EVALUATION 1In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Do I challenge the typical codes and conventions of a drama?

As a whole I think my opening adheres to the typical codes and conventions of a typical drama as well as a morning routine. However, I do think that in some ways I do challenge what someone may class as a typical drama e.g. the storyline.

Through a range of screengrabs I am going to explain how I think we stuck and challenged the codes and conventions.

Storyline: I think that my storyline is my USP, it is about a topic that hasn’t really been studied in this way before. By making the rest of the world gay and my main character straight I feel that I have flipped the social norm and have challenged the way that some people think.

Camerawork and editing: I think that camerawork wise I have used all of the typical shots you would expect to see in a drama opening, I have tried to further my skills by including a mirror shot and a POV waking up shot to make the film a tad more interesting to view.

Setting and location… For a morning routine it is

appropriate to have it in somewhere that someone lives. In my opening I have gone for a home and when you look at other film openings such as Dexter, American Psycho and Step Brothers they are all also in the character’s homes.

I did not want to challenge this convention as I thought it may be confusing for my viewers to see my character wake up somewhere that wasn’t home and the routine wouldn’t really work in any other setting.

Costume and Props…Again for my costumes I couldn’t really

challenge the codes and conventions here without breaking the continuity, I wanted my viewers to know that my main character was in school and by putting him in a uniform I think I would have achieved that goal. Props wise I thought I should stick to the century I have set it in, the fact that my main character is young but has his own mobile phone wont come as a shock to my viewers but also is a typical code to dramas. The main character will always have their own communication device, in some cases its so they can save the world but in my case its so he is able to receive the hate from other pupils.

AMERICAN PSYCHOEven though American Psycho is a thriller, for the my opening and theirs you will find some very similar codes and conventions. The reason I have chosen to look at this film is because it opens with the main characters Morning Routine, which is the same as mine. When researching how to do mine I looked into American psycho a lot and found that it was a good base to use when creating mine. The main reason for this was the mirror scene, I thought it was shot so well that I had to give it a go. So as you can see I did in the picture to the right.

Before the routine starts there is an establishing shot of the characters house, I decided to go against this even though it is done very well and does give you an insight to what the character is like I wanted to try a different style of shot. I chose to open mine as if it was my character opening his eyes from a POV. By going against this typical convention I hope to give a more personal feel for my viewers.

When going through a morning routine it is hard to miss out the bathroom, although American Psycho you do not see him brush his teeth I thought it would be a suitable replacement for my film. As my character is a teenage boy it is a stereotype that they don’t wash much so by adding a facial wash scene I think it would have broken the continuity. I decided to use a over the shoulder shot as I thought in this situation it would be most effective for the viewers, giving them an almost POV shot of what the character is seeing.

A very versatile but classic shot for morning routines, walking to whatever is next in the routine. You would normally include this to give the viewers a wider understanding of the character and where they live.

Again like the face scrub this shot is tailored to my character, he would not use a facial scrub but he has enough personal hygiene to brush his teeth. I like this shot as its almost a POV shot from the character as you can see his body is slightly out of shot.

Dexter For a few of my shots I was semi-

inspired by the Dexter opening. The extreme close-ups of him getting dressed.

I have used close ups of my main character as he is putting the finishing touches to getting dressed, I wanted to use these shots as a range of shots make it more interesting for the viewer. I also wanted to show in detail his size, that he is small and young and I think by using a close up I have done so.

Titles and FontFor my title I used the transition called Prism and I think it is most effective. It gives my title a sophisticated by dramatic look, fitting in with the codes and conventions of the genre. For my titles through out, for example of the credits I have used a similar font to my title and kept them in white too, I have only included protagonist names throughout my film opening and by keeping them in white I am hoping the colour connotations will shine through.