1. Evaluation – Question 1
In what ways does your media product use,
develop or challenge forms and conventions of real
life media products?
2. Conventions of Sports
Drama
The genre for our film is sporting drama. These are known as hybrids that contain
conventions from both of these genres, and in these films there are often a sports
interest along with a form of drama story to assist the story. The stage that the drama
kicks in is either at the start or in the middle of the duration of a film, where the
protagonist has to cope and overcome some issues that may occur by the end of the
film; often done using the assistance of the sporting interest. Whereas, drama films
tend to go along the journey of a particular character and portray the drama that
goes on in their life. To audience should be able to relate to the character and feel
like they’re on the same journey.
For instance, In 2015 a film called creed shows a young boy who has an aspiration
of becoming a boxer, but because his father dies in the ring it puts him off from doing
so, but manages to make his dreams come true. The tragedy is portrayed at the start
of the film to have a build up to the story.
3. What is hybridisation
This method of a film genre is becoming more common and is being used in the
modern film industry, hence why I have incorporated both sports and drama together
. Nowadays, the genres aren’t restricted to being separate pre-determined categories
and have now become so much more flexible, giving producers and distributors the
opportunity of targeting a broader audience. In terms of terminology, this is also
known as hybridisation. This is a term used to describe a method of convergence
whereby a new mode emerges containing aspects of media and combines a range
of different genres.
A good theorist example of this is Ralph Cohen with his concept of saying that
‘genres are open categories’, which proves the fact why Jay and I had chosen this
way of targeting our audience. This is because we both have enough skills to be able
to come up with elements and compose something differentiated within the industry
and using this method really does give us that edge of having a USP. This means
that audiences are persuaded to watch our film due to it being differentiated and
therefore could potentially increase profits.
4. Overview of a Trailer
Type of conventions used:
> Costume
>Setting
>Camera Work
>Use of the Titles
>Conventional Themes
>Establishing our audience/ character connections
>Love Interest
Challenged conventions include:
>Tragedy occurs at the beginning
>More focus on the drama and less on the sport
Developed Conventions
>Use of the garage gym rather than a boxing gym
>Unsuccessful Character
5. How were the conventions
used?
Setting – In a usual sports film, it is common for the protagonist (the athlete) to be
quite wealthy and successful as a sports star that belongs in the upper class status
who originally came from a working class background. For our film trailer, our
protagonist, Reiss belongs in a working class background which is established from
the setting, as we used the park, a garage gym and a affordable house. We used a
sense of realism within the film, where we prove that tragic things occur with the lives
of normal citizens and this has an effect on the audience as they would feel more
involved in the story.
Costume – The films that are composed in this genre tend to use affordable clothing
for the characters that are displayed. We had conformed this convention as our
characters seem to be portrayed in informal clothing such as t-shirts and sweatpants.
Usually in sporting films the protagonist has some form of sporting equipment on
him/her to represent that they’re an athlete along with the costume. Our protagonist
also is seen to be wearing boxing gloves as well as wearing tape around his wrists
and hands.
Music – Sports dramas have the choice of having a slow or fast paced soundtracks
within the trailer. For our trailer we have used slow paced music to build up tension
and the fast pace is used while fast cuts are being used and his is where the tension
has come to its full potential and engages the audience.
6. How were the conventions
used?
Camera work (establishing shot) – Many of the sports drama film trailer that I’ve
researched have used an establishing shot at the beginning of the trailer to portray
the setting of the scenes. We have conformed with this convention as we have
shown a shot in our trailer at the beginning that shows the setting of where the
protagonist’s house is located, giving the audience an idea of his status.
Camera work (mid-shot) – In this genre they also use mid-shots whilst the
protagonist is in action and during the trailer there are several different mid shots
used where the protagonist is shown to be training, conforming this convention.
Conventional Themes – Common themes with the sport drama genre are that the
protagonist has a sports interest, but has problems that occur in his life such as drug
addiction and relationship issues. We have used this convention for our sports drama
and we conformed this as the audience will be able to follow the life of our
protagonist.
9. How I challenged the
conventions…
Problems occuring at the beginning – It is a tradition that sprt dramas have to show
the tragedies halfway through the film/ trailer. However, for our trailer we have
portrayed the death of the protagonist’s mother at the beginning to help the audience
understand the story. The reason we decided to do this was because It encaged the
audience from the very beginning of the trailer and they will be able to develop a
form of emotion that will be contrasted with the character, enticing them to go watch
the film.
