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

In what ways does your media production use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
My aim was to produce a short sequence in the social realism genre. I feel that there was clear evidence of the typical film form and generic conventions of a real film of this genre. Firstly and most obviously were the content and character roles to convey these conventions. I chose to base the story line around the youth of the working classes, and in particular the abuse of recreational drugs in these areas. This is typical to the genre as most productions include content of this sort. We can see this in such films as Loache’s ‘My Name is Joe’. In the sequence we see the two main protagonists hit with the image of a girl they recognize over dosed, making them aware of the horrors of their neighborhood. Along with this content and disruption I tried to give the mise-en-scene a dull and recognizable feel which is evident in real productions. When considering the location of the sequence I chose a very contrasting setting to create an opposition for the following events. However I ensured this would be a realistic area to use so the field I filmed in was extremely near by a council estate to create a visual contrast without loosing the social realist approach. When filming the encounter with the girl I selected an old railway tunnel which proved to give the atmosphere and lighting that I had hoped would compliment the scene. The lighting and weather conditions on the day of filming also contributed to the look of the film. This was because the over cast conditions gave the shots a dull and dreary look which fits to the conventions of the social realist genre perfectly. For the sequence I made the decision not to use a non-diegetic soundtrack. I felt this would fit the genre better and it also allowed me to neaten out the continuity of the shots. By this I mean, the sound of the wind was picked up during certain shots and not in others, giving the compiled sequence burst of natural sound which made edits too clear. However this decision ultimately helped with the message and connotations of the film as there was no sound at all at the beginning. This was soon contrasted with the introduction of diegetic sound brought in with the title of the film. This sudden change in diegetics made an impact which proved effective; this brought the two boys out of their dream like equilibrium into the disruption of the narrative. Although the genre I set out to make the production in was social realism I feel there were aspects of other genres included. The most prominent apart from social realism would be a drama genre; I think this was evident through the early disruption and introduction of the girl. Although I wanted to settle my production firmly into the social realist genre the time scale did not allow sufficient time to film within the conventions which is typical to the genre. By this I mean using an uneventful opening to a film to set the scene and social roles within the film with the intention of grabbing the audiences’ attention.