1. Question 1
IN WHAT WAY DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR
CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?
2. Genre Research - Conventions of
Social Realism
Unknown actors should be used.
The topic of political and religious views should be expressed.
The lives of young people living in deprived areas should also be
expressed.
The display of different classes, especially the working class, should
be portrayed.
3. Genre Research - Conventions of Social
Realism Which We Met and Challenged
The majority of actors used in our production have no experience of acting, and none of our
actors have any experience of acting in a film sequence. Our actors tend to be British, who are
featuring in their first feature film, or have entered films cross-media from other forms. For example,
Olivia Coleman features in the Warp Films film ‘Tyrannosaur’ but also had a television and theatre
career; Riz Ahmed was a hip-hop artist before featuring in ‘Four Lions’ and also Warp Films.
In our production we have not expressed the topic of religious views. However, we have
questioned some stereotypes, which relate to the current political climate, particularly
considering unemployment figures, which are quite high in areas of deprived living. We have
asked our audience to question the representation of the young working class. As our product is a
sophisticated product, it would not just confirm the stereotype. The sentencing to jail speaks more
of the injustice of the law, than the reality of working class young people, such as people in the
lower working class stereotypically cause trouble for the police. At the end of our narrative we
also speak of the protagonist still being sentenced to jail due to the joint enterprise law. I think
that if we mentioned some more current political issues we could have met this convention much
better.
Other political representations that we highlighted and that are related to social problems are
the use and misuse of drugs and alcohol, and the effects of cyber-bullying amongst teenagers.
This screenshot is an example of the stereotypical media
representation of the working class causing trouble, when the
policeman enters the scene. This shot connotes the policeman’s
legal authority and dominance in the narrative.
4. Genre Research - Conventions of Social
Realism Which We Met and Challenged
We have also met the convention where the lives of young people living in
deprived areas should be displayed. The narrative of our production is around
the life of a teenage girl who has just moved to a deprived area and in order to
make friends she gets involved with a gang that get her into trouble. I think we
have met this convention very well, as our narrative focuses on the life of a
young person in a deprived area, and on the lives of the people around her,
expressing their social issues. Moreover, the use of a school-aged girl also reflects
the process our production company would undertake in real life, such as
creating auditions for the role. This was the case when Shane Meadows made
auditions for a young actor in Nottingham schools for his film ‘This is England’
(Warp Films) and found Thomas Turgoose.
I think that we have met the convention of displaying the struggles of people in
different classes quite well. This is because our narrative focuses on people
within the lower working class, and expresses a number of their social issues,
such as poverty, violence and theft. Our use of mise-en-scene helped us as well
to meet the conventions of youth in the working class. For example, our
characters wore hooded clothing and natural make-up.
It could be argued that we were too stereotypical in representing the working
class, as we sometimes fell into the trap of accepting the media representation
we were trying to challenge. An example is when promoting the ideology that
the gang culture is troublesome, we may have sometimes mixed up a group of
friends just hanging out with a gang.
5. Form Research - Conventions of
Social Realism
Film opening sequences most commonly take this order:
Name of studios
Productions company
Producers/Distributers
Starring…
Film Title
Casting Director
Music
Production Designer
Film Editors
Director of photography
Producer
Director
6. Form Research - Conventions of Social
Realism Which We Met and Challenged
The credits in our production did not feature in the same order as we
researched them. However, when we were writing the credits, we based them
in the order they where shown from the film ‘This Is England’, as its genre is very
similar to ours.
I think that it did not matter that we used a different order for the credits to what
we researched, as the pace of the opening sequence is matched by the order
of the credits.
An opening sequence should introduce character, genre and narrative. We
introduced nearly all our main characters in the opening sequence with various
shots of them. For example, we introduced the gang members, who place the
protagonist in trouble, Laura (the protagonist), and the policeman that
interviews Laura. An influential character in the narrative, whom we left out of
the opening sequence, is Jay, who is Laura’s best old friend. Jay tries to warn her
that her new friends are dangerous and are trying to get her into trouble. We
introduced the social realism genre by having the first few shots establishing the
location of the film to be an inner city location and a police station, connoting
the binary opposition between the gang culture and troublesome youths in the
working class against the police. We introduced the narrative of the film, as we
gave a small insight into who all the main characters are, and we also screened
what Laura and the gang have been doing. We finished the opening sequence
with the policeman about to interview Laura.
7. Other Main Social Realism
Conventions We Met
We followed the convention of using establishing shots in order for our audience to
know where the scene is taking place. I think this worked well, as each time we set
the important part of the opening (the inner city location and the Police station)
really well. We choose the inner city location followed by the police station to
establish the binary opposition between the youths in the lower working class (the
gang of criminals in our narrative) and the police.
We also kept to the convention of using modern music from this era. I think that
worked really well, as the remix I created was rap/chill out music, which gave an
insight to the rest of the narrative through the lyrics. The lyrics ‘I had high hopes but
I‘m in the wrong crowd’ connotes that Laura moved to a new neighbourhood to start
a new life, but as she was in the wrong crowd her hopes are being shattered. The
following lyrics ‘I was down with it, but I regret it, cos I face all the consequences to
do with it’ then connotes that Laura did not want to commit the crimes, but was
peer-pressured into doing them. She now faced the consequences of her actions.
8. Other Main Social Realism
Conventions We Challenged
A convention we chose to challenge was the use of minimal editing. This is
because in our production we planned on having a few flashback sequences.
In order to portray this we needed to carry out a certain level of editing.
Minimal editing is usually used, to create realism and a high level of verisimilitude
within the production. The editing involved creating a flashback effect by using
colour correction in order to reduce the warmth of the image. We then applied
a vignette to make the edges of the shots fade to black.
9. Times When We Could Have Been More
Adventurous at Meeting or Challenging
Conventions
I think we should have met the convention of using a hand held
camera more often, as in this way we would have been able to
portray the protagonist’s feeing more effectively.
I have filmed an example of this, which will appear later on in the
film, by using a shot of Jay reflecting about what he could have
done to prevent Laura from getting into trouble.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpTX4vYpJUw
10. Applying Theoretical Research to the
Conventions We Met or Challenged
Auteur Theory: We can apply this theory to our production, as we have made
our production unique, by having a female protagonist rather than a male
protagonist, thus going against common conventions. As an auteur usually has
a signature visual style, my style would include a large variety and the use of
camera movement. An example of this is the long take of Laura stealing from
the shop. Another possible style could be the wide use of a vignette in the
opening sequence to create the flashback effect.
Hegemony Theory: We can apply this to our production, as it portrays a number
of dominant ideologies about the lower working class, e.g. violence.
It could also be argued that our production enforces dominant ideologies
about the working class, as the audience accepts them because the
representation of the police is safe and reassuring. So, they think society is
looking after them rather than enforcing divides. This may have been a mistake
for targeting the sophisticated audience and following the conventions of a
sophisticated product, as we needed to challenge further these dominant
ideologies. We could have possibly challenged further these ideologies by
making our policeman more abrupt and suspicious of Laura.
