A2 PRODUCTION

Friday 4 March 2011

Question One

Before creating our film we had previously looked and analysed other films to enable us to create our product, this helped us to develop our narrative and also to improve our character profiles.

Firstly, my film follows the conventions of a media product through our opening sequence as it introduced the main character straight away in the start, although the identity of the character was left a secret, we still used the opening sequence as an introduction to the film. This Is because myself and my group watched other media products and realised that the opening of the film and the closing of the film means a lot to the audience as it’s the only thing they seem to remember of the film – therefore we challenged the forms and conventions of real media products because we kept the identity of our character a secret to create mystery as well as it to be more fun; as it makes the audience anxious to see more. Therefore we used a slow tilt shot, to show the characters body and costume but ended the shot just at his neck to add more tension with the audience and our product. To develop the form of our opening sequence we decided that the opening setting should be at our main character HARRY’s house, so the audience could get a sense of his personality. To develop this view, we used a slow pan of his room, so the audience can see his room and how he acts, what he listens to, just the general feeling of how he is in his own natural habitat – BUT we still did not reveal his identity, as we wanted the audience to paint a picture of who it could be, make it more interesting and exciting. Such as the family movie “Big Mama’s House” where the identity of the officer was a mystery, just had quick, short shots of him putting on a watch , a tie, suit these are all connotations of a middle-class working male – the audience will gather this just by seeing what his wearing not by seeing his face.

Secondly, my characters follow the standard forms and conventions of real media products as my antagonist is a bully, while my protagonist is a nerd. Like usual media products, my antagonist bullies and physically harasses my protagonist. My bully is tall, built, dark, and aggressive, just has all the stereotypical attributes of a bully, which makes him even more of a deviant character. For example, we used a trekking shot when my protagonist walked past the antagonist, so the audience could see and sense the hostility between both characters, JACK was behind HARRY has he walked past – HARRY was as oblivious as anything while walking past JACK, but by the facial expression on both characters faces it is obvious to the audience that JACK is the antagonist and HARRY is the protagonist as even the costumes help represent this, as JACK is wearing all black, whereas HARRY is dressed very smartly. However, although in the beginning of our product, we may represent HARRY as the weak timid character however our product challenges the forms and conventions because our protagonist switches to an antagonist through character development, although he is not completely evil, he is still more powerful than JACK compared to the beginning. In majority of films the I watched in regards to bullies and victims, they usually ended with no real character development, the bully still bullies the victim, the victim may end up having more confidence than before but still not enough to overcome and conquer. Therefore, my team and I decided to switch it up and make our film a little more unique and different from the rest therefore we decided to make our victim powerful and even more stronger to the extent that the bully is now afraid of his own victim which contradicts all other media products regarding bullying, also generates a positive message to all ages of the family, that if anyone is getting bullied they can always overcome it.

Thirdly, our narrative follows the forms and conventions of media products as it is a basic narrative. Its is a family film which is opened to all members of the family, which puts no restriction on whom can or cannot watch it, which makes it much more marketable as there are no age limits. Our narrative follows the conventions of a family film because it is based in a school environment, which makes it easier for everyone to relate too, as everyone has been to school before – so the setting is a familiar environment which all members of the family institution would be familiar with. Secondly, the main theme of bullying is what runs predominantly throughout my film, which I feel is what everyone can relates too, however by watching Home Alone we didn’t want it to be too emotional. This is because from my media product last year, I and my team went with a very emotional sort of film – which was very serious and too boring that we had discovered in our audience feedback so in response we received lower grade too. Therefore, this year I had learnt from my mistakes and realised that going with a film that is too emotional, will a) Not target a larger audience
b) Too boring.
So we incorporated some of Home Alone ideas invested in pranks. This challenge the narrative of most anti-bullying movies as it usually shows the knock on negative effect it has on the victim, it never hardly shows the victim getting back and getting even – this is where the comedy element comes in. By watching Home Alone, Richard used a lot of pranks on the thieves, which was what made the film even more funny, therefore me and my team thought it would be even more exciting and funny, if HARRY created pranks for JACK. This challenges all bullying movies as it leaves it with a happy/funny ending rather than a sad one.

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