This document discusses how the media product challenges and uses conventions of real romantic drama films and film reviews. It summarizes the genres, techniques, and conventions used in the short film and promotional materials like the poster and online review. Some conventions that were used include white title fonts, voiceovers, repetition of shots, and film stills on review pages. Some conventions that were challenged include using tilt shots and putting the camera in a drawer. The target audience of younger women is also a niche approach compared to older romantic drama audiences.

1. IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA
PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR
CHALLENGE FORMS AND
CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA
PRODUCTS?
By Marcia Rumsey

2. GENRE
The genre we decided to go with was mainly a romantic drama. We
found that mainly older women watch romantic films but we decided
to target younger females as they are more likely to watch short films.
This is because younger people are more likely to actively seek out
short films as most short films are accessible through the internet.
Our target audience is niche as only a few people are likely to watch
short films.

3. SHORT FILM
Main production

4. CONVENTIONS WE USED

5. WHITE TEXT
I found that a lot of romantic, short films used white text for their opening
titles. I therefore used white font for the opening credits. As well as using a
handwritten, "romantic” font. I used a curly, calligraphy font called
Edwardian. The font carries connotations of handwritten love letters giving
a personal feel which links with the romantic genre meaning that the
audience would be able to recognise what genre our film was.

6. VOICEOVER
We found that in a lot of short films there was a voiceover so we decided to
have a voiceover throughout. We believe this explained the narrative as we
didn’t want to have diegetic dialogue. Therefore by using a voiceover we were
able to create distance between what was happening on screen and the narration
we wanted to while also getting our story across to the audience.

7. REPETITION
In a lot of short films such as Lichen a lot of shots are repeated as in
the composition of the shot. For example in Lichen they have the
same recurring shot of a cabinet. I decided to repeat the composition
of some shots and edited them together using face paced editing. This
is different to Lichen as they used it in between scenes to introduce
the next segment whereas I used the shots close together.

8. EXAMPLES OF REPETITION
My short film
Lichen

9. CLOSE-UPS
A convention of short films is having a lot of close-ups. However I
found that in actual fact most feature films have close-ups. We
challenged this convention in a way by not using many close-ups
but we did include extreme close-ups.

10. CONVENTIONS WE
CHALLENGED

11. TILT SHOTS
A lot of the films I looked at I found a common convention was not
to have any tilt shots but to have a lot of tracking shots. Yet in my
short film I didn’t use any instead I used a tilt shot at one point. This
made our piece different to a lot of similar short films to appeal to
the more niche audience that watches short films.

12. DRAWER SHOT
I challenged some conventions, especially with the shots I used. For
one shot I put the camera into the drawer to create an interesting and
unusual shot. In all the short films I watched, I didn’t see a shot the
same as the shot I did inside the drawer. By using an interesting shot
it would appeal to our more niche audience.

13. HEGEMONIC VIEW OF
GENDER
In a lot of romantic films the view of gender is hegemonic, showing
women in a stereotypical way. This is because a lot of the stories are
based on a man and women’s relationship. However in our short film
we decided to challenge this convention by having a female lead who
had a girlfriend. Our piece doesn’t even mention or focus on men
which gives a more pluralistic representation of gender.

15. POSTER
Ancillary Task

16. The purpose of the poster is to mainly advertise the film. Therefore
in needs to be designed in such a way that it would entice an audience
to seek out the film. Therefore you could apply uses and gratification
theory to the film poster as it suggests people actively seek put certain
media therefore after seeing our poster our target audience would
then go on to see the film.

17. TYPOGRAPHY
The font I chose was white Edwardian script. The reason I chose this
font was because it was the same font that I used in the film therefore
creating a sense on continuity and brand. I found a common
convention of posters was to have white font, especially romantic
films. The colour white is related to a more upbeat and romantic feel.
I decided to stick with the convention which helped the audience
identify the genre better.

18. REVIEWS
A common convention was to have reviews and awards on the poster.
This gives the film credibility and makes the audience more likely to
watch it. I therefore decided to include an award the film had received
to make audiences more likely to watch it.

19. TAGLINE
While looking at posters of short films we found that although nearly
all feature films had a tagline short film posters did not. We decided to
stay with the convention and not include our tagline.
Feature film tagline

20. HERMENEUTIC CODES
Many posters produced hermeneutic codes. The purpose of this is to
draw the audience in and make them watch the film. My poster
produced questions like “Who is this girl?” and “What is she doing?”
therefore Barthes's theory could be applied to it. Hermeneutic codes
entice the audience in and make them curious to find out the answers.

21. REVIEW PAGE
Ancillary task

22. FILM STILL
A common convention that I found on every review page we looked
at was that most of the page was filled by a film still. The purpose of
this is to give the reader a feel of the film. I decided to stick with this
convention and had the top half of the page filled mostly by a still
from the film.
My review page Example Review Page

23. TITLE
I found that the title of the film is always featured on the picture in
white text. This allows the reader to know what the film is called. I
stuck with this convention and had the title and tagline in bold, white
font on the picture.
My review page Example Review Page

24. STAR RATING
Most review pages I looked at featured a star rating or review of
some kind. I decided to have a star rating at the bottom of the review.
This allows the reader to get an idea of how good the film is quickly
without reading the whole review.
My star rating Example star rating

25. LOGO
A common convention of review pages was to have the logo of the
feature in the top left or right corner. I called my feature ‘On Screen’
which was over a picture of a film clipping. This means that regular
readers of the feature can easily navigate to that page.
My Logo Example Logo

26. COLUMNS
I found that all review pages had 4 columns. Originally I had 3
columns however in the end I decided to stick with the convention
and have four. I felt it gave a more in depth and professional feel.
My review page Example Review Page