1. By Sydney Amass
In what ways does your media product
use/challenge forms and conventions of
real media products?

2. Credits and Titles
 Conventionally, real media products of film use credits and titles within their openings. This is in order to set the scene of a film
and appear realistic. It also adds an element of professionalism as well as gives the workers and creators of the film recognition
for their hard work. Every opening that I researched used titles which is why we decided to follow this tradition. However, each
film uses titles in a different way and has their own font styles in order to become recognisable and unique as each film is
different. Some films with the same producers, directors or institutions will have similar titles in the way that the are ordered,
presented or styled: however we as a group have never before made a film before: so we were starting from scratch. As our film
was of romance genre, we researched the title of these films. We first felt that it would make sense to research the order of jobs
as these would roughly be the same for each film. We researched films such as Titanic, Dear John and The Notebook. A big
convention that we found was that the job of director was given the longest screen time and was also segregated at the end,
separated from all of the other included jobs. The institutions would be placed first alike to the companies that made the films. In
order to remain realistic and professional, my group decided to create our own institution. From institutional research, I found that
our film would typically be of low budget due to the lack of special effects, the basic settings, realistic narrative and small time
actors. Our company name was ‘Sled’s productions’. Sled’s came from the first letter or each group members name: Myself,
Sydney; Libbie, Ellie and Daniella. We placed this title at the beginning, along with ‘A film By BCHS Productions’. We chose to
use two institutions due to the fact that conventionally low budget films are funded by more than one institution. An example of
this would be Made In Dagenham which is funded by BBC films and The National Lottery. Romance films often have basic
narratives that are believable and would make the audience think that the events happening within the film could happen to
anyone. Due to this, the titles of a romance film are conventionally simple, with no special effects or quirky forms. The transitions
may vary from a basic dissolve to a small fade. The transitions are conventionally light hearted and calm in order to remain true
to the genre. On the other hand, an action film may use wipes as a transition for their titles as this would impact the audience
more and create more of an excitable atmosphere. This is why we decided to use dissolves, fades and blunt cuts as it would
create a calm and casual atmosphere that remains realistic and true to the genre and real media products. The colours of these
titles are conventionally white, black or something along these lines. They contrast the backgrounds well. These backgrounds are
usually settings of houses, beaches or natural things like nature. My group decided to use the colour of white as it allowed us to
use a black background at the beginning. From research we found that romance openings do not jump straight in. They have a
slow pace in order to create an atmosphere of calmness. For example, Dear John uses a black backdrop before the setting is
revealed and on the backdrop is a title. Due to the transitions of the titles being so basic and not creating excitement, the fact that
the setting is not revealed firstly on screen is a way of creating excitement for the audience in the form of mystery. The actors
and actresses names are conventionally shown on screen alone: we did this also.

3. Mise-en-scene
 Conventionally in a real romance film, there are two main characters that are typically of the opposite sex. I think that this is so
that the film attracts a larger audience due to the percentage of heterosexuals being higher than those of homosexuals. If our film
were to be made into a real product, I would have our characters be heterosexuals as it would appeal and relate to more people:
it would also remain true to conventions of romance films. Actors and actresses in romance films are usually adults, where as in
rom-coms the age is more in the teen area. This is due to love and relationships being a serious topic and rom-coms tend to
mock the idea of any kind of serious relationship. However, we have chosen to go against this convention and use teenagers as
our main characters. The reasons as to why we decided do to this vary from ease to challenges. We wanted to use our peers:
people that are easily locatable and people that would understand what it is that we as a working group are aiming for. Another
reason as to why we decided to do this is because when researching existing films I did not find any successful nor popular
romance films that used obvious teenagers as their main actors and actresses. Although we used teens as our characters, we
still made sure that they were convincing enough to make play the roles in a realistic way and make the story line believable for
the audience. I am also a teen myself, therefore I have a good knowledge of a teens everyday life meaning that I can help craft
the opening in a way that attracts our target audience. We followed convention when it came to costumes for the female.
Typically they are seen to be dressed in a girly, formal and up-to-date form. This is why dressed our female character in a brightly
coloured top with her hair down. However, the male we decided to make more quirky. This was to appeal to another category of
people and to target boys more. He is not as manly/butch and is seen wearing tightly fitted jeans and a suit-like jacket. His hair is
also styled in a feminine way and is not natural like a conventional male in a romance film. The lighting in an opening sequence
of a romance film is generally natural as are the settings: therefore, no artificial light is actually needed. We used natural light in
order to follow this and remain true to the fact that our film is of low budget. Due to the realism factor, the props within a romance
film are simple and are not out of the ordinary. Our props were too. We used a mobile phone, a handbag, curtains, photo frames
and a coffee mug. These props follow the conventions of a low budget film and they too keep within the idea of realism. Our
settings consisted of two different scenes: a train station and teenagers bedrooms. Within an opening of a romance film, the
settings are generally basic and there is only often one or two. We as a group decided to do this in order to make sure that our
opening was believable for the audience.

