Critical Evaluation Question 1

In what ways does the media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Our media product uses forms of real life media products in various ways. The first thing that is similar to real media products that most people will pick up on is the different camera shots. These are done from different angles and really capture how one of the characters is feeling, may this be through facial expressions, posture or body language. The way the character on the right is walking up and down the room would signify a slight sign of anxiety. Another sign of anxiety can be sensed through an action that one character performs during the outdoor conversation. This occurs when the character puts his hand over his eye (below) after the other character in shot mentions about him driving home from a party - again this challenges conventions of those in real media products.

Our film develops conventions from our last media product, in the way it is edited. Last year we used a lot of fading in and fading out to cut between shots and scenes. This year we have developed this to make it look like it goes straight into the next shot or scene, This gives it more continuity in the sense that it gives the film a better flow.



The way the actual film runs from start to finish is quite similar to real life media products that are recently gaining popularity in the fact that the order of the film is different to the events that occurred in the film. Other factors that contribute to a lot of recent films which is challenged in our film is the use of split screen images. We use these to mix up our production and give it a bit more variety. In ways it also compares the two characters in shot's lifestyles. The shot shown below is one of a couple of split screen shots in our film.




We wanted to try and relate our film to the audience that view it so we didthis in as many ways as we could, but yet still trying to make the film effective. One section of the film - where Nick and Ciaran are conversing - is a section in which we thought the younger audience of whom our film is aimed at could relate to, as it refers to a party and going out and just having a good time. I feel that our film challenges conventions of real media products with the different range of shots that we use in our film. We have used a lot of close up shots to really capture important features like facial expressions and certain movements. Some are shown here:













The two shots that we captured here contrast in every way. They contrast in gender as one is male and the other is female. They contrast in moods as Ciaran's facial expression comes across as happy, whilst Claire's comes across as quite sad. They also contrast in the fact that one of these was shot before the incident, and the other was shot after the incident.