Evaluation - 1) In what ways does the media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Firstly, in terms of observing the conventions of continuity and the language of film and editing we had to be very careful as our film included many flashbacks. To keep the continuity correct so that the audience could follow where the film was going we had to wear the same clothes and accessories as well as hair styles. As we filmed different scenes on different days we had to refer back to the footage so that we knew this was right. In one scene in the kitchen we encountered a small problem when we discovered that on some of the footage the cupboard door was open whilst on the rest it was closed, this mean't we could not use this piece of footage as it would disrupt the continuity. 

The genre of our film could be called a romantic drama, it reflects conventions of the genre by showing and expanding on romantic relationships and affairs of the main character, Sally. The audience can see her love life and the ups and downs of this as well as arguments that ensue because of Sally and George's actions. However, there are elements that challenge this genre and go outside of what is generally considered to be a romantic drama. For example, it deals with teenage pregnancy which is usually found in drama's that do not really show the romantic side of things, it deals with Sally's reaction and who she decides to tell, hence the name, Deception. It could also be described as dealing with teenage alcohol use and the negative outcomes of this such as what happened with Sally and George and the pregnancy that resulted because of this. 

Here Sally and her friend are pictured drinking vodka at the party.

In two scenes we see flashbacks of Sally drinking vodka with her friends and becoming increasingly more intoxicated, whilst she walks to the bedroom with George the camera goes very unsteady and shaky as the audience see's that Sally is falling and stumbling over because of the alcohol. All of these things challenge conventions of the drama and give extra elements to the film that you would not generally expect from a movie about a teenage girl and her boyfriend.

For our film we mainly took inspiration from the film, Juno. The ideas we took from this are part of the plot line that deals with teenage pregnancy, however Juno seems to deal more with how the pregnancy affects her everyday life whilst Deception shows mainly the immediate aftermath of the events that occurred at the party. Another part of Juno we really liked and wanted to emulate was the beginning title sequence that showed Juno on herself walking along a street to music, we thought that this title sequence was good and effective as it gave a glimpse into the characters life and established that this was the main character, the style of dress and music playing also gives indications on what the character  is like. So for Deception we decided to film Sally walking along the street toward her friends house through an array of different camera angles from Sally's view point to long shots and close ups. The title sequence set the foundations for the rest of film as the audience begin to learn the story when she begins to tell her friend, Lizzie, the events that took place at her party. 

Here Sally is shown walking to her destination like the film 'Juno.'

This is the opening scene in 'Juno' were she is walking also like Sally.

Four kinds of audience pleasure-

• Entertainment: what form of entertainment does our film provide? (see Richard Dyer)
• Information/education: may watch a documentary to learn something
• Role models: positive or negative, can look at how they behave, may be positive ways of handeling a situation, how people dress or behave etc
• Socialisation: enables people to have something to talk about, as they all have the fact they are watching the film in common, also older and maybe people that don't go out as much have a sort of friend when it comes to tv presenters or characters

Richard Dyer's theory of entertainment

There are utopian solutions, in your everyday lives you are missing something (lack) so in films they make up for what you are missing on that day.

Lack - 

• Tired
• Bored
• Lonely
• Poor
• Ignorant/unaware 

If you have a lack and a film provides things you are lacking then it will entertain you at that time. The things that are provided in the film are called utopian solutions. Pure entertainment films will contain utopian solutions - 

• If you're tired, you need energy. If you sit and watch an action film its hypes you up and therefore you often feel less tired. 
• If you're bored then intense events will provide entertainment, so very high highs and low lows. This is called intensity and can be found in many melodrama's.
• Community makes you feel less lonely, it gives you the feeling of what it would be like if you had lots of friends and company such as films about groups of people working together like Platoon and Wizard of Oz. 
• If you are lacking money, while the film is on it shows you what it would be like if you had lots of money. 
• If you're ignorant or unaware such as if you are not always being told the truth if people are hiding things from you etc. You may want to be aware of how people are thinking and so on, this is called transparency. 

Our film provided audience pleasure by giving community. Watching our film when lonely will entertain the audience by showing Sally as having an array of friends as well as a boyfriend. There is also a party where you could assume many people have attended so it shows relationships and people socialising. 

We took inspiration from 500 Days of Summer to characterise Sally. Films generally have opposites such as rich and poor and good and bad. Our film used the good and bad and Sally can be considered the bad character and James, the good. This is because she cheated on him and then lied about the father of her baby when James did nothing to deserve this. Summer's character in 500 Days of Summer is quite similar as she decides that she does not eventually want a relationship with a guy she is seeing after stringing him along for several months. In both cases genre themes are challenged as in many films it is generally the male that is made out to be the bad one, whilst the female is mostly the victim. We subverted this idea.

