This document discusses how the media product uses and challenges conventions of real films. It summarizes key elements of the film's title, opening scene, costume, special effects, and location. The opening scene introduces a disoriented protagonist through an extreme close-up of her eyes. Her costume is plain to avoid stereotypes and suggest she has gotten into trouble. Limited special effects are used to further disorient the viewer. The secretive forest location conforms to conventions from films like The Hunger Games and E.T.

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

3. 1. TITLES
The title of my film is the fist thing that appears on screen. I chose for the title of my film to be
‘Voices’ so that the audience can establish their own expectations of the film and this is to
be complimented by the voiceover which says ‘I don’t remember exactly when it started’
over the title, just before the first shot. This is also accompanied by the radio back channelling
of police radio voices. This will establish the disorientation before the first disorientating shot. I
chose to use this size of text and the font because it is bold, clear and simple. I didn’t want to
choose a fancy title font as I wanted all of the audience’s attention to be on the sound and
the anticipation of the first shot. This conforms to typical conventions found in sci-fi and thrillers
– the narrative is introduced to the audience who start asking questions – who is this girl? Why
are their sirens?

4. 2 OPENING SCENE
The opening scene of my film is an extra
close up birds eye view shot of eyes opening
as if from a deep sleep/concussion. The
character is clearly disorientated and looks
around as if trying to locate herself in her
surroundings, accompanied by the
soundtrack. The soundtrack supports this as it
is a combination of sirens, police radio and
voices. The main objective of this scene is to
create a disorientating atmosphere and to
make it clear that the protagonist is waking
up from unknown events that have been
traumatising (symbolised by the blood and
scars on her face) and is trying to locate
herself. This opening scene conforms to the
conventions of the science fiction movie
‘Aliens’ by James Cameron as the opening
scene of this film is the protagonist waking
up to face her fate.
I chose to crop this first scene in order to force
the audience to simply focus on the eyes of the
protagonist. This directly connects the character
and the viewer and people naturally connect
with a person through their eyes. In this situation,
is has become clear that the girl’s eyes are those
of the girl who is speaking. This makes the
audience rightfully presume that the eyes that
they are looking at are positive in that the
character is going to narra

5. The next shot is a close up birds eye view of the protagonist. The objective aim for this shot
is to give the audience more information about the character through the ground that she
is lying on, her clothing and most importantly, the blood and bruises on her face. I chose to
paint this make up on her to suggest that she is not lying there by choice and that she has
been through hardships and has been defeated. In this shot, she is clearly a victim, which is
contradictory to how many science fiction films start as they usually introduce the villain
before the victim. The tiles beneath her are not where somebody would usually lie, and her
expression of discomfort reveals that she is not only confused but she is also in pain.

6. The purpose of this shot is to give the impression that she is trying to remember what has
happened to her and why she is where she is. This is also symbolised by the fact that all
sound fades out, to suggest that we, the audience, is going inside her head as she tries
to remember. After this shot fades to black, the next scene is of her running away from
something/someone. This shows her memory.

7. COSTUME
This is where the protagonist is sat still (supposedly sitting to catch her breath) and this is an
opportunity for the audience to establish their opinions of the protagonist through her
appearance. I chose to dress her in a green, boyish shirt and a brown, plain coat as I wanted
to avoid her looking stereotypically ‘girly’ and for her to have more of a tomboy look. This
suggests that she has potential to have gotten herself into trouble, which she clearly has by the
fact that she is running away from what she has done and by what the voiceover is explaining.
This ‘look’ has been adopted by many sci-fi- films such as The Hunger Games:

8. SPECIAL EFFECTS
As this was my first time using Premier, I have used a limited amount of special effects. The
special effects that I did use were ones that show the protagonist disappearing or effects that
would further disorientate the viewer. I used the negative effect on the trees as it gives the
impression that she is not seeing things clearly and that her mind is confused. The audience’s
of sci-fi films will always expect to see many special effects in this genre of film, which is why I
therefor felt the need to include as many special effects/video effects as I was able.

9. LOCATION
The first scene of her flashback also reveals the location. The location of my film is a forest,
which is not typically somewhere that many members of the public would be – connoting
that her location is secretive and somewhere that she has specifically chosen to be. This
conforms to number of sci-fi films such as the Hunger Games, in which the forest is used for
specific purposes:
It can also be seen in
the sci-fi ‘E.T.’ :