EVALUATION QUESTION 1

How did you use conventions of real media text

in your production?

Whilst in the process of making my short film, I had to ensure we included

certain codes and conventions within the film to make it look professional.

Before starting producing the film, I researched different types of

cinematography, genre and narrative to see how things are done correctly and

to also help me when planning the film with my friends. Before the start of

filming, we also research lots of theorists and watched various other short films

to get ideas. My understanding of codes and conventions came from watching a

diverse sort of real life media texts. After watching the short films ‘I’m Here’

and ‘Across the Hall’ I compared and contrasted similar conventions that shown

in my texts. It was from this process I believe that I was able to make quick

decisions about how I would use and design my findings in my media products.

NARRATIVE

We looked at a theorist called Todorov which indicates that the majority of narrative starts with a

state of equilibrium. This is then disrupted which is usually a true fact. We also took a look at

Barthes code, Propp’s character roles and Levi-Strauss which helped a lot when deciding and

making our characters as we had to produce quite a few (detectives, suspected, the boss, victims

and extras). We use a soliloquy on the character Detective Barnes which was one of our main and

critical features of the film. This is to explain to the audience what he is thinking about the situation.

I think this is one of our most powerful and interesting scenes as it shares to the viewer’s his inner

thoughts and his suspicions on who he thinks the actual killer is. I think the audio of his voice works

really well with his facial expressions, it’s a diverse way of showing feelings to the audience, which

in return gets them wondering who the killer is as it’s so unsuspected, which gets them questioning

themselves. Whilst researching about narrative, I learn that it was very important to interact with

the audience, which is why the use of a soliloquy was so useful. The majority off the narrative is

linear, which is very similar to Todorov conventional narrative theory like I mentioned earlier.

GENRE

The genre of our film ‘Stake Out’ is a Horror but kind of a murder mystery at

the same time. Choosing this was another very important convention to decide

which is why we looked at many other types of genres beforehand by watching

films like ‘Across the hall’ (thriller),’Pitch Perfect’ (comedy), ‘Twilight’

(Vampires and Mystery) and ‘Django’ (Western/comedy). This was to identify

what genre we wanted to base our film around and to ensure we are picking

the right genre for the current target audience.

MY FILM POSTER

This is my final Final Poster that I am going to use as on of my ancillary tasks. As you can see from the professional posters on the other slide, I have got inspiration from them. The layer orders, where all the things that make up the posters are placed and also the characters that are on the actual poster. These 2 characters are in actual fact the main characters which is why I had them so bold and dominant on my poster. This was an idea I gain from the research I did on actual film posters but on all genres not just horror’s. The reason the majority of m poster is in black and white is because my film is set in the 1960’2 so I wanted to keep with the film. However certain parts are in colour (the title) as there are the main parts of the poster so need to stand out.

MIS-EN-SCENEAfter looking at Narrative and Genre, the next convention I had to look into for the short film was Mis-en-Scene. This was to plan what

costumes each character would wear in the film to make it realistic and look very professional. Not only that we discussed where each

scene would be set, what equipment we would be using and acting skills that would be needed. The killings would be set outside, in a

dark and gloomy atmosphere to add to the drama, the interrogation and coroners lab would be the same plain white room but with

different lighting and props. However the Bosses office would be busy with lots of files and a large desk to make it believable that it was

a real detectives office. The clothing of the characters would be as follows: All detectives be smart, in either suites or simple black and

white clothing, however have a black over coat. The rest of the characters, suspects, extras, victims would be in whatever clothing they

are wearing. This is to make the audience believe they are just every day, normal people. Different styles of editing the film where also

researched to make the film look even better. Slow motion , sped up motion, black and white etc. Simple, scary creepy music will be

played at the most vital scenes to add to the tension and atmosphere. Slams of Detective Barnes hitting the desk whilst interviewing

would be very loud and a fundamental part of the scene and film (shows anger). Screams will also be heard in every murder to show

suffering. This convention I feel I have met through the narrative is not only presented through the camera but mis-en-scene to rather

than through dialogue. This is very common in most short films ‘I’m Here’ and ‘’. I feel we did this convention to a high standard. This is

because we set the film in the 1960’s so we took into consideration at all times at costumes of our main characters and also props. Not

only that but whilst editing, we used the black and white filter to make it feel more like that decade. We also took into consideration all

the things in each scene that wouldn't be normally in the 60’s so we didn’t et them in the shot if we couldn't’t move them.

SHOTS

Another convention that I decided to use within my short film was close up and mid

shots. This method allows the audience to interact with the characters of the film

which creates an understanding of the characters personality and forms a

relationship between the audience and the actual characters. By doing this it also

influenced me and my group to use a voice over scene in our film. This is where

Detective Barnes has a soliloquy about who he feels is the killer in the film. Believe

that it fit in well with the house style and genre of the film as it builds up tension

between the protagonist and the audience. This was then established through the

camera work, sound and also the mis-en-scene as well as the voice over. I feel as

though this technique is very effective at forcing the connection between the

audience and the text. This is very similar to the majority of most house styles the

same as ours.