Forms and conventions

Explain the most significant ways in which your media productions were informed by your understanding of the conventions of real media texts. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to demonstrate how this understanding developed over time (25 marks)


My productions were informed by my understanding of the conventions of real media texts as when i made my G322  film opening called 'Impact' in year 12 of media i incorporated genre conventions of a teen drama. My film opening revolved around a girl suffering from mental illness and depression with little support at home and at school, it was of the genre a 'teen drama' so i did a small amount of research into this genre to understand the conventions. For example, my production group and i looked into existing drama films for inspiration. Such as when watching 'Girl, Interrupted' we understood the theme of mental illness and bullying so included this as the main theme in our film opening 'Impact'. We also used a voice over towards the end of the film opening, as this is a convention in teen dramas as it shows emotion. 'The Notebook' inspired us to put a voice over in our opening as there is one in that film. Whereas in year 13 when i produced my G325 cross media promotional package, consisting of a music video and two ancillary tasks; digipak and website. My production group and i  made a music video called 'Hypnotic' centred round a psychotic girl going insane, the two ancillary tasks were used as advertisements for our artist 'Stellato'. In the music video the conventions of a dance/club genre were understood and challenged to show our creativity. For example when researching a lot more than we did in year 12 we found that the typical location for a club/dance genre music video would be a club. We decided to subvert this stereotype and set the music video in a mirror maze (Ripley's museum in London), however we did acknowledge and reference to the club genre by using glow sticks to create bright colours which is also usual of dance/club music videos. When researching we also found that dance/club music videos tend to sexualise the artist possibly conforming to Laura Mulveys Male Gaze theory. We chose to challenge this by not sexualising our artist.
In year 12, my production groups film opening 'Impact' we chose to use normally clothes as our characters costumes so that the audiences could relate well, especially to the protagonist especially. This is also a typical convention of teen drama's as they tend to be aiming to portray a serious message to the audience. For example, 'Sophia' the main character wore jeans and a t-shirt throughout the production. In comparison, in year 13 we manipulated the typical costumes of an artist performing in a dance/club music video. As 'Stellato' wore dark plan outfits, for example at the beginning she wore a black dress with tights. We did this to bring more attention to the location and who our artist was, rather than what she wears. In year 12 my production group and i didn't consider lighting when filming in much depth, where as in year 13 it was imperative that we thought about the effects of different lighting. The music video included a range of different lights - red was a colour theme that was prominent in the video, especially in the mirror maze. This shows development of my understanding of conventions of a dance/club genre music video which are known to focus heavily on lighting. Also because lighting was considered a lot more in year 13 than year 12, as the lighting that is in our film opening is by chance.
In my film opening i incorporated forms and conventions of a teen drama such as an establishing shot at the beginning using a tripod. This is a typical convention of a teen drama which shows the audience the location at which the film opening will be taking place. Whereas in year 13 my production group and i were more creative as we knew all about the genre dance/club so could challenge the conventions whilst conforming to them in different aspects of the video. So towards the end of the music video, we used a hand held camera to pan around the artist to create a psychotic atmosphere - clearly in year 13 we couldn't the effects of our decisions. But in year 12 we just conformed to the basic forms and conventions of a teen drama. Also in the film opening we filmed a close up of 'Sophia' crying to show the emotion to the audience, as emotion plays a crucial role in drama films. But when we did this, we didn't think of the effects, so it wasn't an intentional decision. In comparison to year 13 when we consider the decision we made by thinking about the consequences, as we aimed to include forms and conventions that the audience would easily recognise, but would find intriguing. Hence why we subverted many stereotypes of a dance/club music video. In year 13 we also had a close up of our artist 'Stellato's' face to create confusion for the audience, as we switched from long shots to close ups.
In year 12 the film opening consisted of a small number of long shots which matched the majority of teen dramas. This is known as continuity editing, when my production group edited the film opening we simply put the shots together. Whereas for the music video, due to our increased understanding of conventions because of in depth research. 'Hypnotic' was heavily edited, having over 200 shots which meant we ended up having a fragmented narrative. We took inspiration from existing media products when editing, we found that the music video 'Beautiful Now' was also heavily edited and this is very typically of a club music video. Also the quality of my G322 production in year 12 was reduced due to my production group and i paying little attention to the lighting in the film opening and considering whether we should edit using brightness and contrast as well as colour correction. But in year 13 due to our increased and developed understanding of forms and conventions by researching into existing media texts. Our music video was of better quality as we knew it was essential for us to spend some time colour correcting our shots and using brightness and contrast to link the shots better together.