The film uses some conventions of social realism such as close-up shots to show emotions and dark lighting when the character is feeling fearful. However, it also challenges conventions by using everyday costumes to make the characters more relatable, and only using diegetic sound to convey emotions rather than music. The film does not rely heavily on typical camera angles or include many jump cuts, diverging from standard techniques of the genre. Overall the film draws on realist conventions while also updating them to connect more directly with audiences.

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 and thinks that there is a
person hiding in his house.
• The film ends with the boy hitting his girlfriend as he is confused and thinks
that she is the intruder. This results to him being questioned about the
incident and leave the audience wondering what is going to happen to him.

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(s) were.
• Dark lighting is used when the boys is researching his disorder. This is to enhance
the fear that he is feeling and to give the audience a sense that the mood is about to
change dramatically.

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 what happens when it does go
wrong.
• The film focuses on how the boy deals with situations and how he can
change the way he is feeling very quickly.

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, we decided to develop this and make it relatable to
the viewer. We made the characters wear clothes that anybody could wear, no
matter what their class. This makes the audience think that this could happen
to them as we use everyday locations and costumes.

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. However, we
feel that using diegetic sound is the way in which we can really get the
characters emotions across

9. IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA
PRODUCT CHALLENGE FORMS AND
CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS
CAMERA WORK
• Throughout the film we don’t really use many of the conventions of social
realism. We use a lot of two shots and master shots but not really many wide
shots or close ups. We do use some of these shots but not in the
convectional way that it should have been used

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.