The media product uses, develops, and challenges conventions of real media. It develops conventions by showing the title through a diary being flipped through. It challenges conventions by doing this rather than typical title presentation. It uses conventions like establishing shots to set the scene and introduce the protagonist. The product challenges conventions by having a dual protagonist, one of whom is a black female, which expands its audience. It was influenced by the film Juno and aims to capture a similar atmosphere.

1. In What Ways Does Your Media
Product Use, Develop or Challenge
Forms and Conventions of Real
Media Products?

2. Our media product
uses, develops and challenges
forms and conventions of real
media products.
An example of how we
develop them is how we show
the title of our movie at the
beginning. We showed the
title (as well as the production
company, credits etc) of our
movie through the diary of
our protagonist. Our character
is sitting on her own in the
library, we used an over-the-
shoulder shot to show the
audience what she was
doing, and she is flipping
through her diary, revealing
the title, production company
etc to the audience. Movies
don’t usually present their
credits this way, so we are
challenging the conventions
as well as developing them.

3. An example of how we use
generic conventions is how
we used an establishing shot
at the beginning of our
opening to show the audience
our location and genre. Our
use of an establishing shot of
a library tells the audience
that the film is going to be set
in a school. From this shot,
the audience can also gather
that the genre is a teen-
drama of some sort.

4. The introduction of our
protagonist is another generic
convention we used. The first
time our audience sees our
main character, she is seen
from an establishing shot and
is on her own. Her being on
her own also automatically
tells the audience what kind
of person she is, and also
gives away the genre of the
movie.

5. Our media product also
challenges the forms and
conventions of real media
products. We develop the
“teen coming of age” theme
by using a dual-protagonist as
the main characters. As well
as this, one of the characters
is a female black
person, which
unfortunately, isn’t a common
sight to see when it comes to
genres such as this.
By casting like this, we have
broadened our target
audience and also attracted
black working-class females to
watch it.

6. We drew influence from
various different film
openings, but our main
influence was a film called
Juno.
The opening of Juno shows
the main character, Juno,
going for a walk, then she
suddenly transitions into a
cartoon-like world. We
wanted to copy the same
atmosphere this scene had, so
we made our opening of our
main character walking
around looking sad and lonely
whilst everybody ignored her.

7. How Does Your Media Product
Represent Particular Social Groups?

8. • Our film represents black working-class
females, since our protagonist is also a black
working-class female. We go against traditional
stereotypes of black working-class females and
this is what our whole movie is about.

9. What Kind of Media Institution Might
Distribute Your Media Product and
Why?

10. • I think an independent distribution company
would be the best choice for our film in terms
of distribution. It would be marketed through
a viral campaign by advertising social
networking sites, mainly because teens are
our target audience, and teens make up a
large number of active social network users.

11. • An independent company such as Working
Title 2 would be the best distributor for our
film. Being distributed by an independent
distributor such as Working Title 2 will help us
reach our target audience, since they have
distributed box office hits such as Shaun of the
Dead and Billy Elliot.

12. • I think an independent distribution company
would be the best choice for our film in terms
of distribution. It would be marketed virally
through social networking sites, mainly
because teens are our target audience, and
teens make up a large number of active social
network users.

13. • An independent company such as Working
Title 2 would be the best distributor for our
film. Being distributed by an independent
distributor such as them would help us to
reach our niche target audience and get our
film well-known outside of the UK as well.