The document discusses how the film "Last Man Standing" uses and develops conventions of real media products in its opening sequence. It explores how the film draws from conventions in areas like titles, costume/props, setting/location, camera work/editing, genre, and character introduction. While taking inspiration from films like "I Am Legend", "Chronicle", and "The Exorcist", it also challenges some conventions - using handwritten titles rather than images, showing the character waking from a dream rather than a more conventional introduction, and utilizing subliminal messaging similar to "The Exorcist". Overall, the film employs many standard codes and conventions but puts its own spin in some areas.

1. Question 1
In what ways does Last Man Standing
use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?

2. What are codes and
conventions?
 Codes are systems of signs put together, usually in
sequence to create meaning
 Conventions are habits of doing things through repeated
experiences. Over generations, audiences have become
familiar with the procedures of a certain genre.
 The codes and conventions in media can be separated
into 3 distinct groups -
- Technical (camera techniques & shots),
- Symbolic (ie clothing, colours)
- Written and audio (music etc).
These give the text meaning and determine the response
of the viewer.
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_codes_and_conventi
ons_in_media#ixzz1thXIt02H

3. Titles in the film
 In our opening sequence, We show titles in the
form of the calendar, which show how long the
character has been alone. We have not seen
titles in films done this way and tried to challenge
other films by doing them this way. In production,
we thought they went well with the film and genre,
to show how many days he has gone without
company. We got the handmade titles idea from
the film Submarine where the title’s were made
out of food.

4. Title
 We chose to call our film ‘Last Man Standing’ as
we thought it fitted well with the genre and the
theme of the sequence. This goes with general
codes and conventions of the genre as the word
‘Last’ has a lot to do with the genre and things
that we tried to emulate from other films. The
character was also male, so we thought that man
was a relevant second word. We put the two
words together and decided that we should go
with the popular expression.

5. Costume/Props
 Our costume uses codes and conventions from
other films as we needed to portray that the
character was a normal chap, we used some
Inspiration from I Am Legend to get the right
costume because you see Will smith wearing
everyday, casual clothes, so we made our
character do the same. We also copied the
costume from the film Chronicle, where the
character, who is also a teenager, is dressed in a
Hoodie and trainers

6. Setting/Location
 Again we used similar codes and conventions
from other films to get inspiration for ours. We
thought that it needs to be set in a rural area to
show that it’s deserted, such as I Am Legend
where it’s set in a City. I though we developed this
by looking in people’s houses to show that
nobody is to be seen.

7. Camera Work/Editing
 We have used a Cross Dissolve when the
character has been walking the streets. This
speeds up the process of the character walking
so the audience don’t get bored and makes him
movement look smoother. This uses other codes
and conventions from many films as it’s a popular
technique

8. Title font and style
 We thought the way we did this challenge codes
and conventions as ours are hand written
whereas other products use images to do it. We
though that this could be a good way to do them
and after we changed them, it seemed a hit with
colleagues who watched the sequence.

9. How Characters are introduced
 We did this different from other products as we
showed our character stirring from a dream and
then waking up. We thought that this would be a
good way to introduce him as it can show that he
is going through a tough time, which i feel other
films have missed when introducing characters

10. Genre and how the opening
suggests it
 The product suggests that it’s this genre as there
are many shots of desolate places, which we feel
gets the genre across in the first few minutes. We
took inspiration from other similar films as they
have many establishing shots of empty spaces.

11. Subliminal Messaging
 We followed the codes and conventions other
films when using this technique. As said earlier in
an earlier blog post, we used The Exorcist as our
inspiration as that is know to be one of the best
horrors of all time. We practically used it in the
same way they did and thought it went well and
added to the suspense.