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

2. What were the conventions of a short film? Which ones did we meet and break? TIMING . . . A conventional amount of time for a short film to run is approximately 5 -6 minutes and ours was 6:07. This met the timing that we we’re aiming for and fits well with the content. Also, due to timing, it is common for short films to only contain the main character and their issues, which was what we solely focused on in our production. As our production was also for a real life audience, we had to fit in what they wanted and cover the topic as much as we could, which is also conventional for a short film due to time limitations. Where timing is concerned, we stayed within the conventions of a short film.

3. ESTABLISHING CHARACTER . . . Because for the limitations in short films, it is essential for the main character to be established so that the audience knows who the production is focused on. Due to the topic that we based our production on, we had to both keep and break the conventions as we had to focus on the family as well as the main character (co-dependency). The starting footage is also Jane and Rosemary, not the main character, but due to the nature of our production, that is it had to be started off. I believe that the balance of conventions in our production was steady and we dedicated around 40% of the footage and interviews to co-dependency which was the reason why we broke the conventional establishing method. However, we did still keep the main focus on the main character as he was in the first re-enactment and although the camera was not directly on him all the time, it was focusing on what he was saying/actions. Also throughout the production, whenever the family was talking to the carer, they were talking about him. This is the first scene . . . The establishing shots . . .

4. TITLE/OPENING SEQUENCE. . . There are not nay specific conventions for a short films title sequence, therefore they may be taken off more lengthy productions. When it comes the major productions, opening credits and closing credits are used, however seeing as our production short, it only uses title credits. In this the Title, key production and cast members are shown, followed by the opening credits which contain all the major actors and crew i.e. story by. . . These can be run concurrently with the productions first sequence or after the Title of the production has been shown, which is what we did. 2 3 You can also see that we have placed our opening credits over the top of the action in the show, which is not as conventional as other methods such as placing the superimposed text on a blank screen or a static picture. 1

5. What were the conventions of a docudrama? Which ones did we meet and break? A docudrama is a fact based representation of real life events. Our production clearly followed conventions for a docudrama as we had re-enactments going all the way though our production. We also followed the conventions as the events in the docudrama were portrayed by actors and the shooting conventions followed suit similar to a mainstream film or television series. The dialogue was shot in a shot-reverse-shot manner, conventional to similar dramas and the mis-en-scene was relevant and well suited to each scene. Shot/reverse shot

6. As a docudrama is half documentary, half drama, we have balanced out an equal amount of re-enactments which portray the events happening within the storyline, and interviews which keep a documentary feel to the production. These interviews are also more fact based which was filled in due to the results that we obtained by our questionnaire early on in the research stage. This is some of our research on my blog for documentary making. There is also a video on how to write scripts.

7. VOICE-OVER. . . Voice-overs are common in documentaries and therefore part of a docudrama. They are complimentary of the filmmaker and make the film speak to the audience more. We placed our voice-overs over a still image which had been freeze framed from the last frame of the current re-enactment. This looked really good, and on the last one, we had some colour effects which connotes that the man has realised his disease and come to face his problems. Our audience feedback shown later, re-iterates this connotation. “This was the happiest moment of my life . . Until it all went wrong . . .”

8. What were the conventions of our genre, examination of a specific subject. Which ones did we meet and break? As our genre is alcoholism and co-dependence, it is quite a common subject to cover in documentaries. My group and I have done a lot of research into current documentaries to make sure that we do not do the same as every other film. It seems now that we have succeeded and although we have kept in the conventions of our genre and type of film, we have managed to use different methods when editing and our content is more varied. Many other conventional docudramas using the same genre, tend to stick to facts and stories that are some what depressing, yet our docudrama is different as we end on a ‘happy note’. It was Jane and Rosemary who told us about many existing footage for alcoholics and told us what would really catch their attention.

9. This is some of our research from our blog. It is also linked in with genre research as well as conventions of alcohol awareness in the media . . .

10. What were the conventions of alcohol awareness. Which ones did we meet and break? There is a lot of information on alcohol awareness, especially on the internet. Unfortunately most of the information available is very similar and therefore can become very tedious to the audience. It is conventional for most media productions to contain information on the heath effects of alcoholism, or the violence associated with it. We have followed conventions in this way as we have information on the heath side of the disease, but we have also broken conventional methods as we have focused more on the family involved and what they did to get help. This isn’t used commonly in the media as co-dependence isn’t approached as well as it should. It is also conventional for other productions to focus on the children in the family and how they are affected, but we have differed and shown how the mother and sister are affected instead.