The document discusses how a student media project utilizes conventions from romance films. It introduces characters and sets the scene through a slideshow, uses titles and credits, and leaves an element of mystery. Locations, costumes, sound design and editing aim to set a romantic and emotional tone. Close-ups and point-of-view shots are used to convey intimacy and emotion. Narration provides backstory. The project draws from conventions of popular romance films but puts its own spin to engage and interest audiences.

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

2. Conventions of film openings: Titles Opening credits Production company logo Introduce the main characters Set the scene/locations Introduce the beginning of the narrative Enigma Use of establishing shot Music lighting These are the main characters of A Cinderella Story This is an example of an establishing shot that could be used in a romance film

3. The conventions of our genre: Opening credits Introduce the beginning of the narrative – we developed this by having our beginning as a slideshow where it introduced the characters and set the scene but left it to the audience to interpret what could happen Titles – slow and gently introduced. Production company logo Introduce the main characters – we introduced them differently by having the audience see them first in the past instead of them seeing them in the present time Enigma – the title itself is an enigma, is this it? It leaves the audience thinking what could be it and what is going to happen to the characters Where they: Developed? Used? Challenged?

4. What films did you have in mind when making yours? We had My Sister’s Keeper in mind when making ours as we liked the idea of the slideshow showing all the past memories of the family, and showing these gave the audience an idea of what everything used to be like. Also the themes of love, loss and heartbreak was appealing to our group as we are all teenagers ourselves and we have been in that situation. Another film that we had in mind was A Cinderella Story because we liked the way that they portrayed the female as being scared to reveal her true self when she meets someone she really likes in case when he finds out the real her he wont want her any more and we liked the idea of this as the audience knew something about the characters that the other one didn’t know. All the locations in the film for example at the Halloween dance when they first meet together is romantic and is the point in the film where everything either goes wrong or right.

5. Comparing our product to real life products in the romance genre Editing: In the romance films that we watched all the cuts and transitions were slow so that it gave more feeling and emotion to the film, and we thought that it fitted with our ideas that all the memories faded together and then slowly faded away, and it fitted with the situation the main character was in. There was a lot of use of fades especially in My Sister’s Keeper at the start when it was the slideshow as it gave the audience the feeling of slowly losing something. When the pages were turning to another memory it showed the characters getting more and more worried as to what is going to happen to the main characters.

6. Sound: In the Romance films that we looked at the non-diagetic sound was all quite peaceful and had an emotional feeling to it, so we thought to set the mood of our film we would want something that had emotion but also a bit depressing as our main theme was problems in relationships and something going wrong for the couple. The diagetic sound that we heard in the films were mainly the couple talking, and also some background sounds that fitted in with the romance genre so we chose a bit of both to go in ours. Locations: Some of the Romance films that we looked at were either located at a beach (Dear John and The Last Song), a park, house (My Sister’s Keeper), a boat (Titanic) or somewhere quite romantic for the couple (A Cinderella story). We thought as a group that the most appropriate place for ours to be located would be a park and we found a good place close to where we are

7. Costumes: In most of the Romance films that we watched but for example A Cinderella Story, all the clothes that the main characters wore were casual apart from when it was set in a restaurant and then all the clothes were quite smart. We wanted to portray our main character so we chose to place her in white and black clothes to show her innocence and purity but also a dark side to her. Camera Shots: In the Romance films that we watched for example Dear John there was a variety of camera shots but the main shot that was used was close up’s so that the audience could see the emotion on the actors faces so we used a variety of shots and we used a few close up’s when we felt it was necessary so that the audience could see the actors faces and it had the feeling on intimacy. Also with the use of the point of view shot the audience can see what the main characters can see and it feels like you have been placed into their shoes. Narration: In the main Romance films that we watched for example My Sister’s Keeper there was some background narration so that the audience knew more about the film, and we used background narration so that the background story was running at the same time as the memories and it made the audience feel more sympathy towards the main character, and whilst it was being played along side film clips the audience can piece together the memories.

8. Characters: In the romance films that we watched for example Titanic the main characters were a boy and a girl that were deeply in love until something goes horribly wrong for one of them. We chose to have a couple as our main characters and we had something go horribly wrong for the girl and it was up to the guy to choose whether he was going to stay or leave her and we did this so that the audience felt sympathy towards her. Props: In the romance films that we saw, there wasn’t many props used apart from things that you would expect with that genre for example a rose or an expensive ring or jewellery. We didn’t really want to use any props that took the main focus from the main characters, so we didn’t use any. Lighting: In the romance films that we watched for example A Cinderella Story it was all mostly natural lighting that was used apart from when it was in a dark place when some artificial lighting was used when they were both outside under the stand slow dancing, and because we set ours during the day we used high key natural lighting so there was no need to emphasise the characters. Make up: In the romance films that we saw, it was just the girl that wore the make up so we didn’t see any need to have the guy in any. We were portraying the girl as dying so she had natural make up on to show she was ill, when it was the memories fading away we tried to have it like she was slowly fading away as well, which made the audience interact with her.

9. Conclusion So in conclusion we took into consideration things that were used in the romance films that we watched and we thought that the things that would fit what we wanted we used, for example the setting, the costumes and the editing. We developed and used some conventions in our film so that it made it more interesting. It uses forms of real media products so that it is more like the romance genre, it develops forms of real media products so that we as a group gave it our own touch to it.