media question 1

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

2. OUR FILM
• We decided to create a film about schizophrenia. As there are not that many
films about this mental disorder, we thought it was a good idea to try and
make people aware of it.
• Its about a boy who has paranoid schizophrenia, but he does not know this.
He knows that there is something wrong with him but doesn’t know that it is
paranoid schizophrenia. He is scared to tell anybody what is going on, which
results him leaving his house and not returning back to it.

3. CONVENTIONS OF SOCIAL REALISM
• Wide shots- this is so the audience can get a good view of where the setting is and
what’s going on
• Close-up shots- this allows the audience to see how the character is feeling and
understand their emotions
• Dark lighting- social realism films are usually about serious incidents and the dark
lighting helps to show that there is a dark and eerie presence over the film
• Semi- improvised scripts- this is to show the realistic side of films. It brings to life
the realness as if two people were having a conversation without a camera being
present.

4. HOW DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT
USE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF
REAL LIFE MEDIA PRODUCTS?
CAMERA ANGLES
• We used many of the conventional camera angles in our short film.
• Close- up shots were used to show the emotions of the character.
• Wide shots were used to show the surroundings of where the character is
• Dark lighting is used when he is alone in the living room to show that there
is darkness lingering inside of his mind.

5. EDITING
• Jump cuts are used to build tension. We used this in the beginning of our
film to show that it is not going to be a smooth running film and things are
going to be jumpy in the film
• In some parts of the film we enhanced the lighting the show the mood of
happiness and then suddenly change to dark lighting when the character’s
mood changes dramatically.

6. THEME
• As said earlier, the theme of our film is social realism. Everyday people deal with
being told they have schizophrenia or end up doing something wrong because of
the disorder.
• Our film shows that some people are too scared to tell anyone what’s going on,
which result in them having to deal with it on their own which can have bad
consequences
• The film focuses on how the boy is feeling and has a voice over of him describing
how he feels and how he feels that he can’t confide in anyone.

7. HOW DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT
DEVELOP FORMS AND CONVENTIONS
OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS
MISE EN SCENE
• One of the main conventions of social realism is having working class
characters. This results in the costumes being associated and created with
working class. However, as we wanted to create a dark vibe to the film, we
had our character wear all black clothes to represent the darkness.
• We gave him a green jacket when he walks outside. This is so we can
recognise him and see where he is going, but it also indicated to the audience
that there could be hope of him being saved as is associated with goodwill

8. SOUND
• Most social realism films use diegetic and non-diegetic sound and music. We
decided that we would only use diegetic sound and this helps the audience to know
what the character is feeling. Many films do not use this as they feel like music helps
to create the mood that the character is feeling.
• We think that having the voiceover will be very effective because on screen it will
show him doing everyday things and then the voiceover will allow the audience to
see how he’s feeling when doing these activities
• We also enhanced the sound of the pencil on the paper. We wanted to get across the
aggression that the character is feeling when he is drawing.

9. IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA
PRODUCT CHALLENGE FORMS AND
CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS
CAMERA WORK
-We use a number of different shots in our film.
• We use close up shots to get the characters emotions across to the audience. Close
up shots are also used to get a zoomed shot on a specific object or a specific feature
• We use a two shot to represent that he is imaging a person being there when in fact
there isn’t.
• We use a wide shot to show where the scene is being set and to show the
surrundings.

10. EDITING
• There is only one part of the film that has precise jumpy section. Many
social realisms films have many jumpy sequences, but we only used one as we
felt like having too many jumpy sequences in a short film would be too
much.