The media product challenges conventions in several ways: 1) It uses a voiceover in the opening to pose questions to the audience rather than provide exposition about characters. 2) It reveals the title at the end of the opening rather than earlier to foreshadow the theme that upbringing, not genetics, shapes a person. 3) It challenges genre conventions by incorporating aspects of different genres like comedy and drama to create ambiguity about the genre, similar to Fargo. Scenes of home life slow the pace unlike typical crime thrillers.

1. Evaluation Questions One :
In What Way Does Your Media Product Use, Develop or Challenge Forms and Conventions Of Real Media Products?

2. Use
First of all I have used the convention of having both a production and distribution company in partnership with my film. The production
company is behind the finical development of the film, some fully fund the film that the are producing and some partially fund it. When
developing my own production company, I researched pre-existing company's and based it on one of the leading UK production companies
called "Working Title”. Similar to profession films, I created a distribution company called “starlight pictures”, the distribution company that
is responsible for the releasing of the film to the public, this can involves the distributors being involved directly or in larger companies it is
done through sub-distributors. I wanted to create a company that only distributed independent British films directly similar to the success
gained from Momentum pictures. I have also used the convention of overlaying the title on top of footage rather than on a plain
background for my title, as I thought after researching pre existing openings when a plain background was used for the title it stopped the
flow of the opening therefore I would not be able to get the smooth transitions that I was aiming for.
I have also used editing within my film, this had allowed me to use the convention of flashbacks. I decided to use flashbacks in the form of a
home videos, by editing and distorting my footage I was able to create a contrast between present day and past tense therefore helping to
inform the audience that the both the younger and older actors are playing the same two characters but just at different stages within their
life. Within my film I also used a few transition during the editing process, I used a cross-dissolve this is the transition from one shot to
another where the two images overlap, so that near the end of the first shot the second shot becomes gradually more visible. A dissolve
edited is used within real media products for flashbacks as it helps show a change in time and location.
Similar to most openings to films, I have used non-digenetic audio within my opening, this I showed within the form of a voice over and
music.. I have used the music to add the element of a personal feel complimenting the family photographs , this is similar to
many films that use music in order to set a certain mood and draw a certain emotion from the audience for example in a comical
film light hearted upbeat music is used in order to compliment the genre and content.
I have used a range of shots within my opening going from an extreme close up, to a medium shot, to a long shot in order to
vary the opening, these shots are all used within real media products. For example focusing on a specific object with the
extreme close up rather than a character and using the medium shots to focus of characters.

3. Develop
I have firstly tried to develop the idea of having non-digenetic audio, by instead of using a narration which is the normal form of a non-
digenetic voice over in an opening as it gives the audience background information about the characters. I used the voice over in
order to propose questions to the audience, rather than giving additional information about the characters, I have used it to
foreshadow how rest of the film will answer these questions.
I have also developed where the title is positioned, rather than placing it towards the early stage of the opening such as in ‘Rain
Man’ where it appears at 59 seconds, I decided to reveal the title in the last opening scene the reason why I decided to show it
on the last slide was because I wanted to foreshadowing the ending that actually the genetic make-up is not the key element to
a persons nature in adult life it is actually down to their upbringing.

4. Challenge
I feel that my film challenges the convention of genre. Rather than many films that take on the form of certain genres by conforming to
stereotypes, for example ‘The Young Victoria’ is very obviously a periodic drama through the setting, costumes, audio and characters, I took
on board the idea of testing genre after watching ‘Fargo’ which is classified as a crime, thriller but actually portrays aspects from other
genres such as comedy and unlike many thrillers has some scenes that shows the home life of the sheriff therefore creating a slow pace not
stereotypically linked to a crime, thriller. My film similar to ‘Fargo’ could be classified as a crime, drama this is portrayed in the
stereotypically finger print extreme close up shot and medium shot of the interview scene, however I also challenge this genre by including
the home videos of the young boys which slows the pace down and opening of a pan shot of old family photographs. I also wanted to
create the affect that if just listening to my film you would hear the soft, music and mothers voice however if just watching you would see
the finger prints being taken, therefore meaning people can portray my film in many different lights.
I wanted to challenge the convention of having an establishing shot of the setting to open a film such as in ‘American Beauty’, by using a
hand held shot which flowed over a selection of old family photographs for my opening shot. The reason why I chose to use people for
my first shot was because my film is surrounded around people, how they influence others lives, the different lives people live
and also how our family can affect our adulthood decisions., therefore I also chose the children as the opening shot as our lives
all begin at childhood,
By using flashbacks I challenged the convention of how many films use continuity editing, by using continuity editing it creates the effect of
time moving forward and events often happen in chronological order. The reason why I chose to instead use flashbacks and therefore keep
crossing over from past to present is because I wanted to demonstrate that childhood does have an affect on adulthood and therefore can
affect whether a person move forwards or not.