The use of black and white – This is something that is unconventional in a sports
drama genre to portray some scenes as black and white. Yet, we decided to do this
in our trailer to really enhance the issues the protagonist is having in his life so that it
is obvious to the audience of the inner demons that he has to compete against.
12. How I developed the
conventions…
The use of the garage gym – in a sporting drama film they tend to have a
professional feel of a venue where the training is set. However, for our trailer we
chose to use a home gym as it was different and portrayed t the audience that the
prtagonist has a passion about the sport, but aslo that he belongs to the working
class, and thus may not be able to afford membership or a personal trainer.
Our character being unsuccessful – Traditionally, characters have to face the issues
that occur in their life, but sill tend to be success in a way of having money, being
established and doesn’t need to work hard because he is at the very top. We have
challenged this convention as our character faces the problems in his life, but isn’t a
successful boxer like the traditional convention would portray.
14. Ancillary Product -
Conventions
Film Poster
>Landscape
>Titles
>Credits
>Large Image
>Link to trailer (synergy)
Magazine Front Cover
>Barcode
>Striking Image
>Plug
>Large and bold masthead and Cover line
15. General Overview - Poster
Used Conventions
>Large Title
>Main Image being large
>Credits
>Link to the Trailer
Challenged Conventions
>Landscape
>Use of black and white
Developed Conventions
>Colour scheme
16. How I used the
conventions?
Large Title – We have used a large title as it catches the attention of the audience
and conforms the convention of a traditional film poster.
Large Image – The image that we have used takes up the whole page and this thus
conforms the convention of film posters. The image is of our protagonist, again
conforming the convention.
Link to the trailer – We have a direct link to our trailer because we have used the
similar font style and size of the text, font colour and the protagonist.
Credits – Film poster have the convention of having credits at the bottom of the page
which tends to be quite small so that it doesn’t take up too much space. We have
also done this on our poster to conform the convention.
17. Challenging the convention
Black and white – for the image that has been used on our poster it has been edited
to being black and white as it represents the plot of our trailer of the inner demons
that the protagonist faces and the red writing associates with this. Posters tend to be
coloured so that it is appealing to the target audience and not black and white, so we
have gone against the convention.
Landscape – Most posters seem to be portrait rather than landscape. The reason
why ours is landscape is because the image that we wanted to use wouldn’t have
been appropriate to be used on a portrait poster as the image would have been
cropped. We are happy that we went against this convention as we believe our
poster is highly effective in terms of attracting audiences.
18. Development of the
convention
Colour scheme – Film posters tend to use a maximum of two colours, whilst we are
using about three different colour of white, black and red as we think that these
colours are really effective and work in contrast with the image and represent the plot
of the film. Red signifying blood as boxing can lead to blood when a few punches are
hit, black and white that signifies the problems that raise and the death of his mother
in the film.
20. General Overview of the
magazine…
Used conventions:
>Large Masthead and Title
>Link to the Trailer
>Striking Image
>Barcode
>Portrait
Challenged Convention:
>Image Banner
Developed Conventions:
>Quote and Title is placed in the middle of the page
21. How I used Conventions…
Large Title – The title that has been used (cover line) grabs the audience’s attention
and conforms the stereotype of film posters. We had used ‘Rockwell Extra Bold’ and
‘Copperplate Gothic Bold’.
Link to the trailer – The same font style and colour of the film title has been used as
well as the protagonist as the main image.
Striking image – The image used was quite big and was placed in front of the
masthead whilst being placed in the middle of the page with text surrounding it. The
pose that the protagonist holds is effective as it catches the target audience’s
attention.
Barcode – We implemented a barcode on our magazine as this is a typical
convention that all magazine must follow and so we have conformed this.
22. How I challenged the
conventions
Image banner – Banners aren’t really used on a film poster as they must be kept
simple and plain. However, due to our poster looking more like a sports magazine we
had to implement something that suggested that it was a film magazine, and this
inserted a banner that has behind the scenes images on it, so it goes against the
convention and is effective.
23. How the conventions were
developed
Quote and the title – The quote and title tend to be positioned on the side of the main
image rather than directly in the centre of the page and this is the style that we have
chose. This is the convention that we chose to develop as the title may sometimes
been in the middle but not usually with a quote.
