FORM CONVENTIONSJone Aboitiz

Short Film

Around 10 minutes

We were able to follow this convention as our documentary is only around 7 minutes long which means that it is still a short film.

Low Budget- lack of sufficient backing for funding, stick to 1 or 2 locations and actors

This is a convention that we broke due to the fact that our documentary has shots of New York and Los Angeles which are places that would be expensive to travel to which a low budget may not be able to support. However, if I did not go to these places than we would have been able to follow this convention.

Niche Audience- creativity, length and plot and not many people are aware of

short film At first we stated that this is

a convention which we would follow. However, I believe that we actually broke this convention due to the fact that having different locations of America and showing it at an American film festival with our distributor also being an American company would make our documentary have more of an American appeal. This would widen the audience instead of only appealing to a niche market.

Stick to 2 or 3 main characters This is a convention

that we followed due to the fact that our documentary only features 3 main interviewees. This would give the audience a form of personal identity even in a short period of time.

Small Casts Even if we only

have 3 main characters, our documentary did not have such a small cast. We broke this convention due to all the people who sent videos on what makes them happy being a part of our documentary.

Todorov’s theory of equilibrium – equilibrium, disequilibrium, new equilibrium

This is a convention that we were able to follow due to the fact that the beginning where people state what makes them happy and the definition of happiness is seen is the equilibrium stage. The disequilibrium occurs during the first and second interview as they are talking about how happiness is not as it seems and that sustainable happiness is extremely hard to achieve and not always a good thing. The new equilibrium starts from the interview with Frederika up until the new definition of happiness.

Radio Advert

15 seconds -1 minute long This is a convention

that we followed due to the fact that our radio advert is only around 40 seconds long.

Documentaries: the same narrator is used for the voice over

This is another convention that we were able to follow due to the fact that the voice over in our documentary is the same as in our radio advert. We did this to ensure that there is a clear link between the documentary and the radio advert.

Documentaries: include audio clips from the program

This is a convention that we followed due to the fact that all the different voice overs heard were from clips in our documentary. I believe that we chose the right audio clips as they were short yet informative that would catch the attention of our audience fairly quickly.

Details- regarding the product

This is a convention that we were able to follow as our radio advert states the title of our documentary, when and where it can be viewed. Therefore, proving the audience with information on our documentary in a short period of time.

Music: Catchy

This is a convention that we were able to follow as the music bed heard in our radio advert is upbeat and happy to link it to the subject of happiness and draw/keep the attention of the audience for them to listen to what is being said and most likely remember it.

Poster of a Documentary

Main subject of documentary is the main focus of the poster

Since the background of our poster is a collage of pictures, I would say that this is a convention that we ended up breaking. This is because we don’t have just one focal image, there are a variation, especially since we made there be 4 pictures that came out of the collage beside the title, with also the title being a big focus point of the poster. We did this because we want the audience to understand right away that the documentary focuses on us as a whole not just an individual person.

Topic Indicator: background/ focal picture hits to the topic of the doc

We were able to follow this convention due to the fact that our title is a big focal point in our poster. The fact that it is in the centre and quite big reading ‘Chasing Happiness’ immediately suggest that the documentary is about happiness. Also the fact that there is a collage of pictures in the background with four of them coming out suggests that everyone has their own perception on happiness and what it means to them

Tagline We were able to follow

this convention by including the question when are we truly happy right bellow the title. We did this to give the audience intellectual pleasure as we are giving them something to think about and draw them to wanting to get guidance to figuring it out through our documentary.

Credit Block This is a convention

that we were able to follow due to the fact that it is evident at the bottom of our poster. We needed to include this to give credit to all the people responsible for creating and being a part of our documentary.

Directors name is noticeable size and font

This is a convention that we broke due to the fact that we didn’t want the director to be the reason for the audience to watch the documentary. It also did not suit us because we were the directors of our documentary, therefore we would not catch the attention of the audience as they would not even know who we are. In other words, we chose to break this convention because we felt that it wasn’t necessary.

Awards: logos of the awards won mostly from film festivals

In a way, we were able to follow this convention due to the fact that we included the three film festivals that our documentary will be a part of at the top of our poster. We did this to show the audience that the documentary has been selected for the BFI, Sheffield and Sundance film festivals, so that they would know where they could see it.

Quotes: either from doc or reviews

This is a convention that we originally said we would follow but that we actually broke. This is because we felt that it would be better to include the film festivals rather than quotes from the documentary. We did not want to have both because it would lead to there being too much going on in the poster and there wasn’t any space for these quotes. Also by using a rhetorical question as a tagline, we felt that it was all we needed and would be more effective in gaining the interest of the audience.