sdas\dcd

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

2. What are the
conventions of
a teen film?
What is a convention?
- A convention is the widely
recognised way of doing
something - this has to do with
content
Teenage films usually tend to focus
on teenagers:
• Teenage Love
• Drugs
• Money
• Alcohol
• Fashion
• Friendships
• Relationships
• Different social groups within a
school/college
• Conflict with adults
eg.teachers/parents

3. Topics/themes of a teen film
There are many topics used in teen films, below are
some of the most common :
 Proms
 House parties
 Classrooms
 Bullying
 Sexual themes
 Social groups

4. Sound
Sound is vital in any genre of film. This is because it helps the audience
understand what is going on as well as helping represent a character in
a certain way.
As we were only filming the opening of our teen film we decided to use
a voice over and some music instead of the characters speaking as
this would leave the audience wondering what happens next.
For my character who is called Trevor we used hip hop music which we
downloaded from creative commons. We had to ensure it was
copyright as using someone else's music without permission is illegal.
We used hip hop music to portray Trevor as a bad guy who's popular
within the college.
For Thahmina’s character o is known as Cassie we used popular music
which we also downloaded from creative commons. The use of
popular helped us portray Cassie as a popular beautiful girl.
For Nadia’s character Maya we used a voiceover to share her
thoughts about starting college with the audience. This also helped set
the scene and told the audience that she is started college new.
For the overall sound we decided to use a urban style soundtrack as it
would keep the audience entertained.

5. camera
Camera work is another technique used to portray characters in certain
ways therefore it is important.
An example of camera work is a long shot which shows the characters
full body and helps the audience create an impression of them by their
looks and clothing.
Different types of shots are used to show different things.
In our teen film opening we used a close up shot a few times for example
when showing the council flat name which sets the location of the
opening and gives the audience an idea of the characters
backgrounds.

6. Our use of camera work
A shot from a movie
called Lizzie
McGuire.
A shot from our
opening

7. Editing
Editing is the process where all the footage is put together and
effects are added to make it look professional.
There are many ways a video can be edited. Here are some of
these way below:
 Adding transitions
 Trimming clips
 Adding texts
 Adding music
 Adding titles/credits
 Split screens
 Adjusting sound
 Slowing down or making clips faster.
We used all of the above when editing our final product.

8. Splitscreen
The idea of using a split screen was taken from
a movie called “Plasmaistic”
Plasmaistic
Trapped

9. Mese en scene
Mese en scene is important as it shows what a character is like .
As we had 3 characters we had to use mese en scene to make
sure they are portrayed differently from one another
For Trevor there was cigerrettes,a lighter,perfume,keys and 2
phones which we used to show him as a careless character who
isn't really bothered about life. However he was wearing designer
clothes to show he cares about his appearance as he wants to
impress girls.
For Cassie we used designer handbags, designer clothes and
make up to portray her as a beautiful popular girl with attitude.
For Maya we used glasses, a normal bag and a ugly jacket and
books to show her as an unpopular teenager.

10. Order of titles
• Distribution Ident
• Production Ident
• Title
• Cast/Stars
• Casting
• Music Supervisor
• Costume
• Production Designer
• Director Of Photography
• Writer/director
Although this is the usual order the titles come up in we decided
to put the Title at the end of the opening as it looks better and
makes the audience thing maybe the characters get trapped
on the lift

11. Overall I think we did great using the
conventions of a real teen film, we used sound,
mese en scene and camera really well
Due to our well planned research we were able
to use techniques that made our opening look
professional