The character Summer in '500 Days of Summer' was used as inspiration for Sally.

Critical Evaluation - Question 1

Question 1 - In what ways does the media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Continuity is a key aspect in a film therefore we ensured throughout the filming process to keep it continuous particularly with the characters and mis en scene which using a Sony HDV1000 camera enabled us to do. With the characters they had be wearing the same outfit if it was represented on screen as the same day despite if we didn't film the whole scene in one day. Also, we had to also make sure that the setting were the same if displayed on the same day for example, we had to re shoot a piece of dialogue due to the change in lightning in the background or when the camera was out of focus due to putting on lights through the shot. Furthermore, the camera enabled to keep continuity with shots such as match on action and shot reverse shots when they are in conversation.
      There was an instance when we had continuity issues on screen as when filming we didn't realise that there was a change in the cupboard door being open and close in continuous scenes.

Sally and friend drinking

Sally and her friend talking

As shown in the images above the two shots are continuous as they are drinking and then both start to converse. However, the cupboard is shut and then open which does break the continuity and therefore would be an improvement.
      However, there are times when we ourselves decided to break continuity which elements that are related to non-linear narratives particularly in cinematography shots for example, we have included flashbacks. This broke continuity referring to time as we intervened into present time by flashing back to the party that occurred a month previous.

Flashback print screen

As we decided to go with a non linear narrative to show the time and scenario change in the flashback we used the transition 'cross dissolve' to portray this. However, flashbacks are not the only time change we used as towards the end of our film we go forward in time to a phone conversation between Sally and James. We challenged conventions of the drama genre because of the unusual time pattern as the film is based in the present but flashes back to the night whereas a popular way to present a film would be to start with the ending and tell the film on how they got to that outcome. Therefore, we didn't want to use the same transition in order to avoid confusion and add variation. Instead, we used a fade to black transition,

Sally talking to Lizzy

Fade to black

Sally talking to Sarah

By doing this it made it more clear to audiences of passage of time, as the main character Sally goes from one conversation to another. Both however were necessary because it was the best way to represent the storyline on screen.
Additionally we broke continuity by going against the 180 degree rule when following Jess whilst she was drunk due to the fact we follow her through the walking stage as she proceeds her bedroom. As we portrayed a shaky camera movement to represent this which was also hand held as opposed to on a tripod. This also goes against continuity because of the difference in the camera movement. In the editing process we also in this particular part of our film break continuity again by adding numerous black screens whilst she is walking.

By doing this it is another way that we wanted to represent to the audience the extremity of her drunken state as she keeps blacking out. Even though she is following George we didn't want to shift the focus off of the main character therefore whilst walking we decided to just have Jess in shot until they got to the stairs because we then shot behind them as opposed to the front.

Before we chose a genre we each did research into the various ones that our short film could potentially be for example, I did
Action -  http://bca2media2013group13.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/genre-research-action.html
Science fiction - http://bca2media2013group13.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/genre-research-science-fiction.html
Originally we decided that our film was going to based on romance with a little added drama in a plot twist. This is because our first treatment included childhood romance where they finally declare their love for each other but discovers he already has a girlfriend. However, under the circumstance, we changed our storyline and the idea we went with was that the genre of our film is initially drama with a sub genre of romance within it. I believe that we reflected the genre well particularly with our storyline as she is faced with unplanned pregnancy with a boy at her party in which she was cheating on her boyfriend. Therefore, we followed the conventions of a drama because the main character is faced with a stressful situation (unplanned pregnancy) and dilemma (who to tell due to her current boyfriend situation). Additionally we added a plot twist right at then end which leaves the future of the characters and the situation ambiguous, creating shock and suspense to the audience. The romance aspect is not what you would typically expect, however it is expressed subtly because of the relationship between Sally and James but also Sally and George.
Role models in our particular film are both positive and negative. We didn't make it visually obvious what their character would be like but more portrayed this through personality and actions throughout the film. Role models are a typical convention of the drama genre as they repsent good vs bad in the narrative which we wanted to represent in our own short film.

Negative 

Jess (Sally) is a negative role model in our film because she cheats on her boyfriend but also later tells him she is pregnant with his baby, when she knows for definite it is George's. However, she fails to tell him that she cheated on him therefore is not respectful towards others in our film and is deceiving.

George is a more subtle negative role model. This is because even though Sally tells him that her and her boyfriend, James have had an argument he still has every intention of sleeping with her. Therefore, this can be portrayed as a negative thing to do by because he was purposefully influential to Sally by telling her he has whiskey upstairs.






