1: GENRE CONVENTIONS

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


To answer this question I have annotated my short film on youtube.
To watch with annotations please click the settings button on the youtube video and press annotations on.

how to turn on annotations is demonstrated in this image above

Piktochart enables users to display information through use of an infographic. Here information can be displayed in a clear and aesthetically pleasing way. So far I have used Piktochart to show research about short films on my blog. It has enabled me to show my research in a different way and this makes it more interesting to view. It has enabled me to display images and information clearly online. It’s software that works well for people who view my work on a tablet. The site has themes in its gallery which have previews available. There over “100 categorised themes”. 

picture

When designing  my infographic I could choose to use one of the themes or start from scratch choosing from images available on Piktochart or uploading my own images. There were various fonts and headings available. 

I could then share my infographic online as it enables users to share the infographic for free on social media, linking,embedding or emailing it. It worked well for my blog as there is an option to post it straight to my blogger.com website. The site also has “slideshare and evernote intergrations”.

Below are examples of how I have used Piktochart for my work:

Before I could begin making my short film research and planning has been an important process. It has enabled me to establish the conventions of short films and what I should be looking to produce myself within my work. The research above was helpful in establishing the basis of what my short film should include. 

Firstly I have structured my film to include only a small amount of main characters - around 3-4 characters. Many short films focus only on a smaller amount of characters as there is less time to build on these characters and their story lines. Secondly, I have created a film that would last around 5 minutes as required in my brief and this fits with what I have researched as short films tend to last anywhere from 3-20 minutes. 

As well as this I have taken into account that man short films contain a twist within the storyline as this makes it more interesting and entertaining. The sticky notes are collected by the female character; the male librarian then takes responsibility for leaving the notes and the audience is led to believe he is the romantic interest. As the film develops we show conventions of romance associated with males who wish to dominate the female and easily win affection such as stereotypically giving presents such as flowers and buying drinks for her. As well as this he shows dominance by ordering for her. At the end of our film our audience finds there is a twist; the female is hurt by the male only it is revealed that in fact the person who left her the notes was not the person she initially was led to believe. Another love interest, seen as the hero character, is revealed and there is a traditional happy ending.

The theorist Laura Mulvey assisted us with showing the genre. Lauren Mulvey focuses on her theory of the male gaze in which the camera lingers on the women as if it is the male gazing at her. Her theory suggests that the camera work is done in a certain way so as to appeal to men. We take this on board in our romance film as we show that the male character would gaze at her and we hope to convey this to the audience. Within our camera work we have shots that linger on the female character and we include longer shots of features such as her hair and mouth. She appears as an object to desire and to look at as shown by such shots and also by clothing worn. The female wears a silky red top that has connotations with love and romance. 

Propp speaks of characters following a certain pattern or stereotypes. These characters are particularly traditional and include roles such as the hero, villian, false hero and the damsel in distress. These particular examples apply within the storyline of our short film and help to show how I have used research on conventions of the genre we have chosen and of the film industry. Our main character that is male would fit into the villain or false hero role as he takes credit for the work of the hero character who is not revealed until the end. The damsel in distress is represented by the lead female who is wooed and then heart broken until she is saved by her hero at the very end. This demonstrates the twist in our film which is a common convention of short films.