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

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

When looking at my media products I must first look at my short film. A classic code and convention of a short film is that there are limited characters. I follow this convention throughout my short film as my characters a low in number and are not as in-depth as they would be in a feature length film. To follow this convention I decided to base on film solely on one character and include brief characters  when the plot needed to be examined closer. I recently watched a short film called Plastic by Sandy Widyanata which seemed to follow this convention of a short film as it was based on one character, a female who was unhappy with her body but when she was given the choice to change anything was unhappy with the results. This short film included a second character who was brief and included so the the plot line of the story made sense. This was what I did in my film. I based my film on a character called 'Chloe' and we see her life and from this a plot line forms. We briefly see characters such a the doctor who informs Chloe of her inability to have children as this is a necessary part to the plot. This does allow me to keep to the convention of limited characters in a short film but allowed me to examine the plot line of my story in more depth. This however does challenge a classic convention of a short film that would be a limited story line. By having limited characters allows me to explore my main characters and create a plot which entices and intrigues the audience. The way I created my plot line meant that I was able to display a real story that was full of real emotion rather than a rushed and simple story line. My plot line is about a mental disorder called Schizophrenia and the effect it can have on a persons mind and life. This meant that I was challenging the convention of short films and this was unusual.

Another convention of a short film is a plot twist. This is to keep the audience interested in such a short period of time. An example of this would be in a short film I watched recently called 'The Root of The Problem' made by Ryan Spindell. This film seemed to be about a woman who was afraid of the dentist and appeared to be hallucinating, however in the end (the plot twist) it appeared that the dentists were in fact monsters and she wasn't in fact hallucinating. This plot twist worked as it made me curious about what was going to happen, because of things like the music and mise-en-scene I felt anticipation when watching this short film as though I knew something was going to happen I was just unsure what. I tried to recreate this effect when I was planning mt plot twist. This meant I had to work hard to create the same build up of emotions as I saw in the existing text.

Example I found

After looking at short film it was time to turn to the ancillary tasks I had to create which was a film poster and I film review page. A classic convention of a film poster is that there is a focal point. This will be something that draws the attention of the audience. I looked at existing texts and found that there was a film poster that was similar to how I wanted mine to appear and that the focal point of this poster was in fact the face of the main character. I felt that this would allow me to follow the conventions of a film poster but also to develop them and create my own twist on them. Another classic convention of a film poster is that it clearly covney's the genre of the film. I feel that my film poster does not follow this convention as when you see my film poster it is unclear what my film is about and even what genre of film it is. I think that this works to intrigue my audience and allows them to make their own judgements about the film before seeing it. 

Finally we look at my film review page. A classic convention of this would be quotes. It is common that quotes taken from the film are to be shown around the page to almost give the audience a clue or a sneak preview of the film and this sometime excites the reader and keeps them interested in the film. I decided however that I would not include any quotes on my film review page as in a short film there is limited dialogue and this makes it difficult to display quotes without giving away vital parts of the film. I have not include much about the film in the review page other than the opinion of the 'critic' and the plot summary. I feel that this was sufficient enough information to present and that no more information is needed as it should entice the reader enough about the film.