Positive 

The most significant positive role model in our short film is Sally's best friend Lizzy who she tells first that she is pregnant. Due to Lizzy giving Sally good advice she is seen as the good character because she tries to ensure that Sally tells them both the truth regardless of whether Sally does or not. Furthermore, another positive aspect about this character is that she is there for Sally and is clearly a good confident if she is the first to know.







Example from another film

Another aspect of our film that can be a convention of the same genre is the black screen with writing on.

This was done in our film to show passage of time but it also relates to other films of the same genre for example, in 'Love actually' we did something similar from this film in our 2 days later screen because we needed an effective way to show a passage of time. Furthermore, it shows that it is a convention of a non linear narrative but relates to other films that is of similar genre to ours. 

Our short film relates to some aspects of Richard Dyer's theory of entertainment, 'entertainment and utopia.' He believes that we watch films to because we need entertaining but also that in your life their are problems or things missing in your life/day that films can solve.
Examples of his theory
When we lack important aspects of our lives films can temporarily solve this with these proposed utopian solutions to these. They are not intended to solve problems after but are there to give a temporary escapism but can have the adverse effect of making you feel worse after.
1.)Tired films provide us with energy for example, we portrayed this in our film because when Sally is drunk the pace of the editing increases with jump cuts but also as they are in a party scenario there is loud music constantly being played in the background.
2.Boredom provides intensity with very high highs, very low lows, which is subtley presented in our film due to Jess being happy and partying to the major contrast of when she finds out she is pregnant and is faced with a dilemma.
3.Lonely provides a sense of community for example, when people work together in groups and not being isolated. Our film relates to this because of aspects such as the party scene which shows that Sally has a social life with friends and a boyfriend.
Other examples that are not particularly within our film include,
4.No money presents abundance which shows the audience what it is like to have lots of money
5.Ignorant/ unawareness provides transparency.
There is also the point of socialisation, of how people talk to each other and the fact that a film can provide a common point of socialisation particularly with people you do not know. A form of this is via the internet (forums etc), people consider media as a social thing for example, when people get upset when presenters in their favourite programme is changed.

Our short film gained inspiration from the film 'Juno.' This is because the main themes in both films are based upon 'teen pregnancy,' however there is still a huge difference in both narratives as Juno focuses more upon about what she wants to do after she find out and ends up going through an adoption route as opposed to ours focuses on Sally cheating on her boyfriend.   
In particular it was our title sequence that was the most inspired by 'Juno.' This is because we did a similar introduction of the main character walking, doing similar camera shots and angles. 

We did this because we thought it was the best way to open our film because it shows the progression that Sally has to get to her friend Lizzy's house in which we believed this was the best to present it. Furthermore, it enabled us to put the main characters names on screen, as she is walking, similarly to Juno. 


This is the full title sequence for Juno. Another inspiration we took from this was the music (non diagetic) element of it. This is because we really liked the acoustic guitar aspect of it to coincide with how Sally is walking however, we made ours a little more sad to represent emotion more in the film before the audience found out anything about the situation.

Critical Evaluation-Question 1

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

By using equipment such as the Sony HDV1000 and Final cut express, we were able to follow conventions of continuity within our film when shooting and editing. We filmed over a period of around two weeks and in oder to keep continuty we had to refer to previous footage to ensure that the chracters were wearing the same clothes, accesories and had the same hairstyle. Furthermore, we had to make sure that the scenery was the same in each shot. Here, we mistakingly broke continuty as there is a cupboard door which is open in one shot and closed in another. We noticed this in post-production and we were unable to re-film this scene due to the fact that we had asked friends to star in the film and they were not available at appropriate times.

The 180 degree rule was one of the most important rules that we followed whilst shooting so the audience would be able to understand the positioning of the characters throughout the film. In some cases, breaking the 180 degree rule can be effective in the horror and thriller genres as it can confuse the audience, making them scared or uncomfortable- in this instance, it would be acceptable to make the audience confused as it creates suspension. However, this would not have been effective in our genre of film.










We also followed the rules of continuity during the editing process when showing a passage of time:
We have used a cross dissolve to display to the audience that we are cutting to a flashback or leaving the flashback.

We also used a fade to black to show a passage of time, to later that week. We used a fade to black rather than the cross dissolve so that it wouldn't confuse the audience into thinking that it was another flashback and that the story was going forwards, rather than backwards.

Towards the end of the film, we used a fairly common technique when editing narratives which don't follow a linear format or that display a longer period of time. We used text to display that a week had passed by since the previous shot, in order to represent a longer passage of time. We believe that by using this technique it will stop the audience from getting confused with the time differences used in the film.

