Question 1 evaluation zahraa 2

A2 MEDIA STUDIES G324 FOUNDATION PORTFOLIO EVALUATION

Question 1:In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions or real media products?

Our short film and particularly the main social realism genre plot links to a number of other existing short films which I would mention and relate to during this slide share presentation.

By: Zahraa Kansouh

SHORT FILMS By looking into short films in the same genre category as ours, it really gave the group an idea of what the narrative must consist, and helped us decide the plot of the film. An example of a film we looked into was soft. Soft is about a man who is pushed to the breaking point when his some of his neighbourhood gangs show up at his house to harass him and his teenage son. We looked at this short film as well as many others and analysed it as part as our individual blog work before making out film ‘The Glass Ceiling’. Other films that we watched and analysed in class were ‘Fish Tank, Kidult Hood and ‘This Is England. We did not however analyse them because they are not short films, but we did watch these films in class, as part of our background information of social realism films, and what type of narrative they hold, and helped us understand the social realism gene. After watching various Social Realism movies, we were influenced to create one for our assignment. As we first thought its is the easiest genres to send a message to a particular audience.

TITLESWhen we decided on the Social Realism genre, I began to research the existing titles from both types of films, including short films. We noticed that the majority of social realism films have simple, block letter, and bold titles. By skimming through all the possible fonts from DAFONT.COM we decided on a font called … As shown below and in our final film poster you can clearly point out the difference between our font and the others. Our chosen font is all in capitals just like the other ones shown below, such as ‘soft, ‘This Is England and ‘Fish Tank. The glass we decided to use has a lone running through the word glass, as it is meant to link to the glass part, the font is a bit wonky which made it stand out to us, because it give the sense of confusion, and not being sophisticated and sure, Just as Maria is in the film.

Softs opening title

Kidulthoods opening title

Our films opening title.

These are two films which I ma particularly familiar with. I have analysed these social realism films to give me an idea of how they are structures. For the titles are have also taken a look at them and noticed the bold, big, block lettered font.

PROTAGONISTThe typical narrative structure of a protagonist in a social realism film is that they get caught in a dangerous of life changing situation. Normally in this genre they tend to compare two different peoples life styles, such as the rich and the poor. This is a conventional plot in all film genres which consists of the main protagonist being poor or deprived of something an the film documenting the journey between this state to a state of success and riches. In our film it revolves around Maria (Sarah) and her crush on Alex. it relates to real life stories, when girls change their appearance and personality to gain attention from that one guy, or group of friends. The end moral message is be who you are not what the world wants you to be.

CAMERA SHOTSWe used a variety of camera shots for effect to show a particular emotion or feeling. In order to make Sarah who played Maria feel deprived of beauty we used split screens, and close ups to create that feeling that she is aiming to be like one of those model posters stuck on her wall. An over head shot showing how she is looking up to them then looks down and touches her face, creates that depressing atmosphere and gives an effect that she looks up to them and portrays them as perfection, as she sees herself not worth and not up to their standards. Panning shots are also used, to show what was on the table next to here, and to introduce the audience to type of position she's in. A s stated before characters in social realism films always seem to have a problem in their life, highlighted indirectly by media language. For example in ‘Fish Tank Mia is highlighted indirectly as she is shown to be a lower class youth meaning she has lower opportunities due to her status, and is highlighted indirectly when she wants to fulfill her dream profession and become a dancer.

Point of view, close up shot, to show what Sarah is using.

Panning shot, to introduce the setting on the location.

Split screen of Sarah (Maria) applying concealer/makeup. whilst comparing herself to the model stuck on her wall.

A zoom in affect is used at this stage to show how Mariam ( Sasha) is feeling expressed y her body language whilst her boy friend Alex and Maria chat away.

THE YOUTHSocial realism is a genre of film that focuses mainly in topics in society which is represented by different ideologies. Themes that are quite usual in modern contemporary social realism films are such as money, drugs, prostitution and sex . Due to the many independent research in this genre I realised that social realism films, are always represented In a negative way. Such as the short film ‘Soft who revolves around a group of young teenagers, who follow a dad home, and threaten them, call them names, break their car etc. for our short film we di not included any gangs or violence as the moral of the story do not include them and it leans towards the romantic side of genres more that violence. The forms of conventions for social realism however are the use of unknown actors. This supports the genre as it makes it more realistic. So by having unknown characters is not an issue and would not decrease the views of it as it is a social realism film meaning it reflects on real life issues, and teaches you a lesson form it. In order to relate to the female youth of todays generation we used Sarah (Maria ) to be looking at her posts stuck on her wall and feeling deprived and ashamed of her self. A quick pan around the table showing makeup everywhere, and beauty products also adds the effect of this scenery.

Other than that our characters within this film are dressed very smartly and appropriately. With Alex dressed in a long coat with smart shoes and Sasha, wearing a long camel coat with pumps and a tight leather biker jacket, and lastly Maris wearing short boots, with a shirt under a wooly jumper, to give that smart look.

THE NARRATIVE We decided to use the typical narrative, in the arc structure for our short film. Mostly every type of film uses this narrative structure, as every type of film links to a narrative theory. We used this theory because it links to social realism best.

Exposition- Is meeting the characters, establishing the setting.

Rising Action- The central conflict is introduced and the tension between the protagonist and the antagonist begins to mount.

Climax- The climax is the turning point, which marks a change, for the better or the worse, in the protagonist’s future.

