The document discusses the conventions of social realism films that the media product adheres to and challenges. It outlines that social realism films typically explore urban issues, use working class characters in impoverished settings, and feature rebels who don't conform to rules. The media product manages to adhere to these conventions to clearly be recognized as a social realism genre film. However, it also challenges conventions by including a strong moral message about family being important, which contrasts with how family is sometimes portrayed in other social realism films.

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

2. Genre
Genre is important when deciding on what film we
wanted to do this year, as each type of genre contains
different conventions than another. We wanted to
pick a genre that was most accessible to us and that
we could do with ease, as opposed to a high budget
film that would use CGI and special effects
involving expensive computer programmes, such as
the sci-fi genre.

3. Conventions
As outlined by one of my previous blog posts, the conventions of
social realism films would include:
• The exploration of urban issues such as drugs and violent crime.
• Reflects life of 21 century, even if it is exaggerated.
• Characters live in impoverished areas – which is typically set in
council houses, and areas where crime , drugs and violence are
high.
• Majority of characters working class.
• The realism means that they are quite often low budget films.
• Protagonist characters are rebels and don't conform to rules or
laws.

4. Use and Develop
We have managed to adhere to all of these
conventions, which we decided to do because
it meant that our film was guaranteed to be
received within the genre of social realism,
which is exactly what we were going for.

5. Music
The music is important when taking into account the
conventions of the genre, as different genres of music are
associated with different genres of film. For ours, we thought
a hip-hop/rap track would suit the film, as it is the type
associated with many other similar films. Non-diegetic music
has the power to directly affect the audiences emotions, so
therefore, the use of these tracks create tension and also
enigma codes. The type of music genre is usually aimed at the
younger generation too, so the use of it in the film trailer
would help to in explicitly target young adults as the
audience, although we have still aimed the movie at around
15 to 40 year-olds.

6. Voiceover
Other conventions of movie trailers in general
that do not depend solely on genre, would be
the use of a voice over. We decided to use a
voiceover as it is a dependable and convenient
way of revealing just enough to the audience
to pique interest, yet, without showing too
many plot points.

7. Challenge
However, we also challenged conventions
with our strong moral message at the end of
family above everything else. In many social
realism films, family is not seen as that
important, and can even be seen as a stimulus
for criminal behaviour, such as in the film,
“Fish Tank” where the protagonists mother
neglects her and her sister.