We attained this idea from the film 'Love Actually':

Not only did we have continuity with the picture of the film, but we also used Final Cut Express to ensure continuity in sound. We used audio transitions on the split screen shot where we carried the sound of James' voice onto the split screen shot of Sally and James. James' dialogue needed to match his mouth movements to make the audience believe that they were actually having a phone conversation rather than it being  two separate conversations.

Furthermore, we used sound bridges to add diegetic and non-diegetic music to the film to make the film seem more realistic and make the audience feel the intended emotions. When adding music to our film I had to adjust the volume so it was appropriate for that scene. For example, in the party scene I had diegetic music to suggest to the audience that the characters were at a party and while Sally and George were having a conversation I had to make the music quieter and I used the effect 'lowpass filter' to make the music sound like it was in another room. Once they had finished the conversation I adjusted the volume of the music so that it was louder as Sally was walking upstairs. I believe that this was a very effective technique to use and it displays how I have used and developed my editing skills within our film.

Our non-linear narrative challenges continuity as we use flashbacks of a party to tell the story instead of showing the party first (in a chronological order) however as a group we decided that this would make our film stand out from others as we can convey our story in an unusual way.
Moreover, we break the 180 degree rule by using a handheld, low angled shot of Sally walking to suggest that she is drunk. It breaks the rule because the camera moves to different sides of Sally, although we broke the 180 degree rule, it still makes sense to the audience and adds to the effect that she is drunk.

We believe that our film personifies the paradigm of drama as it involves real issues such as alcohol abuse, pregnancy and relationship breakdown. For example, Sally tells Lizzy, her best friend, that she is pregnant and that it isn't her boy friends baby but at the end of the film Sally tells James (her boyfriend) that it is his. The story builds tension because the audience want to know whether she will tell James that the baby isn't his and therefore, this follows the typical conventions of drama.

Moreover, our film incorporates the theme of 'good vs evil' further personifying the drama genre. For example, Sally is the evil character in our film and Lizzy is the good character, Sally cheats on her boyfriend, therefore displaying that Sally is the villain and Lizzy tries to convice her to tell James (her boyfriend) the truth, therefore demonstrating that she is the good character.

This theme is displayed in the majority of films as it creates tension within the audience as they will want the good character to beat the evil one and so they become interested in the film as they want to see if good beats evil. For example, in Titanic, Jack is the good character and Cal portrays the evil character.


GOOD                                                                                                  BAD




















Within our film I believe that we have  achieved audience pleasure through entertainment purposes, according to Richard Dyers's theory of entertainment and utopia. His theory states that a film provides an audience with something they are lacking and that a film can provide an audience with a utopian solution. For example, if an audience is tired, it can provide them with energy, if they are bored it can provide them with intensity, if they are poor it can provide them with abundance, they lack understanding it can provide them with transparency and if they are lonely it can provide them with community. We use his tired concept in our film as we have a party scene with energetic, upbeat music and fast editing: 

By using this utopian solution our film may cure the potential tiredness of our audience as the fast-paced editing gives the film energy which will transfer to the audience. 

In addition, we use Dyer's intensity solution to cure boredom. This is present in our film as the audience will feel the highs and lows of the characters, for example, James see's that Sally has cheated on him, which is an extreme low for his character and we experience a high at the party when Sally is drinking alcohol. Our film would cure the boredom of our audience as they experience the highs and lows for various characters our film, keeping them interested in the film.

When considering Dyer's intensity solution we decided that our main character, Sally would be the one who creates intensity and tension. When designing Sally's character we took insparation from the film 500 Days of Summer. The main female character, Summer doesn't believe in true love and enters a relationship knowing that she won't commit to it. We used her belief of relationships to influence our story as each time Sally drinks the vodka, her veiws of the relationship change and she no longer wants to be in one. Hence the reason why she cheats on her boyfriend, James with George.

We also used Dyer's theory as a solution for loneliness as the party scene creates a community and the audience will feel like they are a part of the film. 
In these two shots you can see that there are a few people at the party. Even though we didn't have many people at the party, the diegetic music that you can hear implies that there are many people there. Previous scenes where Sally is drinking and the shot of her drinking with a friend may also cure the audience's feeling of loneliness as it signifies friends and community.  



















Finally, we use Dyer's transparency solution to help the audience understand the characters feelings and emotions. We do this by using non-diegetic music, for example, in the final scene Sally tells her boyfriend, James that she is pregnant and we use sad music to project the emotions the characters are feeling to the audience. When looking for music to fit with the scene we looked for music that was soft and slow and this hopefully potrays the effect we were aiming to give.