ConventionsBY ROSS GLOVER

Summary

In our film we will try to utilize conventions of the comedy genre to make our trailer funny and effective. We are keeping to a bully themed storyline which is a popular theme in comedy films and looking at current popular films we can take advantage of this to create our film and trailer. We will keep to conventions of form making our trailer look effective and normal to the audience. Our content will also be very conventional for example we will be using settings like a local pub and school to try and keep to the conventional bullying theme. A similar film is drillbit taylor which has the bullying theme with a character who is trying to help the weaker characters. Although this film turns out to be slightly unconventional we are trying to keep to this style.

In the film drillbit Taylor 3 school kids are socially awkward and being bullied and try to hire a bodyguard to protect them. In our film we have one character who is considered an outcast and has his three friends help him to gain a better place in society. Ours is a conventional storyline with the three characters actually being useful to the weaker character. They will try to guide the main character to having a better lifestyle and impressions on other people. We will not try to go against any conventions and we will try to keep to comedy conventions with having a weaker character.

Filming Conventions

In our filming we will try to use visual conventions as well as mice-en-scene conventions like props and settings. We will also film conventional scenes like a bullying scene which will show our main character getting bullied by some physically better characters. For example in this small scene we can see one of the lesser characters being bullied by others and thrown into a wall. Our main aim is to keep it conventional but also add our own style to the trailer and film. We want to use conventional mice-en-scene like backpacks and school costumes.

In terms of camerawork we are going to use conventional shots that are quick and shows a different range of the scene. We will be using a lot of wide shots like in the image to the right to show the whole scene paired with fast past editing. We will try and use reverse shots and close ups in the dialogue scenes for example if you watch 0:46-0:53 of the drillbit Taylor trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hdW_b6M6bM

You can see a small dialogue scene using shot reverse shots and close ups this is the kind of scenes that will be involved in our film but in a older aimed setting like a pub scene.

As we can see in this scene a socially awkward character id being pushed around. We will try and replicate this by using a conventional school setting and costume like they are wearing. This shot also gives a good example of the kind of

shots and filming we will do in our scene. With the lesser characters being taught by the more capable characters.

Narrative

Our narrative will be conventional in terms of both form and genre. We will create a part in the film which is funny but also casts a bit of sadness over the main character and his life but then paired with comedic parts the character will come back. For example in our trailer we will try and mainly show humorous sections of the film but eventually the character will begin too dislike this and realise he needs a change.

Drillbit Taylor is a good example of the style but this takes a slightly different narrative. We want to keep to a conventional comedy narrative with a climax point near the end mixed with humour. We will try and help the narrative with the different use of dialogue and sound. For example in the fast paced editing scenes we will use a faster paced non-diegetic music to create momentum. In the sad scenes of the film we could use a sad piano backing track paired with some comedic content. For example a soundtrack like this could be used for some effect on the scene but paired with some sad content for example a scene were the character is walking home but falls over. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLAekg3iwxc)

For the montage scenes were we show a quick succession of short clips including the main characters we could perhaps use music like this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L70KRCI1Sl0

The sound will help us to create the narrative but also the use of setting and props can also be effective.