Falling action- the major action has happened. This is the aftermath. This is the sorting out of the major conflict’s resolution.

Resolution – The conflict is resolved.

The majority of social realism films are Drama based but more British, and reflects real life situations.

ANCILLARY TASK: POSTER

To make our poster look like a good conventional social realism poster, we looked a existing social realism film posters to inspire us.

However as our film genre leans towards romance, we also looked at romantic and romantic comedy films posters.

Due to our plot of being someone our not,, and love affairs, relationships, etc. It breaks the traditional narrow British social realms based in flats, with gangs, drugs, ad underage pregnancy.

The next few slides show a couple of posters we looked at and analysed.

These are 3 very well known and familiar social realism films. All 3 of them are based on a lower class British lifestyle, with their own little story. The similarities of these 3 films posters is that, they are all social realism films, they all have titles, with large fonts, and block letters. They tend to be in one colour per word. Both kidult hood and this is England, have the full group cast on the poster, whereas fish tank doesn't, only because she is lonely in the film anyway, and doesn't belong any groups, or gangs. The one thing similar to these social realist to ours, would be that hey both send a moral or message to the audience, they both include young adults/teenagers. The difference is that these films include drugs, alcohol, smoking, it shows the rough life tat they have, kidult hood, is about the life of several teenagers.

This is our first film poster draft. Our initial idea was to put 3 models at the top of the page looking down at Sarah, whilst she is looking up at them. This creates a powerful effect, showing that Sarah is looking up at these models meaning she looks up to them and wants to be like them, this dominant position creates a feeling that she is lower and less possessive than them, she is lower and less worthy. But before that we looked for a font on dafont.com . The font we picked is different to the ones shown in other existing social realism film posters. But we felt as if this one is most suitable. The line going through glass, gives an effect on the word ceiling, especially as Sarah is looking up at these model and the line is acting as a ceiling figure or barrier separating them from each other.

We then began to fade these models so the typing on top can show. These models were taken from Google, and I specifically chose some looking down directly at her, one a bit to the left with a titled head and to also act as if the are a massive part of Sarah's life even though they are slightly showing not people she knows, they are faded meaning they are not deliberately causing Sarah to feel this way yet still impact her strongly. The chosen film tagline is ‘Be who you are, Not who the world wants you to be’. Other things were added such as the age restriction, the main character name, the star rating, credits, and also a text referring to previous films made by the same production, we used the film we created in AS.

Social realism films are usually not blockbusters, and they are not advertised and promoted as much. Therefore the film needs to make the viewers who look at the poster are intrested in watching it and are assertive that it’s worth watching. We used bold words at the bottom of the poster like ‘ A HEARTACHING FILM’ and ‘BEST FILM OF 2015’

This is our final film poster

We liked creating the idea that Sarah is under the pressure of being beautiful,. We tried putting the models above her, but then most of our peers began asking who they were ad the same questions were repeated again and again like why aren’t they in the film ,and where did they come form. We then decided to remove them even tough they made clear sense why they were there. However we replaced the models with makeup, which gave the exact same impressions, and sent the same message, that appearance, and physical beauty is causing her to be somebody she’s not.

In conclusion we decided to follow the conventions of real, traditional and existing posters. We did make it less violent and gang based, as usual British social realistic films and posters re negative and the main image has always a gritty or urban look and feel to it, to give a negative thought to the audience. Sometimes they have the protagonist in front of the antagonist, or gang members on the front poster as mentioned before. Our social realist film slightly breaks the traditional British form of this genre, and added more girly images, and bright colors.

We used a slogan, to give a brief understanding and idea of what the films narrative and message is about.

The title we used a very unique font for the title. Is breaks the traditional conventions of social realistic title fonts, from being large bod and blokes so this kind of wonky looking, sleek looking design font. The font was actually chosen as mentioned before because it links to the film title which is ‘The Glass Ceiling’. So the line running through glass acts as a barrier or celling separating Sarah (Maria) to the world she strives to live in which is fashion. Beauty, makeup, etc.

We used the well known poster credits that all posters use, to make it look more professional.

We used a pallet, of simple bright colors for this poster. With the main characters front facing photo looking up at make up reflects the ,movie perfectly.

The main characters full name as most posters do.

Words such as ‘best film of 2015’ justifies that it has been seen and rated.

The star rating indicates that it has been watched by mass audience and rated professionally.

We also added an age restriction, so the public can identify the age range and roughly the audience it is aimed at.

The conventions above are all generic conventions o existing posters. We didn't challenge any conventions.

ANCILLARY TASK 2: RADIO TRAILER

The radio trailer we had made is particularly short .. Seconds. Most radio trailers are short with a maximum duration time of 3minutes. As a trailer should give a short interesting and captivation brief of the film itself.

We used a … soundtrack this gives an intense feeling yet, sympathetically soft and slow.

We recorded in the schools studio room, with professional high quality facilities, including the microphone with the net over it, we had the actual sound elevator and headphones. With the full kit we managed to create a huh quality sound radio trailer.

A narrator was used just like all normal trailers, with a constant tone of voice throughout.

Clips of the actual films audio, was added to the trailer. Normally trailers do this to give their audience and viewers glimpse of of the film such as ...

We used audience feedback to allow listeners to recognise that the film is good enough to watch in cinemas, due to all the positive feedback. Most films do this to assure potential viewers that their films are good to watch.

Again we used the generic ideas and conventions that most radio trailer use. We did not add anything extra to challenge them.