ngfsdhtfse

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

2. Genre

3. Conventions of the genre
• The genre that we decided to choose was social realism as it is a conventional
genre within niche market independent cinema.
• Conventions (and technical) of the social realism are:
– Semi improvised scripts.
– Wide shots.
– Non professional actors, or actors without a lot of experience.
– Serious themes.
– Wider social issues can be explored.
– Filmed on location as opposed to a studio.
– Simple editing skills, such as the blade tool.
– Follows Todorov's equilibrium theory.
– Costumes reflect the character, and issues explored.
– Mostly natural lighting.

4. Where did we meet or challenge the
conventions of Social Realism?
• Following the convention of a semi improvised script we had an initial script which we made for the
business man and the two foster parents of Ethan, however despite having this, when we actually
came to filming the production we simply just told the actors a rough outline of what to say and
then let them make up the rest. Although this can be seen as bad because we didn’t stick to the
script it is also good because we thought that it would make the acting seem more believable if
they are to just try work it out for themselves. The use of wide shots was quite prominent
throughout the opening sequence. This is due to the fact that we thought that using the wider
shots allows the audience to keep guessing about what the main storyline of the film is, not to
mention that it makes the protagonist, Ethan isolated which he has been for all of his life.
Increasing our depth of field makes the audience think about the main narrative, as the shot
doesn’t have any focus (for example Ethan). Despite this we did also use many close ups, medium
close ups and long shots and so in that respect we didn’t follow the convention but that was
because we wanted to vary the shots within the opening sequence so we could instantly create an
intimate relationship between the protagonist and the audience. We followed the convention of
not having a professional actors. This was due to the fact that we didn’t have the access or the
budget to use/hire a professionals. Instead we used Josh Macqueen (me) who has done GCSE and
A-level drama, and also has a keen interest in cinema, particularly independent cinema which is
good because then we could relate my performance to ones seen previously in similar films. We
also used Nick Heywood who like myself had done GCSE and A-level drama, and so we do have
some experience. The final two actors that we used were Nick’s parents, Lois and Steve, who don’t
have any acting experience prior to this production, however using them was effective as they are
both parents of three children and so they would more than likely have had an argument about
their children at some point which would have been reflected in the performance.

5. Where did we meet or challenge the
conventions of Social Realism?
• We followed the convention of involving serious themes in our opening sequence. The entire
narrative of our film is completely serious as it explores some extremely dark however very
realistic themes that are relevant to the modern day society that we live in. These themes
include; alcohol, isolation, and adoption. Following on from this convention we also stuck to
the convention that wider social issues are included/explored. We looked specifically about
alcoholism can have a serious effect on those around the addict and the addict themselves.
Although we did include this I thought that we could have shown how it had more of an
impact on Ethan during the opening sequence. We followed the convention of filming
everything on set, this was good because it made our opening sequence seem much more
realistic. Although most of the editing was relatively simplistic, we did include a lot of key-
framing which was quite hard to do, so we didn’t follow the convention of only using
simplistic editing skills. We stuck to Todorov’s equilibrium theory, including the recognition
and repair stages as well, however we changed the order in which they come due to the fact
that our opening sequence is an event that happens later on in the film. This is because our
audience are sophisticated and in the A-B income bracket, and so benefit from seeing
something that is different and complex, an enigma. Our costumes and props definitely
reflected not only the mood of the characters but also the persona’s as well. For example,
Ethan wore mainly black to highlight his working class background, the businessman also
wore a black suit which shows that Ethan's situation can easily happen to anyone not just
him. The suit instantly creates a binary opposition between him and Ethan showing the
privileged vs. the unprivileged.

6. Where did we meet or challenge the
conventions of Social Realism?
• We followed the lighting convention and used natural lighting throughout the opening
sequence, not only was this because using artificial lighting would have been difficult to set
up and use at the train station, but natural lighting was the most effective when filming, and
looked best on camera.
• We didn’t purposefully challenge any conventions apart from using semi improvised scripts,
because it made a more believable performance.