QUESTION ONE:

IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS

OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS.

BY AMINUL ISLAM

SHORT FILM • WE ALL LOOKED AT SOCIAL REALISM FILMS IN OUR

RESEARCH AND PLANNING BEFORE WE CREATED OUR ACTUAL SHORT FILM ‘BLANK’. AN EXAMPLE OF A FILM WE WATCHED IS SHOWN BELOW. WE ALL WATCHED THE FILM ‘SOFT’. MOST OF OUR RESEARCH WAS PUBLISHED ON OUR BLOG. WE ALSO LOOKED AT FILMS LIKE KIDULTHOOD AND FISH TANK BUT DIDN’T PUT IT ON THE BLOG BECAUSE THEY AREN’T SHORT FILMS BUT THEY HELPED UNDERSTAND THE SOCIAL REALISM GENRE. THE OBVIOUS REASON TO WHY WE STUDIED SOCIAL REALISM FILMS IS THAT WE DECIDED THAT OUR SHORT FILM WILL BE A SOCIAL REALISM FILM.

TITLES• WE NOTICED THAT SOCIAL REALISM FILMS HAVE SIMPLISTIC TITLES IN THE BEGINNING OF THE MOVIE. SO THIS LEAD TO US DECIDING TO USE A SOPHISTICATED TITLE USING THE ‘BEBAS NEUE’ FONT FROM DAFONT.COM. FONTS ARE USUALLY SOME WHAT BOLD. SO WE USED THIS CONVENTION IN OUR OPENING. HOWEVER WE DEVELOPED THIS BY USING THE SHATTER AND FLASHING EFFECT INSTEAD OF USING SIMPLE TRANSITIONS WHEN THE TITLES GOES OUT TO START THE ACTUAL FILM.

Our short film’s Opening titles.

Soft’s opening title

Kidulthoods’ opening title

PROTAGONIST • PROTAGONIST’S IN SOCIAL REALISM FILMS USUALLY HAVE A COLD BACKGROUND. FOR EXAMPLE HARRY BROWN , HARRY (THE MAIN CHARACTER) WAS A MEMBER OF THE ARMY AND IS A VETERAN SO HE KNOWS HOW TO THE HANDLE SITUATIONS BUT HIS WIFE IS ILL AND PASSES AWAY IN THE FILM AND BECOMES A WIDOWER WHICH MAKES HIM DEPRESSED AND ALONE.

• WE TRIED TO REPLICATE THIS IDEA OF ROUGH BACKGROUNDS INTO OUR FILM BY MAKING FILIP’S PAST ALL ABOUT HIS GANGSTER MENTALITY AND HE REGRETS IT. THIS IS ALSO THE FORCE OF THE SHORT FILMS NARRATIVE.

CAMERA SHOTS • WE USED A VARIETY OF CAMERA SHOTS TO SHOW HOW FILIP’S CHARACTER (WHO IS JOE) IS IN DISTRESS OR IN FEAR BY USING LONG SHOTS, CLOSE UPS AND POINT OF VIEW SHOTS. EXAMPLES OF LONG SHOTS, CLOSE UPS AND POINT OF VIEW SHOTS ARE SHOWN BELOW. CHARACTERS IN SOCIAL REALISM FILMS ALWAYS SEEMED TO HAVE SOME SORT OF PROBLEM IN THEIR LIVES AND IT WAS ALWAYS HIGHLIGHTED INDIRECTLY BY MEDIA LANGUAGE. FOR EXAMPLE IN ‘FISH TANK’ THE FACT MIA IS A LOWER CLASS YOUTH AND THEREFORE MEANS SHE HAS LOWER OPPORTUNITIES BECAUSE OF HER STATUS IS ALWAYS HIGHLIGHTED INDIRECTLY WHEN SHE WANTS TO BECOME A DANCER.

Long shot showing ‘Joe’ realise his crime and

regret starts.

Close ups shows how Joe

fears the past hitting him.Point of view shows fear

of Joe’s past is near.

THE YOUTH • WE NOTICED THAT IN SOCIAL REALISM FILMS, THE YOUTH IS ALWAYS REPRESENTED IN A NEGATIVE WAY. SUCH AS THE GANG IN ‘SOFT’ WHO ARE THUGS AND THE DAD’S SON WHO IS INTOLERANT. WE USED THIS CONVENTION BY MAKING FILIP’S PAST CHARACTER, RHYS’ CHARACTER AND JACK’S CHARACTERS WEAR TRACK SUITS. THE REASON WE DID THIS IS BECAUSE IT SIGNIFIES NEGATIVE IDEAS SINCE TEEN’S OR YOUNG ADULTS WHO WEAR TRACK SUITS ARE RELATED TO NEGATIVE CONNOTATIONS SUCH AS ASBO KIDS ETC MOST OF THE TIME. THIS WAS DONE ASSUMING OUR AUDIENCE WILL BE PASSIVE AND JUST TAKE THE FACT BAD TEENS OR YOUNG ADULTS WEAR THIS TYPE OF CLOTHING.

NARRATIVE

• WE DECIDED TO USE THE DRAMATIC ARC TO STRUCTURE OUR SHORT FILM. WE USED THE CONVENTIONS OF A NARRATIVE STRUCTURE. EVERY SINGLE TYPE OF FILM LINKS TO A NARRATIVE THEORY. FOR EXAMPLE COMEDY SHOWS MOSTLY LINK TO TODAROV’S EQUILIBRIUM THEORY.

