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.