POST #46 - IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE THE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA?

The evaluation questions have started.

Be scared.

Very scared.

Emily took the first two questions, so here is one of them...

" In order to find the conventions of media products, we watched several comedy films, and we did a lot of research into films in this genre.

Title:

Usually, the title has a pun, or a joke in it. This adds comedy immediately to the film, and shows the genre straight away. Examples of typical titles include- "The hungry games", "Sharknado" and "Dumb and dumber". 

The title for our opening is- "Fast Forward". We decided on this as a title as it is relevant to the piece. The opening is about time travel, and it is apparent that Zak has somehow, been placed in the future. This title develops forms in this genre as it has a pun in the title. This is effective as it immediately introduces the genre of the film to the audience, and they automatically understand that the film is going to be funny, rather than serious. Moreover, we felt the short title would represent the snappy opening. Additionally, the title also ties in with the nineties theme- 'fast forwarding' originated from old VHS players that had the ability to skip forward in the film. This is relevant as these VHS players were incredibly popular during the nineties. 

Primarily, we had decided on a different title. This was "Zak in time". This was good, as it used a pun to introduce the genre. However, it didn't make much sense as he is being sent forward in time. It would be effective if it was introducing the entire film, as the character will be sent back in time later in the entire film. Nonetheless, it wouldn't be relevant in the opening, as he only travels forward, so we decided to change it to "Fast forward". 

Setting/Location:
Normally, a more comedic film will be set in the present day, and will generally be in a bright, open place. These locations will usually be public, and examples include- malls, schools and hotels. For example, "The Duff" and "Paul Blart: Mall cop". Sometimes the location may be unusual, to add comedic effect, but this is rare. 

The setting can be seen in the bottom row of our contact sheet. Our opening is set in Norwich, which is a big, open city. Our location is ordinary, and perhaps a little bland. This is usually ineffective, but in a comedy film, it is a normal approach for a setting. 

This means that our location does adhere to typical comedy settings. This allows for more focus on the character, and not the location. 

Costumes and props:

Normally, in a comedy film, each character will have at least one comedic aspect in their costume. For example, they may have a funny shirt, or hat. A more specific example is- "Shaun of the Dead". The character "Ed" wears a comical shirt that says "I got Wood". This is effective as it portrays the genre of the film through the costume, as well as characterisation. 

In our opening, our character wears clothes that are typically 'nineties'. They are fashionable in the past, but may look rather weird in the present. This may be comedic, as the audience may find the odd clothes, and weird coordination funny. Overall, this mostly portrays the usual conventions of costume in a comedy film, as they are wearing unusual, comedic clothes. 

Camerawork and Editing:

Usually, the camerawork of a comedy film is naturalistic, and normal. The camerawork usually doesn't take risks, and is more natural. The edits are the same, and are usually simple and normal. Edits may be used for a comedic effect (if they were particularly bad, or cheesy). This may add comedic effect, but it can be effective to keep the camerawork, and editing natural. 

In our film, we used largely natural camerawork. There are no 'risky' shots, as we felt this didn't portray our genre fully. Moreover, we have used several small edits, that are not natural. This was effective, however, as it adds comedic effect. There is one edit in particular that is unusual however. This is the skating animation. Seen bottom right in our contact sheet, the skating animation was previously not in our opening. We had the idea to 'mashup' different styles as we felt the prolonged shots of Zak staking was uninspired and a little dull. This is a little unusual in a comedy film as edits are usually kept minimal. However, this kind of technique has been used before, so we are partly developing the pre-existent forms in this genre. 

Title font and style:

Normally, comedic films have a bright, bouncy title. Usually, a large (perhaps curvy) font is used. This is particularly effective, as it brings attention to the title. Because the title is usually a pun, this immediately shows the comedic genre to the audience. The titles are usually bright and colourful, and colours usually include- white (to make the title stand out), red, yellow or green. Normally, the title fonts aren't too 'over the top' (unless it relates to the name of the film, or the content of the film), but each is unique in its own way. 

Our title mostly sticks to these conventions. It is bright and uses two colours to attract the audience. The colourful font juxtaposes the black background, so is very effective in attracting the audience. The symbol is relevant to the themes and ideas of the opening as this is a well known symbol that means to fast forward on a DVD player or a VHS player. This is effective as it reminds the audience of the time period and gives them context for the opening. 

Story and how it is 'set up':

Normally, in typical comedic films, there may be narration, or a short section of dialogue to introduce the story. It is usually largely based solely around the characters themselves, and not their situation. Comedic films commonly open on an introduction of the character, and open with shots of the main characters. The story is then introduced in the perspective of these characters. 

Our film is quite like these conventions. It opens with shots of the primary location, and then it introduces the characters. However, our opening is a little unusual perhaps, as the opening scenes focus more on his location, rather than who he actually is. We never get a 'proper' introduction, and the audience are unsure of the main characters identity (we never hear his name). This is effective as it leaves the audience with a small cliffhanger. They do not know who the character is, so are left wondering who he is and how he got into this situation. This will make them curious about the contents of the rest of the film, so they will want to watch on. 

Genre and how it is suggested:

Typically, the film opens with immediate comedy. This can come in many forms (it can be visual comedy, or spoken jokes), but is usually introduced immediately, to keep the audience entertained from the beginning. This suggests the genre straight away, as it shows the audience the more light-hearted nature of the film.

Our film uses this convention and immediately opens with visual humour and humourous slang terms. This immediately suggests the genre of the film, and it entertains the audience. This ensures that they will carry on watching. Moreover, our opening uses ordinary conventions in suggesting the comedy genre. However, due to the genre and it's huge variation of sub-genre and plots, our opening is still unique, even though it uses pre-existent conventions. 

How the characters are introduced:

Similarly to how the story is introduced, the characters are usually introduced through narration or dialogue. This usually occurs straight away, and the characters are introduced almost immediately. This is because, in the comedy genre, the characters tend to be the main focal point of the film. Films of this genre tend to revolve around one character, or perhaps a small group of characters. This means that the audience tends to get introduced to the characters straight away. 

Our opening is unusual in this sense. Although the film opens with our main character, the audience are not actually properly introduced to them in the two minutes. This is unusual in comedic films, but I believe we used it to good effect. Leaving the characters name and information out of the opening makes it more intriguing for the audience. They begin to wonder who this mysterious character is, and how they got into the situation they are in. This makes it difficult for the audience to stop watching, as they want to know what will happen next. 

Special effects:

Usually, there aren't many special effects used in comedic films. Similarly to the camerawork, the special effects are natural, and sometimes they aren't used at all. Keeping the action natural is a good technique for comedic films, as the comedy usually derives from the dialogue, not the action. Using special effects may draw from the comedic dialogue. However, some comedic films use special effects to create comedy. They may be intentionally bad special effects, which adds another layer of humour. 

Throughout our opening, we decided against using special effects. We felt this would be difficult to pull off, and it may take away from the humourous dialogue of the opening. If we were to use special effects, we would have made them intentionally bad, to create humour. The use of special effects in this genre is rare, so we are not straying from the norm in this sense. 

Overall, our product mostly developed conventions of real media products. Although we used many forms and conventions, our opening was unique, and different. To do this, we focused more on our action and dialogue, and didn't use any unnecessary techniques that may draw from the dialogue.

This is the contact sheet for our opening. "