EVALUATION | 1

1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
What are codes and Conventions?

Codes and conventions in media can be separated into 3 distinct groups -
- Technical (camera techniques & shots),
- Symbolic (ie clothing, colours)
- Written and audio (music etc).
These give the text meaning and determine the response of the viewer. They can be used as a basis for any simple text analysis.

What are generic conventions of Short Films and how I develop or challenge?

Characters - DEVLOP
Characters is an Obvious Convention as ‘Short films’ tend to stick to 2 or 3 main characters as short films don’t have time to create deep back story or history for the characters, therefore character numbers are kept low.
I used two main characters, Ella and Avi, along with one extra of the psychologist who was not actually seen. I opted to use the generic amount of characters as I wanted the audience to relate to a small amount of characters rather than be confused by a larger amount of characters.
Twist - CHALLENGE
Short Films are always certain to contain a ‘Twist’. As the film is so short, twists are used in order to keep viewers interested.
Although my film does have twist in some ways, it is known from the beginning of the film and is not revealed in the middle of the short film.

Budget - DEVELOP
Short Films typically have a low budget. This is based on the fact that most Short Film Directors are independent without the sufficient backing in terms of funding. They keep their budget down by sticking to one or two locations and only using one or two actors. Having such a short film allows costs to be little to nothing in some departments as some actors will work for free if they really like the storyline.
Obviously, I developed this convention as I didn't have a high budget available to me along with resources.

Situation- DEVELOP
Short Films usually take an everyday situation that we can all relate to and then flip it on its head in some way. This allows the viewer to relate to the Short Film, but at the same time intriguing the viewer.

My short film begins in a school which is an everyday situation for the majority of teeneagers. This makes my film relatable to the audience.