4. Sound
 When researching sound, I looked into the opening sequence to the existing film Dear John. The sound used
within this opening is not ambient due to the fact that romance has connotations of perfection. We followed this
idea and too did not use ambient sound as we too wanted to create an atmosphere of perfection. Dear John
also used a voice over. This was an idea that a member of our group came up with before we had completed
our research: the fact that a voice over had been used in a previous film confirmed for our group that it would
be a good idea to use one as the film that we researched, Dear John, was very popular. However, not all
romance films use voice over’s, for example, Titanic and The Notebook. We felt it necessary to use a voice
over as from previous feedback a lot of people had said that they found our narrative slightly confusing and
time consuming when it came to understanding it. After having been given this feedback, we decided to watch
Dear John with no sound. We too found that it was also very difficult to understand what was going on in the
shots. Once we had done this, I began to write up our voice over. I printed off a copy of the Dear John voice
over as a use of inspiration. I also searched for love quotes on the internet as we wanted our script to be
insightful and deep in order to have a greater impact on the audience.
 We used a soundtrack, alike to many other existing romance films. Conventionally, the soundtrack would be
subtle and would not actually sound like a song at all. However, in The Notebook the backing track is very
heart felt and impacting. In order to not make our film too alike to Dear John, we chose to make our soundtrack
insightful and very noticeable to the audience.

5. Continuity
• Within our product, we as a group have consistently used continuity throughout our order of shots to remain
professional. In order to achieve this, we ensured that we had a smooth flow between each shot in order to
create for spatial relationships between them. This aspect remains true to an actual media product (an
existing film) as it keeps within a professional house style and aesthetically appears to the audience as an
actual media product. In order to maintain continuity, we had to make sure that when editing we used match
on action correctly and kept our cuts in an ordered form. When editing we also focused vastly upon realism.
This was to ensure that when watching the opening the editing we had done was invisible so that the action
appears real rather than constructed. If the action were to appear constructed then the audience would not
believe in the narrative and the overall experience would be far less effective. When researching other
existing film openings, I found that the footage appeared real and I did not notice the editing that had been
done post-production. We also used the 180 degree rule. As a group, we researched this before hand in
order to gain knowledge about why it is used and how to use it correctly. We watched a short clip on
YouTube that presented us with several examples. In other separate groups, we then put this knowledge
into practice by filming our preliminary task. The preliminary task acted as a trial run before our final filming
day for our actual opening. Using the 180 degree rule made our footage more believable for the audience.
Real media products are conventionally realistic for the audience: therefore, using the 180 degree rule and
good continuity within our opening followed the forms of an existing media product. From research we found
that many openings use an establishing shot. This is why we decide to use a panning shot from a girly,
romantic and cute decorated bedroom wall to our first character opening the curtains to show a new day. I
feel that this set the scene in order for the upcoming shots and events: this gives an overall more enjoyable
experience for the audience. Although in some openings of romance films shot-reverse-shot is used, we
decided to go against this convention as we felt that it would be too much of an impact for the audience. We
felt that this would confuse the audience and that it would be too much to take in considering it was only the
first 3 minutes of the film itself. In my opinion, minus very few areas; professional, believable and follows the
conventions (in this particular area) of a real media product.

6. Narrative
 Our narrative followed conventions to some extend. The typical romance film consists
of two characters whom fall in love; have a few difficulties, whether it be with families
or travelling, and then live happily ever after together. Our narrative does involve two
characters who fall in love, however, the ending does not end so happily ever after.
The problems that occur within our narrative include family troubles and relationship
conflicts: both of which are conventional with the plot of a romance film. The ending to
our film, although not shown in the opening, consists of one of the characters
becoming ill and sadly passing away. Aside to this unconventional ending, it is very
much alike to the ending of The Titanic when Jack sadly dies as the film comes to an
end. All of the films that I had researched consisted of two main characters: one
female and one male. For example, Dear John (John and Savannah), The Notebook
(Noah and Sara), The vow (Leo and Paige) and the Titanic (Jack and Rose). Our
character types were too conventional – And The Rest Is History (Will and Evie). Our
product challenges conventions in the fact that the assumption the audience have of
a happy ending is destroyed when the ending is not happy at all. This event would
create a shock for the audience and in fact excite them as something is happening
that they did not expect. This is why we chose to go against conventions in order to
make our film more memorable.

7. Genre
 Our chosen film genre was romance. In order to put this across to the audience we had to do several different things in order to
make sure that it was obvious in several different aspects in order to be professional and alike to a real media product. We used
the narrative, mise-en-scene, editing and sound in order to put forward the genre of romance to the audience.
 1. Mise-en-scene
These are some of the props that we used. The ‘love’ ornament is very typical and gives clear
connotations of
love to the audience. The photo frames portray happiness and give an insight into the characters life
style. The
colours are light, refreshing and pure which have connotations of calmness.
 2. Sound
Our soundtrack is paced slow at the beginning. Towards the end it begins to speed up in order to create tension and give an
atmosphere of excitement to the audience. We chose this soundtrack as it allows for the audience to feel a change in their
emotions and not become bored. It gives variety. It is conventional to the genre as it uses instruments such as violins that create
a romantic and slightly dramatic tone.
 3. Editing
We used dissolves shots as they give an effect of calmness and serenity. A wipe transition would be more
appropriate for an action film as it is less realistic and more quirky. In editing we also made the cuts
straight as
the romance genre is realistic and we felt that straight cuts portray and idea that is believable to the
audience.
 4. Narrative
Our narrative involves themes of love, conflict, relationships, travels, journeys and so on which are all conventional to the genre of
romance.