This document discusses conventions of the gangster-crime genre including stock narratives, characters, settings, and iconography. It then summarizes how the student media project used and developed some of these conventions. Specifically, it developed the recruiting of a new gang member by having the recruit rise to the top of the gang. It also challenged the tradition of close family bonds by portraying the gang boss as ordering around his brother instead of treating him as dear family. Upon evaluation, the students felt they should have paid more attention to the family tradition and included more iconic symbols.

1. INWHATWAYSDOESYOURMEDIA PRODUCTUSE,DEVELOPORCHALLENGE
FORMSANDCONVENTIONSOFREALMEDIAPRODUCTS?
Media Evaluation

2. Codesrelevanttoourgenre…
Stock Narratives and Themes
The main regular themes and narratives for the gangster-crime genre are:
– Corrupt police officers.
– Revenge.
– Merging of close family members into the crime family.
– Starcrossed lovers
Stock Characters
– Mafia boss
– The recruit
– Rival gangsters
– Bankrobbers
– Ruthless hoodlums

3. Codesrelevanttoourgenre…
Stock settings:
– Large, crowded cities.
– Dark nightclubs.
– Large mansions.
– Casinos.
Iconography:
– Drugs.
– Crime.
– Piles of money.
– Suits.
– Fast cars.
– Guns.
– Death and violence.

4. Theconventionsweused.
–The recruiting of a new member.
–Top of the hierarchy mafia boss.
–The tradition of family.
–The use of suits as costumes.
–Large house and a Jaguar to
represent wealth.

5. Howwedevelopedtherecruitingofanewmember.
Our whole film is about the
recruitment of a new member, who
would go on to take over the Adams
Family. Our recruit is Charlie Doherty,
a beginner gang member. Instead of
following the traditional conception of
Charlie just joining a gang, we decided
that this was not enough and we
developed it by concluding that
Charlie should rise to the top of the gang, fully showing his ascent of
novice to leader.

6. How we challenged the tradition of family.
Our film follows the Adams Family, a very strong and
powerful family whose connections with each other
are astounding. The two Adams brothers are at the
top of the Adams family, and so they’re relationship
should be very strong. However, we felt that a
ruthless mafia boss would not ruin his threatening
image due to any costs. So we developed our family
as we featured James (the boss) ordering his
brother Frank around, instead of treating him like a
dear member of the family.
Frank Adams
James Adams
while ordering
Frank to ‘get him a
drink!’

7. Evaluation
After examination and after we produced our film, we decided that we should have
paid more attention to the tradition of family as we considered the fact that family
is a very strong value in crime families and we felt as if we should have displayed
this more obviously.
We also felt that we didn’t include many iconography other than the suits and the
car. We felt that we should have paid more attention and included more
iconography to give our film as much legitimacy as we could.