The media product is an urban drama film opening set in a council flat that conforms to some conventions of the genre by targeting a young audience and including an urban setting. However, it also subverts expectations by not focusing on gangs and violence but instead including a romance storyline. The film was influenced by the urban drama "Kidulthood" but aims to challenge stereotypes by representing young people in a council estate in a positive way without violence. It focuses on teenage life rather than gangs typically shown in urban films.

1. Inwhatwaysdoesyourmediaproductsuse,developor
challengeformsandconventionsofrealmediaproducts?

2. We have chosen to do urban drama but we decided to add a small twist to it
to make it more interesting so that it can appeal to the audience more. The
target audience for most urban drama is usually young teenagers, the target
audience for our film opening was also young people therefore it conforms to
the forms and conventions of urban drama. Our film opening conformed to
some of the forms and conventions of other urban films as it is set in a council
flat, this makes it look more realistic.
The audience will know that it is an urban film as it gives the idea that urban
film are about gangs and violence which we have discovered from our
research, however over film opening also subverted the forms and
conventions of urban films as it wasn’t about gangs and violence. This is the
twist of the film the council estate building gives the idea that it an urban film
therefore the audience will believe that its mainly about drugs, gangs and
violence but we changed our film and made it more simple by adding on
romance, this subverts to the forms and conventions of urban drama. We
wanted to challenge the idea that that if you live in a council flat, it is usually
based on gangs and drugs.

3. An urban film that I have researched was ‘Kidulthood’, this film
conformed to the conventions of an urban film because it was about
drugs, sex, gangs, violence, the audience would expect to see this in
that type of film because of where it was set which was mainly in a
school which was shown in the film opening. After researching the
film ‘Kidulthood’ it gave us the idea of relating our genre to gang
culture but making it different by adding a love story between the
twins and the girl, this is different compared to other film openings
and by including this it has subverted the forms and conventions of
urban film. Eventually we wanted to move away from gang culture
because we wanted to subvert the stereotypes and wanted to show
the positive side of it. Kidulthood was set in a school environment; it
was surrounded by a lot of people however our film is based on three
people. To add to that, the target audience for most urban film is
usually young teenagers, the target audience for our film opening was
also young people therefore it conforms to the forms and conventions
of urban films.

4. Howdoesyourmediaproductrepresentparticular
socialgroups?

5. In our film opening, we wanted to show people who are not white in a
positive way as often in urban drama they are shown in a negative way. We
wanted to to represent young people in a better life therefore we didn’t
include violence, gangs, knife etc; which are usually shown in other urban
films.
Usually in urban films, you would come across rivalry with other gangs,
our media product is different from other urban films as its based on
teenage life. We didn’t include gangs as we thought it would be very typical.
We have filmed in council estate blocks as these are usually popular places
of where urban films are set, it adds to the atmosphere that’s created by
the mise-en-scene. It’s very representative and stereotypical of urban
environments. Another way in which we have enhanced our representation
is by focusing on the clothing of the main characters. The boys were
dressed in hoodies and jeans to construct the image of teenage youth
which also follows the conventions of urban drama.

6. As we have chosen twins as the main characters, they are
wearing similar clothing such as the hoodies which gives the
audience the impression that they are living the 'thug life'. The
female character was dressed more girly; the different camera
angles reinforced the mise en scene in where it was set. Her
clothing and attitude gave the sense that she's very flirtatious
and that’s what boys from urban film like about girls. The
props and costume used dictates to the audience the social
class of the characters.