Question 1

Media Question 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? My opening sequence differently follows the codes and conventions of the genre of ‘Romcom’, but we have developed some of the conventions to make it unique. For example, the main character Anne isn’t the kind of girl you would get in a romcom the girl tends to be a bit more attractive, an Anne isn’t someone with a kind face, Anne also doesn’t act like a lady which is entertaining because we want to know how she progresses throughout the movie. All the other characters follow the codes and conventions o the romcom genre. The use of sound in terms of diagetic sounds are quite minimal, as there isn’t much dialogue other than her sarcastic comment to herself in the mirror, but the character on screen does make sounds to express her emotions which show that she is a girl who doesn’t talk much, which can follow the conventions of a shy female lead, but her shyness is contradicted by her disgusting and careless personality. The use of sound in terms of non- diagetic sound tracks diffentatly follows the genre nicely, because its childish and quirky, and promises a light hearted comedy to the audience which is good, because they know from the beginning what they are in for. The Mise en scene follows in many ways of the codes of the genre, but they have been altered to fit the story line of my movie, for example, at the beginning of the opening sequence we see that Anne is in pyjamas, which is fine, but after she gets ready we see her sense of style that changes the conventions slightly, because we think that a female lead would be attractive in also the way they dress, of have a inkling of what looks good, but Anne doesn’t, at all, and the fact that she puts the new clothes on top of her bed clothes show she is a very different female lead then what we would of thought. This again is good for the audience’s entertainment, because they want to find out more weird habits of the character. The story line is very similar to the narrative line on Josie Geller in Never Been Kissed, because in that movie Josie the main female character is also and outcast, and can have weird habits, also is lonely, similar to Anne. What is really similar is the way that the 2 characters are dressed, they both have minimal makeup to show that they aren’t fussed about looking good since no one is even looking at them, they also have no sense of style which instantly shows that they aren’t popular, showing that they have also developed on the codes and conventions of the genre, and have had a success in doing so, because the audience liked the change in female lead. Also Laney from She’s all That is similar in the way that Anne and Josie’s character profile is quiet comparable. The editing follows the conventions as it is simple so and doesn’t confuse the audience. We still have put our own spin of changing the way we did our editing so that it does create humour, and stays similar, and this is shown when Anne goes to the bathroom in the opening sequence, and as she gets ready and brush’s her teeth we cut the shots to make it quicker, but make it look flashy. The camera has also been developed in a way to show that the main character is weak, for example when Anne falls to the floor and can’t get up, we use a high angle shot to show her lifeless and powerless, which creates wittiness as she is young, but acts like an old lady who doesn’t have energy or strength. I also use a lot of mirror shots to contradict the character of Anne, because we see Anne looking in the mirror 3 times, showing she does kind of care about her appearance, but this is strange because she doesn’t make an effort when she gets ready, which makes us think that does she like looking like a mess, which creates a strange judgement on her. The one theme we can clearly see from the opening sequence is the theme of ‘teenagers’, which follow the conventions of Romcom’s as the audience we are targeting too are 13-18 year old girls, which his good so that our audience can relate to the character on screen. We also developed the character of the teenager, to make her seem like a non stereotypical teen, as she isn’t into fashion and beauty, because her perception of beauty is different, which intrigues the audience into finding out who she chooses to fall for.