AS media studies evaluation question 1

1. EVALUATION – QUESTION ONE
1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms
and conventions of real media products?
My
Product
Found conventions
(based on research)
My Production – use,
develop or challenge?
Comparison to Existing Products
Titling –
colour, font
and style
Background colours
tend to be dark
(black/blue) with a
contrasting red or white
(or other lighter colour)
used for the titles or
vice versa.
Fonts are usually
fragmented to signify
the chaos in the film
and prepare the
audience for what they
are about to see, or
block capitals to
juxtapose the chaos of
the film and direct the
audience’s attention
away from it.
Following the
conventions of a black
background with white
block capitals to show
some order, which will
juxtapose the chaos in
the film.
Memento follows these
conventions by using a black
background with blue coloured
block capitals for the titles.
this is similar to our film, however
we chose to use the colour
white for our titles.
‘The Machinist’ also follows
these conventions as the titles
are in white block capitals
against a dark background.
the use of the colour white
juxtaposes the background,
signifying that what may seem a
calm environment now will later
be completely different.
Camera
Work
including
Movement-
pan, track,
crab,
crane
Framing a
shot
ECU, CU,
MS, LS, ELS
Camera
Angle
High, Low
Panning to allow a
focus for the audience
to show a significance
of something.
Tracking a character to
signify their importance.
Close ups/extreme
close ups and reverse
over the shoulder shots
to signify significance of
people or their
relationship.
High and low angles.
We mainly used
panning to give
significance to what is
on screen for example
panning the dead
body to show its
relevance to the
narrative.
We use a range of
shots in our film such as
close ups which give
significance to what
the actor is saying, and
make the audience
feel uneasy. We also
use medium shots and
The opening of the film ‘The
Machinist’ begins with a long
shot and the action is brought
closer to the lens so it becomes
a close up.

2. long shots to establish
the atmosphere of the
relationship between
the two detectives and
the dead girl, and to
portray the
scenery/location to the
audience.
We use both high and
low angles to show
differences between
characters, for
example a high angle
is used to represent the
vulnerability and loss of
power of the dead girl.
this gives the impression to the
audience that they are the
camera and so they don’t even
have to move in order to
experience masses of action,
and foreshadows a lot of action
that will come later in the film.
Mise-en-
Scene-
Lighting,
settings,
actor’s
gestures
and
movement
s and props
etc
Typically low key
lighting and
dark/isolated setting
and bad weather to
create a sense of
foreboding.
Weapons portray the
nature of the
antagonist to the
audience and mirrors to
signify a different side
of them.
Dark colours such as
black and grey.
Our film is set in a
suburban location to
show the isolation of
the dead body and
emphasise the eerie
atmosphere.
We rejected the typical
convention of low key
lighting as we set it in
broad daylight, high
key lighting, to
reinforce the
unusualness of the
crime as it would
typically be set at
night.
We used a packet of
pills as the main prop in
our film to signify the
nature of the crime to
the audience, following
conventions of
psychological thrillers.
In the film ‘Fight club’ the use of
low key lighting portrays a dark
atmosphere and unsettles the
audience. Also the use of a
weapon as a prop signifies to
the audience what kind of
activities the characters are
involved in, creating fear.
Editing –
jump cuts,
match
cuts,
reverse
shots,
cutting
Jump cuts and match
cuts.
Slow cutting rhythm at
first then potentially a
fast cutting rhythm
after.
We followed these
conventions by using
match cuts and reverse
shots during
conversations.
We also used a slow
Also in ‘Fight club’, the use of
match cuts allows the audience
a full sense of all the action
happening.
The slow cutting rhythm also
creates a sense of unease and

3. rhythm cutting rhythm at the
beginning to give the
audience time to take
in what they are seeing
on screen.
tension for the audience.
Sound
Diegetic
and non
diegetic,
i.e. music,
voice
overs,
dialogue
etc
Non-diegetic sound
used to make the
audience feel uneasy.
Eerie/dark music to
create discomfort.
Little dialogue usually to
add to the eerie
atmosphere.
Our use of non-diegetic
sound makes the
audience
uncomfortable as it
adds to the eerie
atmosphere. This is also
true of the music at the
end when the title of
our film appears, which
reinforces our film
genre and creates
unease and tension.
In ‘The silence of the lambs’ we
hear quite slow, deep and
slightly dramatic non-diegetic
music which creates the eerie
atmosphere of the film,
unsettling the audience. We
also hear a hawk, which can be
considered a scary bird, adding
to the fear and showing the
setting to be outside. We then
hear a woman breathing
deeply as if she’s out of breath,
giving off the sense that she’s
running/trying to escape
something (although she is not).
Narrative
Theory
See
Todorov’s
theory of
the stages
narrative?
Typically, many stories
follow Tordov’s theory.
This theory says that
films start with an
equilibrium where
everything is ‘normal’,
then there is a
disruption to this
equilibrium (something
bad has happened)
and then there is
recognition of this
disruption, so someone
realises what is going
wrong. The next stage is
an attempt to repair
the damage i.e the
protagonist tries to
solve the problem, an
finally there is a new
equilibrium where
normality is restored as
the problem has been
solved.
Our film challenges
Tordov’s narrative
theory as it skips the first
stage when there is an
equilibrium and begins
at the point of
disruption of the
equilibrium. However it
would run through all
the other stages in
order.
‘The silence of the lambs’
follows this theory In a way, as it
begins with the female
protagonist completing training
for the FBI – this is the
equilibrium. However some may
argue that this is contrasted by
the dark, eerie music and
isolated setting. The training she
is doing gives off the idea that
she is preparing for something –
the disruption of the equilibrium
– although this is not explicitly
told to the audience straight
away.