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

When making a film project, you want it to look professional and have a similar quality as a real media product; you can do this by producing the media project similarly to how people would publish a real media product e.g. using the same equipment etc. Our media product uses various forms and conventions of real media products. Firstly, when filming our product we used a tripod to keep the camera steady, this helps to keep filming smooth and consistent but also gives it a level of professionalism. Without it, our product would lack quality. Even though the equipment we were using was of a lower standard compared to the equipment used in real media products, we incorporated camera angles and different levels of lighting to improve the quality.

To add consistency to our piece we made sure that each shot went into the next and it didn’t jump. Furthermore, if a new scene was to be introduced we added a slow fade into blackness, these transitions and continuity shots are commonly seen in real media products. When filming we tried to make it as continuous and accurate as possible, to do this we filmed in the same type of weather and made sure that anything that shouldn’t be included in the scene was moved out the way, we kept the costume, hair and other things similar unless it was a scene in a different time period.

When it came to editing we used software called ‘final cut pro’, this software is of very good standard, you can distort video clips, add extra colour, speed up clips and add transitions amongst various other things. Even though the software isn’t as complex as software used by professionals you can make any film project near to the quality of real media products. In our project we used various effects to convey feelings and emotion such as the effect ‘earthquake’, this turns the clip shaky and we used it to portray anxiety, to make this feeling even more expressive we made the clip faster so everything sped up. Also, when a flashback occurs we increased the light intensity and also used a video filter called, stop motion blur, this gives the clip a very impressive visual quality and creates suspense.

The genre of our piece is drama. Drama is probably the largest genre and they’re very serious and portray realistic story lines. The characters, settings and life situations involved are all fairly complex and realistic and they don’t usually focus on special effects or humour. Our project is similar and applies this. The pre recorded track created on garage band has been added to muted video clips, it involves a piano piece that adds tension and an eerie track that builds suspense and mystery and informs the viewer that the clip is a flashback. Mise en scene shows abstract scenery which is usually urban; this is also commonly seen in drama genres. However to make ours slightly different to a drama, we decided to put the dramatic scene at the beginning (man committing suicide) rather than at the end.

We have been inspired by other films such as Donnie Darko, as in Donnie Darko they have used effects such as scenes that were sped up to create a unusual atmosphere, we also used a speed effect during the scene when the main character is walking towards the edge of the railings. This created the effect that he was not in his right mind and was disorientated and confused. Furthermore Donnie Darko is a psychological drama and our film is also a psychological drama we chose this genre as we thought it best represented what was going on in our opening scene as when the audience watch it they are at first puzzled by the whereabouts of the main character, its only until there is a establishing (pov) shot looking down on the moving traffic below that the audience are aware that he is on top of a building.