• WE USED THIS THEORY BECAUSE IT LINKS TO SOCIAL REALISM THE BEST. SINCE SOCIAL REALISM MOVIES ARE ACTUALLY DRAMA’S BUT ITS MORE BRITISH BASED. OUR NARRATIVE IS EXPLAINED ON THIS PAGE HTTP://G3242014GR3.BLOGSPOT.CO.UK/P/GROUP-WORK-2.HTML. WE DIDN’T DISOBEY THE RULES OF THIS DRAMATIC ARC.

ANCILLARY TASK: POSTER

• TO MAKE OUR POSTER LOOK LIKE A GOOD CONVENTIONAL SOCIAL REALISM POSTER. WE LOOKED AT OTHER SOCIAL REALISM FILMS POSTERS TO INSPIRE US.

• WE LOOKED AT THREE WELL KNOWN EXAMPLES.

KIDULTHOOD

HARRY BROWN

FISH TANK

• SINCE SOCIAL REALISM FILMS ARE USUALLY NEGATIVE THE POSTERS MAIN IMAGE IS ALWAYS ALTERED IN A GRITTY OR URBAN WAY TO GIVE OFF NEGATIVE IDEAS TO THE AUDIENCE. WE LIKED KIDULTHOOD’S USE OF THE OVERLAY THE MOST SO WE REPLICATED IT IN OUR POSTER. IT GAVE IDEAS THIS FILM WILL BE ROUGH LIKE MOST SOCIAL REALISM FILMS.

• WE LIKED THE IDEA OF THE PROTAGONIST VERSUS ANTAGONIST IDEA IN THE HARRY BROWN POSTER SO WE THOUGHT MAKING THE FILIP AND JACK DO A FACE OFF WOULD BE A GOOD IDEA TO REPLICATE THIS. ALSO IT SHOWS THE SOCIAL REALISM NARRATIVE CONVENTION OF HAVING A CONFLICT AS A FORCE FOR THE NARRATIVE.

• SOCIAL REALISM FILMS ARE USUALLY NOT BLOCKBUSTERS SO THEN THEY NEED TO MAKE POTENTIAL VIEWERS ASSERTIVE THAT THE FINAL IS GOOD TO WATCH. ALL OF OUR EXAMPLES USED REVIEWS SO WE USED THEM AS WELL. THEY WERE ALL PLACED TOWARDS THE BOTTOM OF THE POSTER.

• SO IN CONCLUSION WE DECIDED TO FOLLOW THE CONVENTIONS OF REAL POSTERS AS I HAVE EXPLAINED IN THE LAST THREE SLIDES. WE DIDN’T DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE ANY GENERAL CONVENTIONS OF SOCIAL REALISM FILM POSTERS.

• THE NEXT SLIDE IS HOW WE USED GENERIC POSTER CONVENTIONS IN OUR OWN WORK (POSTER).

• WE USED THE WELL KNOWN ‘POSTER CREDITS’ FONT AT THE BOTTOM OF OUR POSTER. THIS MAKES OUR POSTER LOOK LIKE A REALISTIC FILM POSTER TO VIEWERS. OUR TITLE’S SIZE WAS THE BIGGEST FONT OUT OF ALL THE TEXT.

• WE ALSO ADDED LOGO’S TO MAKE IT LOOK

PROFESSIONAL.

• WE USED A SLOGAN, MOST POSTERS HAVE

THEM.

• WE USED A DIFFERENT FONTS. THIS ALLOWS

THE POSTER TO LOOK MORE INTERESTING FOR THE READER.

• WE USED A COLOUR SCHEME OF BLACK, WHITE

AND BLUE.

• WE HAD A CLEAR LAYOUT. WE COULD SEE THAT REVIEWS ARE IN ONE

SECTION ETC. SO IF THIS WAS PLACED ON A MAGAZINE THEN IT CAN JUSTIFY WHY IT IS BETTER THAN OTHER POSSIBLE MOVIES PLACEDON THE MAGAZINE.

• THE CONVENTIONS ABOVE ARE ALL THE GENERIC CONVENTION OF POSTERS. WE DIDN’T CHALLENGE ANY CONVENTIONS.

ANCILLARY TASK 2: RADIO TRAILER • THE TRAILER WAS SHORT AND SIMPLE, IT LASTED LESS THAN 40 SECONDS. MOST RADIO TRAILERS

ARE REALLY SHORT AND DO NOT DRAG ON FOR AGES. IF THEY WERE LONG PEOPLE WOULD CHANGE THE RADIO CHANNEL.

• WE USED A SORT OF LOOPING SOUNDTRACK. THE LOOPING SOUND KEEPS THE TRAILER VIBE UP.

• WE RECORDED USING GOOD MICROPHONES FOR GOOD SOUND QUALITY.

• A NARRATOR WAS USED LIKE ALL NORMAL TRAILERS ON THE RADIO.

• AUDIO FROM THE SHORT FILM WAS USED TO GIVE AUDIENCES A GLIMPSE OF THE FILM. SUCCESSFUL MOVIES LIKE GRAVITY DO THIS IN THEIR RADIO TRAILER.

• WE USED AUDIENCE FEEDBACK TO ALLOW LISTENERS TO RECOGNISE THAT THE FILM IS GOOD ENOUGH TO WATCH IN CINEMAS. MOST FILMS HAVE DO THIS TO ASSURE POTENTIAL VIEWERS THAT THEIR FILMS ARE GOOD TO WATCH.

• WE BASICALLY USED ALL THE GENERIC IDEAS (CONVENTIONS) RADIO TRAILERS USE. WE NEVER REALLY DEVELOPED OR CHALLENGED ANYTHING.