The genre I had decided on basing my film around was a Crime Drama. This is a very wide
genre in terms of conventions, due to the fact it uses elements of both crime and drama
films. In order to make sure I was able to challenge or conform to the conventions of Crime
Dramas, I first needed to conduct research into the genre itself. To do this, I did various
pieces of research where I had to use analysis skills to pick out the conventions in order to
use or challenge them in my own film. To find conventions, I analysed various films that were
of my film’s genre. In doing so, I was able to produce various pieces of work to show my
research, such as a montage and a collage of conventions that are used in Crime Dramas,
which portrayed my knowledge of the genre. This gave me the knowledge that I needed
about the conventions of my chosen genre, and allowed me to construct my film based
around these conventions.

3. Mise-en-Scene
Setting- When researching Setting, I found that in terms of exterior, most Crime Dramas are set in an Urban area, such as a city or town. In
terms of interior, Crime Dramas can vary. Many are set solely in a house, where a lot of drama takes place, while some may take place in
prisons.
Props- In Crime Dramas, props tend to be those related to crime. Films revolving around drugs may use narcotics as a prop, while those
revolving around fraud may have a large use of money. Most Crime Dramas however, have violence, and are likely to use weaponry, such
as a gun or knife.
Costume- Characters in Crime Dramas can vary. While police and prisoners will wear their obvious costumes, those set outside the
police/prisoner narrative tend to wear more casual clothes. While a gang member may wear hoodies and tracksuits, a more innocent
character may wear more casual clothes, such as a shirt and jeans.
Makeup- Some Crime Dramas have death in them, and therefore a popular makeup to be used may be blood.
Lighting and Colour- Lighting in Crime Dramas can vary, depending on the mood of the scene, as with all genres, however use of dark
lighting is regular in Crime Dramas. This tends to happen when a crime is committed, to match the dark nature of the action.
Facial expressions/body language- As with Lighting and colour, facial expressions and body language tends to change based on the mood of
the scene. However, when a crime is being committed, body language and facial expressions are known to be very tense. This is to add to
the suspenseful nature of the film.

4. Technical aspects
• Camera angles/movement/shot- When researching camera angles/movement/shots
I found that crime dramas tend to use many obtuse angles, which create fear and
uncertainty, while also using several Upper angle/Lower angles shots. There also is a
large use of tracking shots.
• Sound- In Crime Dramas, there tends to be a lot of dialogue. Furthermore, music is
usually sinister, especially when a crime is about to happen.
• Editing- In crime dramas, there is a lot of suspense, and shots tend to last for a long
time to create this, however in times of panic, shots tend to be quicker and shorter,
using jump cuts.

5. How did my Advanced Portfolio
challenge/conform to conventions?
My initial idea for my Advanced Portfolio was to create a film about two brothers that wholly conformed
to the conventions of a crime drama. However, I decided to change this. I decided to make the film
more of a drama than a crime, however to mislead the audience into thinking the film would be about
crime, using crime conventions. Using the dark lighting, obtuse camera angles, and long shots creates a
feeling that a crime film should, which is the effect I wanted to create. I wanted the audience to feel
that the crime the man may have committed is suicide, or maybe even murder. The use of the
previously mentioned aspects creates this, along with the narrative used. Once this effect is created,
the audience go onto believe the man is going to kill himself up until the very end of the film, where he
is revealed to be meeting his child. In my opinion however, it is Ironic that the audience feel like he is
not committing a crime after all when he meets his child, as he has already committed an enormous
crime, he has neglected his child for 10 years. As previously stated, the film does have many aspects of
a crime drama film in terms of lighting(dark), props (rope), setting (house/urban area), camera angles
(obtuse/upper angles), body language and expressions (tense), shot length (long), sound (depressing
music, dialogue) and costume (casual), however it does not follow the conventional narrative of a
crime film, an effect I have used on purpose.

6. How did my Film Poster challenge/conform to
conventions?
Unlike my Advanced Portfolio, in my Ancillary task, I chose to fully conform to a film
poster of a crime drama. After observing the conventions of a Crime Drama film
poster and creating extensive research on it, I found that a Crime Drama film poster
is likely to include an individual on the front, alongside a dark background and a dark
fonted, bold text. This is exactly what my film poster uses; the main character is on
the front, standing on the stool, suggesting suicide. A dark, red font is in the middle,
creating the suggestion of blood, while the poster is covered in a blue tint. This
conforms to the conventional Crime Drama film poster, which is the intended effect,
as it is likely the first thing an audience member would see, and my target audience is
those who enjoy crime dramas therefore meaning they will be drawn to it, wanting
to watch the film.

7. How did my Radio advert challenge/conform
to conventions?
Much like my Film poster, I chose to conform to conventions in terms of my Radio
advert. When researching the conventions of Crime Drama radio adverts, I found
that that narration of a major character is used, while there is usually suspense
music in the background. While I conformed in terms of narrative, and mentioning
the release date at the end, I did chose to challenge in terms of the music used.
The music was more depressing than suspenseful, and as a result, It challenged the
conventional Crime Drama radio advert, as the intended effect was to make the
radio advert sound like a suicide note. The Radio advert swings more to the drama
genre than the crime genre, as it is very dramatic, and it is this drama that is likely
to draw an audience towards it.