Evaluation for media coursework , question 1

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

2.  The genre that I have chosen for my film is
Drama. So when creating my opening
sequence I had ensure that the genre came
across through the use of Mise-en-scene,
Camera work, Sound and Editing.

3.  Main themes of the Drama Genre –
 Many films of the Drama genre focus on real life situations, following everyday
people and their problems in their day to day lives.
 The audience generally see character development or transition of the main
character throughout their journey.
 Drama’s usually provoke a range of emotional response’s from the audience whether
this is sadness or joy.
 There is a wide variety of themes that are often explored in drama films such as
drug and alcohol abuse, illness growing up, bullying, racism or poverty.
 During my film, as shown in the opening sequence my main character is relatable to
my target audience because they are realistic – being a typical teenager(shown
through her costume and makeup). Throughout the film, like in majority of drama
films, my character is followed through their day to day life showing how they deal
with their problems and overcome them, in my opening sequence I introduce the
theme of illness briefly, but not explaining everything straight away so that the
audience is left wanting more, this is typical of real life media products. Like many
Drama’s to add to the suspense and make my character even more relatable, I have
added the element of romance, in so many Drama films, the romance can draw in
the audience with the added complications and heart warming storyline.

4.  In Drama films, the clothing is simple and wear everyday clothes, conveying a
realistic atmosphere. The costume of my protagonist is typical modern teen
girl clothing with jeans and a parka jacket, I chose to have my character wear
a light pink top and wear light pink eyeshadow to connote her innocence and
to show how young she is dealing with a problem that even many adults may
not be able to cope with. This also reflects the personality of my main
character of being a typical teen trying to fit in. My target audience of
teenagers (mainly girls) should be able to relate to the main character’s
feelings of wanting be normal and fit in. This is common attribute of real
media products, drawing the audience in by relating them to the characters.
 The setting is a relatable setting, where the audience could imagine finding
themselves rather than settings that my audience can not relate to. The
locations I have decided to show in the opening sequence is the house of my
protagonist and at a beach with her friend.
 Natural lighting is used, to add to the realistic atmosphere. Throughout my
opening sequence, I have aimed to use natural lighting to give a very realistic
atmosphere as opposed to a setting that looks like a Hollywood movie set, this
way the main focus of attention is on the storyline and the ranges of emotions
experienced by the character.

5.  I wanted to create a reflective atmosphere, with the idea of a flashback and the
main character reflecting on her life. So when editing my opening sequence I
changed the lighting and curves to give a dreamlike atmosphere.
 During the editing process, the most important thing to me was to make sure it
mirrored that of a real media product. So like real media products, I used
continuity editing to make sure that my opening sequence had smooth
transitions between clips and scenes, as not to be jarring for the audience to
watch. I did challenge some real media forms and conventions by using cross-
fades explicitly, I felt that the transitions that I used reinforced the idea that the
character felt like they were fading away.
 Also going against the majority of real life media products, I had decided to not
have the images in my opening sequence stable, instead I decided to explore the
hand held, shaky effect. I filmed both stable clips and with a hand held effect to
see which clips I preferred, and I felt that because of my storyline being a friend
filming my main character the hand held effect suited my project.
 Again challenging real media products, I decided I did not want to have a clear
image throughout. When my character is on the beach I unfocused the lens on
my camera so that the image was no longer sharp, I feel that this effect works
well because the voice over talks about my character feeling like they are
slipping away, this effect also creates a sense of mystery, leaving the audience
and intrigued wanting to watch further.
 From researching real media products of the drama genre, I noticed that the
types of camera shots and angles commonly used are close ups and mid shots
when showing the emotion of the characters. Therefore I used a wide variety of
shots, but at the beginning close up shots to clearly show her facial expression
and how my character is feeling about her situation. I used longshots to
represent the main character feeling disassociated from everyone else and also
feeling like she is ‘slipping away’

6.  Voice over – common in Drama films, the opening sequence of the
film sets the scene clearly, a Drama film that I have looked at is
‘Never Let Me Go’ this opening sequence begins with a voice
over. I took inspiration from this film and decided to include a
voice over myself.
 Music used in real media products depends on the themes
explored in the film. Therefore because I wanted to covey a sad
tone using slow and calm music that related to the action in my
film. Using the music along with the voiceover I wanted to give
the idea reflection and sadness for my character.
 Diagetic sound can be used to add realism in the film. However I
have not used this in my opening sequence because I have used
non-diagetic sounds of music and layered this with a voice over,
so I feel that using diegetic sounds will detract from the poignant
mood created, therefore I challenged conventions of some real
media products.