IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOU R M EDIA

P RODU CT U SE , DEVEL OP OR

CHALLENGE FORMS AND

CONVENTIONS OF REAL M EDIA

P RODU CTS?

By Hannah Atkinson

Evaluation: Question 1

W H AT C O D E S A N D C O N V E N T I O N S D I D

YO U F O L L OW W H E N M A K I N G YO U R

S H O R T F I L M ?

Narrative: we have used flashbacks to tell the audience about Sue’s past and I would say they are

out most powerful scenes. They tell the audience that she didn’t cope well whilst in the mental

home. They also show the audience when Sue was happy and having girly days out with Mazy.

Genres: Our film is a Psychological Thriller

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_thriller). It follows the conventions of a

psychological thriller by using a stream of consciousness (the diary entries); first-person narrative

(voice-overs); and a back-story (flashbacks).

Choice and style of music: we used dramatic and sad music at the beginning, during the

flashbacks and at the end. For the rest of the film we just used the radio to make it seem more

homely and life like, easier for the audience to relate to.

Voice-over: The voice-over during the flashbacks is Sue reading her diary entry as she is

writing it. Steve’s voice-over at the end shows the viewer how he feels about the situation

that they are in. They give the viewers an insight into the thoughts of the main characters.

Mise-en-scene: Décor – home scenes are very cosy and light. The mental home is plain

and has no personality. Props – knife, blood, motorbike, diary and pen, tattoo, cutlery and

food, medication, phone. Lighting – dark lighting in the mental home. Bright lighting at

home. Gloomy lighting in grave yard. Costume – plain white shirt for mental home. Nice

comfy clothes for at home. Bike leathers and helmets. Sophisticated coat for grave yard.

Sound – music throughout the film. Church bells at the end and the sound of the

motorbike pulling up. Thud of Sue hitting the floor after she has killed herself.

W H AT C O D E S A N D C O N V E N T I O N S D I D

YO U F O L L OW W H E N M A K I N G YO U R

S H O R T F I L M ?

H OW D I D YO U F O L L OW T H E S H O R T

F I L M R U L E S YO U P U T O N YO U R B L O G ?

When I researched about what made a good film I can up with: good storyline, simple narrative, good camera

work, few characters and a fast storyline.

Good story line: in our audience feed back to our pitch people didn’t understand the story line but that is because

we didn’t explain it as well as we should have since we wanted to keep what happens at the end a secret.

Simple Narrative: to start with we thought it would be very confusing but after putting the film together, it flows

well and is easy to follow.

Good Camera work: we used lots of different cuts and angles to make the scenes look different but flow at the

same time. We used match-on-action and cross cutting.

Few Characters: all together we have 4 characters in the film and by the end we only have 1.

Fast storyline: with having the flashbacks so early on in the film it helps the audience understand the story line

and they develop them too which helps with keeping the story line moving quickly.

H OW D I D YO U F O L L OW T H E C O D E S A N D

C O N V E N T I O N S O F F I L M P O S T E R S A N D

D O U B L E PAG E S P R E A D S ?

Poster: I used the same conventions by only having one main image

and by having the title as the biggest font on the page, I also placed

logos at the bottom to show who sponsored us. The main actors are

separate from all the other information too.

Double page: I made the main image come across onto both pages, I

have 3 columns of text, along with smaller pictures scattered across

the pages, and a factfile about the film.

H OW D I D YO U C O N S T R U C T, D E S I G N

A N D L AYO U T T H E C O N T E N T S T O L O O K

L I K E A M AG A Z I N E A R T I C L E ?

We had to use InDesign to create the poster and the double page

spread, however, I edited some photos in Photoshop. I created flat

plans with everything that had to be on both the poster and the

double page so that I knew what I needed. I have placed pull quotes,

title, article in columns, photos, headline quotes, page numbers on my

double page. I have placed a strap line, title, actors names, studio logo,

production logo on my poster.