1. Evaluation
1. IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA
PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE
FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA
PRODUCTS?
2. CONVENTIONS
— In my preparation and planning of creating this short
film I researched the codes and conventions of real
psychological films
— I looked at the common conventions of different aspects
such as character, costume, horror, reality, mind,
identity and death, as these are all heavily featured in
this genre
— I took a lot of inspiration of my protagonist's character
from the protagonist in Fight Club; after extensively
researching Edward Norton's portrayal of the narrator, I
tried to convey that tone in my film
3. CONVENTIONS OF A SHORT FILM
— It follows the basic conventions of a short film in that it
has a constant narrative that is simple enough for a
5 minute film but complicated enough to entertain the
audience
— The protagonist has enough of an introduction to make
the audience emphasise with him, but his background
is enigmatic due to the psychological nature of the
film
— His narration helps to guide the audience along the
storyline
— The use of a variety of shots, camera angles and
editing techniques means it resembles a real film
4. KEY CONVENTIONS
— After thoroughly researching the key conventions of a psychological
film I tried to reflect these in my work:
I looked into different options for
costume choice and settled on a very
everyday “normal” choice to reflect my
protagonist’s ordinary character
Although his hallucinations didn’t look
that out of the ordinary, I focused on
their behaviour towards the main
character to show the difference in
character
5. KEY CONVENTIONS
A key part of the narrative of my film is the
element of reality;
Both the audience and the protagonist are
trying to work out what's actually real, which
is why the narrative was confusing at first
However, I added a first person narration, a
common convention of most films, to help
the audience understand the mental health
problems he has
The problems with his hallucinations were
made obvious, along with the quick
flashbacks, to help the audience understand
what's going on
6. KEY CONVENTIONS
My film has a first person narrative so we
can understand and emphasise with the
protagonist
The driving force of the plot is the way he is
trying to understand what's real, as his
mental health is affecting this
As we see more of his hallucinations we see
the deterioration of his mental health, until
he eventually snaps, much like common
psychological films show
7. KEY CONVENTIONS
The hallucinated suicide off a cliff was an
expression of his feelings and desires, hence
why the film ended with the enigma of death
through pills
Films about mental disorders tend to feature
a lot of elements of death, whether to them
or the people around them, and it's not
uncommon for this kind of state of mental
health to drive them to suicide
Although challenging some conventions by
showing a suicide, it followed and developed
the common features of a psychological
thriller by showing a very controlled, clean
suicide
This would be especially common in a film
with a rating of 15 or featuring teenagers
8. KEY CONVENTIONS
Obviously a big feature of psychological films is for one of the main characters to be
affected by a mental disorder, as my protagonist does with his hallucinations
He cannot work out which is real and which is in his mind, and the audience should
experience this too
I was hugely inspired by Fight Club and how Tyler Durden, the narrator’s second
personality, is portrayed
9. IN RESPONSE TO FIGHT CLUB
— Throughout Fight Club a huge number of hints and suggestions are
used to foreshadow the plot twist, and on first viewing they aren't
apparent to the audience
— This follows the effects model theory, or hypodermic needle
theory, stating that the audience just passively take in information
without questioning it
— However on the second viewing, with full knowledge of exactly who the
characters are, the audience will start to read into everything that
happens
— This is a common convention for psychological films, and I used this
concept when creating my short film: the first time viewing is
purposefully confusing for the audience, whereas once they realise the
people he's interacting with aren't real it should start to make sense.
11. IN RESPONSE TO FIGHT CLUB
— However because of my film’s confusing nature it
might be seen to challenge forms and
conventions of real media products
— In most cases the idea of a film is to entertain and
please people, not make them think deeply about it
— But because my work has been inspired by one of the
most psychologically complex and
philosophically challenging films, it tends to
follow this sort of style
12. IN RESPONSE TO FIGHT CLUB
— One of the main features of Fight Club I admire is
the use of subliminal flashes of Tyler Durden
before we meet him, as though the narrator is
starting to dissociate into him.
— I tried out this method in my film, splicing in a split
second shot of the 2 earlier hallucinations onto an
otherwise empty field as the camera panned over
— This doesn't tend to happen in films but in
psychological films it helps a lot to hint and
foreshadow the plot
