Evaluation: Question 1 - Conventions and Real Media

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


Many different aspects of our opening sequence were inspired by real media products (mainly film, and some TV), either specific things we liked or just generally to make our product recognisable as an opening sequence to a film. In other aspects we consciously chose to be less like conventional media products, challenging or developing conventions.


Our film, 'Consequences', is the story of Dan, the protagonist, and the issues he faces being a teenage boy in London, including the apparent death of his girlfriend Lucy's brother, Ryan which happens accidentally. We researched and drew from our knowledge in order to make a successful opening to the film. 


Genre


Here is a 'Bubbl' brainstorm of the drama genre focused on British drama and expanding upon points relevant to our film:


Some of the above conventions that we incorporated include:

• Teenagers having relationships, having problems and being independent
• Themes of crime
• Enigmatic, suspenseful music
• Urban location

Our film is a British drama with sub genres of urban, crime, and teen.

The setting represents and conforms to this, with our opening being shot in Walthamstow, an urban, East London area with terraced housing being prominent. The location is typically British and has association with crime, particularly that of young people, for example films in reference to the 2011 Summer riots, featuring in Ill Manors. Cities are often represented as full of problems (we conform to this) such as crime involving gangs, or drugs like in Trainspotting, where heroin addiction is dealt with - different to 'Consequences' in terms of the issues but there are similarities: 

Narrative

Generally, films comply with Todorov's theory of narrative structure, i.e. equilibrium, disruption, new equilibrium. Our opening challenges this convention similarly to the film Trainspotting, where the first shot is of the protagonist running away from something; opening with a flash-forward to the disruption, despite the equilibrium being shown in our film in imperfect chronological order. This also has some similarity to urban British TV crime-drama Luther, where in each episode the first scene we see is the crime (disruption) unlike in our film, and chronological order is maintained.

The above diagram shows our narrative structure vs theory, with reference to our opening sequence where it is relevant in the structure (largely the beginning).


Propp's character theory
Vladimir Prop constructed a character theory in 1928 by reading folk/fairy tales, of stock characters that set up the narrative, many of which will always feature in a film. Here are some ways in which we conform to this:

• Dan- the hero; he is the protagonist who is the focus, trying to put right his wrongs
• Lucy- helper/princess; aids Dan in his struggle and his problems but also a love interest however princess role is challenged as Lucy is not just an objectified 'reward' for Dan
• Ryan- the dispatcher; beginning Dan's journey by his fate of being the victim
• Jamie- the false hero; leading Dan astray 

Levi-Strauss' binary opposites theory
Theorist Claude Levi-Strauss stated that narratives could be reduced down to binary opposites. Some examples in relation to 'Consequences':

• Good vs Evil
• Denial/trying to escape problems vs acceptance 
• Equilibrium vs disequilibrium
• Peace vs conflict 

Roland Barthes' enigma codes
Theorist Roland Barthes claimed that any media/text portrays mysteries in order to draw the audience in, forcing them to ask questions that they want to know the answers to. E.g:

• Why is he running? - similar thoughts to the audience of Trainspotting at the start
• What is he in fear of/worried about? 
• Who's house is this?
• Who are 'the boys'?
• Who got hurt/how/how badly?
• Who is Ryan?
• Who is knocking at the door?

We keep aim to the audience gripped, engaged and excited using a cliffhanger right at the end, continuing to leave many of these questions unanswered.



Style/Form

Our titles compared to those in This Is England

Two of our titles react to movement from characters (Dan) similar to Zombieland but with far less advanced special effects. Different genre but similar target audience

Dramas aim to grip their audiences and keep them engrossed in the narrative rather than have them bored and disinterested. One of the ways they do this is to use varying shot types, a convention we applied to Consequences.

Natural, outdoor lighting and grading being used to convey that the drama is realistic and gritty - similar to Skins and other dramas, shown by these two stills. Grading used only to make colours truer to real life.

We do conform to many conventions of real media but also develop and challenge some with use of quite unconventional characters (more information in representation and audience appeal questions), less commonly used story/narratives for an urban setting