Media evaluation

1 . I N W H A T W A Y S D O E S Y O U R M E D I A P R O D U C T U S E , D E V E L O P O R C H A L L E N G E

F O R M S A N D C O N V E N T I O N S O F R E A L M E D I A P R O D U C T S ?

Evaluation

CONVENTIONS

�  In my preparation and planning of creating this short film I researched the codes and conventions of real psychological films

�  I looked at the common conventions of different aspects such as character, costume, horror, reality, mind, identity and death, as these are all heavily featured in this genre

�  I took a lot of inspiration of my protagonist's character from the protagonist in Fight Club; after extensively researching Edward Norton's portrayal of the narrator, I tried to convey that tone in my film

CONVENTIONS OF A SHORT FILM

�  It follows the basic conventions of a short film in that it has a constant narrative that is simple enough for a 5 minute film but complicated enough to entertain the audience

�  The protagonist has enough of an introduction to make the audience emphasise with him, but his background is enigmatic due to the psychological nature of the film

�  His narration helps to guide the audience along the storyline

�  The use of a variety of shots, camera angles and editing techniques means it resembles a real film

KEY CONVENTIONS

�  After thoroughly researching the key conventions of a psychological film I tried to reflect these in my work:

I looked into different options for costume choice and settled on a very

everyday “normal” choice to reflect my protagonist’s ordinary character

Although his hallucinations didn’t look that out of the ordinary, I focused on

their behaviour towards the main character to show the difference in

character

KEY CONVENTIONS

A key part of the narrative of my film is the element of reality;

Both the audience and the protagonist are trying to work out what's actually real, which

is why the narrative was confusing at first

However, I added a first person narration, a common convention of most films, to help the audience understand the mental health

problems he has

The problems with his hallucinations were made obvious, along with the quick

flashbacks, to help the audience understand what's going on

KEY CONVENTIONS

My film has a first person narrative so we can understand and emphasise with the

protagonist

The driving force of the plot is the way he is trying to understand what's real, as his

mental health is affecting this

As we see more of his hallucinations we see the deterioration of his mental health, until

he eventually snaps, much like common psychological films show

KEY CONVENTIONS

The hallucinated suicide off a cliff was an expression of his feelings and desires, hence why the film ended with the enigma of death

through pills

Films about mental disorders tend to feature a lot of elements of death, whether to them

or the people around them, and it's not uncommon for this kind of state of mental

health to drive them to suicide

Although challenging some conventions by showing a suicide, it followed and developed

the common features of a psychological thriller by showing a very controlled, clean

suicide

This would be especially common in a film with a rating of 15 or featuring teenagers

KEY CONVENTIONS

Obviously a big feature of psychological films is for one of the main characters to be affected by a mental disorder, as my protagonist does with his hallucinations

He cannot work out which is real and which is in his mind, and the audience should

experience this too

I was hugely inspired by Fight Club and how Tyler Durden, the narrator’s second personality, is portrayed

IN RESPONSE TO FIGHT CLUB

�  Throughout Fight Club a huge number of hints and suggestions are used to foreshadow the plot twist, and on first viewing they aren't apparent to the audience

�  This follows the effects model theory, or hypodermic needle theory, stating that the audience just passively take in information without questioning it

�  However on the second viewing, with full knowledge of exactly who the characters are, the audience will start to read into everything that happens

�  This is a common convention for psychological films, and I used this concept when creating my short film: the first time viewing is purposefully confusing for the audience, whereas once they realise the people he's interacting with aren't real it should start to make sense.

IN RESPONSE TO FIGHT CLUB

IN RESPONSE TO FIGHT CLUB

�  However because of my film’s confusing nature it might be seen to challenge forms and conventions of real media products

�  In most cases the idea of a film is to entertain and please people, not make them think deeply about it

�  But because my work has been inspired by one of the most psychologically complex and philosophically challenging films, it tends to follow this sort of style

IN RESPONSE TO FIGHT CLUB

�  One of the main features of Fight Club I admire is the use of subliminal flashes of Tyler Durden before we meet him, as though the narrator is starting to dissociate into him.

�  I tried out this method in my film, splicing in a split second shot of the 2 earlier hallucinations onto an otherwise empty field as the camera panned over

�  This doesn't tend to happen in films but in psychological films it helps a lot to hint and foreshadow the plot