Question 1

In what ways does your media product, USE, DEVELOPE, or CHALLENGE forms

and conventions of real media products?

From my research, I have studied the form of opening film sequences and the typical conventions from the genre, "coming of age".

From my research, I have learnt how the form of an opening sequence is conventionally a short sequence, known as the equilibrium stage of the narrative. During this stage, the protagonist and the genre of the film will be introduced to the audience. I learnt how it may represent a back-story which will give the audience clues towards to narrative. Furthermore, I learnt how titles are often integrated into the sequence. Sound is another key convention of an opening film sequence and is conventionally made up of non-diegetic music to help set the mood or atmosphere of the scene. The opening film sequence may contain some dialogue, such as a voice-over, however this is often kept to a minimum.

Conventions of opening film sequences

When creating our open sequence, we aimed to use these conventional features of opening film sequences. For the coming of age genre, particular conventions are:

•Iconography to represent interests of the protagonist and themes associated with the narrative

•Costumes to help represent roles, personality and the era - (typically modern, fashionable and on trend)

•Music to help represent an era, create a tone or give clues towards the narrative - (typically pop music from the 21st century)

•Locations - tending to be set places of leisure (such as a shopping centre or swimming pool), a school/college (helping to connote the youth of the protagonist, as well as the theme of education or in the protagonist's bedroom/home/town to help represent their daily lifestyle, personality, class etc.

•Often consists of themes such as education, tackling obstacles or relationships

When filming our own coming of age opening film sequence, we used and developed many of the typical conventions associated with coming of age films, which made our own opening film sequence convention. When constructing our own sequence, one of the main films which we took inspiration from was the coming of age film "Camp Rock“, by Disney. We liked many of the conventions used in this film, such as the location and iconography and thought that we would be able to successfully achieve this in our own work. Furthermore, we liked the equilibrium and narrative, beginning with a teenage girl waking up and getting ready for school. I have done a previous analysis on this film to get more inspiration on the style of filming and the conventions used.

Inspiration & Conventions used and developed in our own work

Conventions used in our own sequence

Mise-en-scene: CostumesIn our own sequence,

the protagonist is dressed in modern, feminine and fashionable clothing; this helps to connote up to date personality, youth and how she is an average teenage girl within the 21st century. This type of clothing is often associated with mainstream films, such as Mean Girls, adding to the mainstream aspect of the film, rather than indie. 

Mise-en-scene: LightingLighting was also a convention which we developed in our

own work; we wanted the lighting to be high key to help set the mood and to connote the time of day.

Mise-en-scene: LocationA lot of coming of age films are set in the protagonist's bedroom.

This helps to connote the youth of the protagonist. Furthermore, as a teenager’s bedroom is like their territory and their own personal space, it helps to connote their personality to the audience. Due to this, we decided that the equilibrium of our film would involve the protagonist getting ready in her bedroom and throughout the house.

Mise-en-scene: Music and soundAnother convention we had to consider in our own work was

the music and sound. From our planning, we decided to use diegetic music which the protagonist turns on at the equilibrium. The style of music is very mainstream for a coming of age film; we wanted the music to add a happy tone to the film and link to the narrative of the protagonist going out and wanting to peruse a goal. We wanted the music to be that members of the audience would be able to refer themselves to the protagonist. As well as music, we had to consider the sound effects within the sequence. I decided to add some bird sound effects to also help connote the morning.

Narrative:The main convention which we developed into our own work is how

the narrative of the film is focused on the protagonist and her achieving a goal, similar to many coming of age films.

Conclusion!Overall, I think

we used and developed the conventions and forms of "coming of age" films well with our own ideas. We did not challenge any of the conventions; we wanted our film to look similar to other films of the same genre.