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

2. In drama films commonly their are scene showing illness
generally in hospitals such as in My Sisters keeper.
My Sisters Keeper
The effect of this I think is to make the audience very
emotionally involved in the scene by showing not just Life Fast forward
telling them about what is happening but showing them.
We then developed this convention by incorporating this in
our film opening and not only showing the character in the
hospital bed but showing the hospital itself.
We filmed it so its shows a establishing shot of the hospital
which cuts to a shot of the hallway and then a close up of a
sign in the hospital where the character is supposed to be,
we did this to show continuity which is important in dram
films as they are made to look as realistic as possible. By
doing this it gives the effects of someone going closer to
the room. When it cuts between these shot we used a
heart monitor sound to help establish it is a hospital and
she is ill.

3. Although we could not film the bed scene in the hospital we tried to make it
look as real as possible by doing ‘ill looking’ make-up, and hospital
gown, white bed sheets and get well soon cards.
We used a monologue which was parallel to the scene as it was the character
April talking about herself; monologues are often used in drama films I think
To help establish the genre and storyline such as in ‘My Sisters Keeper’ , ‘Speak’ Life Fast forward
and ‘The Lovely Bones’, this is why we chose to include a monologue. I think monologues are
commonly used in drama films as they give an insight into the character and what they are
thinking which makes them more relatable to the audience. Monologues are also quite personal
to the speaker such as in ‘The Lovely Bones’ it was about a memory in her life. In ‘Speak’ and
‘My Sisters Keeper’ a monologues is used as they typically are used, to establish some of what
the film is going to be about.
The Lovely Bones Speak My Sisters Keeper
We challenged this convention as typically their would not be a hospital scene at the start of the
film but we felt it was important to include it so the audience could establish the storyline and
the genre. Therefore our opening was not in chronological order.

4. We tried to keep our initial costume ideas as similar to our
planning as possible by using colourful clothes. However it
was quite a cold day when we were filming so we didn’t wear
shorts but jeans and leggings instead. We then had to edit it
in order to make the weather seem better than it actually
was. The opening is not in chronological order so the
audience could tell the genre more clear by having her ill at
the beginning then cutting back to her before she is ill with
her friends on a beach. Also by not doing it in chronological Life Fast forward
order it enabled us to show the audience more of the storyline that if it were in chronological
order because we only had 2 minutes for the opening so we wanted to establish the story as
much as possible.
Other drama films that have had storylines that are not in chronological order are: ‘Seven
pound’ and ‘the Notebook’. In both of these films it cuts to places in the past the same as ours
but we challenged the typical conventions by using a photo frame to cut to the past rather than
cutting as the character is talking about the event in question, this technique was used in Seven
Pounds and the Notebook and is quite common.
Seven Pounds The Notebook Life Fast forward

5. Another drama film which is not in chronological
order is the butterfly effect; the way in which they
cut to the past would of been inappropriate to
use in our film because it is done by him having
flashbacks that he can control. If we would have
done this it might have made our film look like a
sci-fi film rather than a drama film which could The Butterfly Effect
have confused the audience.
The Notebook
In Drama film the opening is quite often in a
outdoor setting such as in ‘My Sisters Keeper’ and
‘The Notebook’ to we filmed part of our opening
scene on a beach to stick to the conventions of a
Drama film.
Life Fast forward
My Sisters Keeper

6. The Last Song Seven Pounds Life Fast forward
The outdoor setting we decided to film at was the beach as it is usually used in drama films such
as in the Last Song and Seven Pounds. Benefit of setting our scene on the beach was it then
became parallel to the scene as it represented her when she was and happy with her friends.
We challenged conventions of a drama film by our editing.
We used the ghost effect so show what April was seeing before she collapsed on the beach.
Although this effect challenges the conventions of a drama film it was appropriate and fitted our
film opening well because it showed the audience April’s point of view, so because of this it
made the character more relatable. Life Fast forward – showing ghost effect

7. We chose to make our production name incorporate nature by using a African sunrise, which
could have connotation on something new, we thought this was fitting as we are a new company.
Also we researched other companies that make drama films and they also incorporated nature
such ass the mountain in Paramount Pictures so we though it would be appropriate for ours to
include nature.
With our main song choice I think we kept to our initial idea of what we wanted. We used a soft,
sad, piano song which was what we wanted because they are typically used in drama films so by
using it, it should help the audience establish the genre of the film. It was also parallel to the sad
storyline of the film so it works well with the scene. It was difficult finding a appropriate song but
after research we managed to find a song which we then used.