Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? - Louis Caldwell

In order to create and present a British Independent Drama, starring a teenage cast, we researched film and Television of a similar style and audience in order to find influence for our film opening- in particular British productions. Through using, developing and challenging conventions, we were able to create a similar opening.

Our Film- Growing Pains:

Our film follows two characters- Clem, a middle class white 17 year old male, and Melissa, a 17 year old girl- in London, as they go bout their lives, growing up in a culturally diverse city. Through a chance meeting at a London bus stop, the two characters fall deeply in love. After spending time together and getting to know one another, the pain are separated by Melissa's gang member brothers, who threaten Clem. However, one evening Clem saves the life of one of the brother after he is stabbed, the family gain respect for him and the lovers are reunited.

Our film is appropriately structured as an independently produced film, as support from a large production company is highly unlikely for first time independent film producers.

Within our opening, we included video footage, sound, music and titles- they components of any film opening, following a chronological sequence, it will use cross-cutting to present the lives of the 2 protagonists

As a typical Film narrative Structure, we followed  Todorov's Narrative Theory:

Another structural theory we used was Roland Barthes' Theory of codes:

Action Codes - The mixture of action shots of Clem riding his skateboard- switching between GoPro and Master camera view- causing the audience to be gripped and drawn into the narrative

Enigma Codes-Where is Clem skating to? Why is there nothing for Melissa to do? Why do Melissa and Clem make awkward eye contact?

Semantic Codes- The awkward looks exchanged by and Melissa when seated next to one another suggest that they have feelings for each other

Symbolic Codes- Clem is a white middle class teen with the stereotypical background- he dresses with style and lives in a wealthy area. In contrast with this is Melissa, who represents the working class ad lives on an estate- they each represent the two classes and their relationship alludes to the future conflict

Referential codes- Shani's Hoop earrings reference the working class and unemployed females in particular, furthermore, her prop, a carton of KA has links to the Afro/Caribbean community

Genre: British Drama

The films above are all famous examples of British Drama films, however, as shown, it is rare that they are independently produced.

We decided that our genre should be more specific- focusing on the more niche Urban Drama genre

Examples of this are:

Attack the Block- We developed the convention of having transiprt and chase scenes in order create action- replacing the cycling gang members with a middle class white boy  to highlight how out of place he is, whereas within attack the block, the characters use their bmx bikes as a way of escaping the aliens, creating many fast paced chase scenes.


Kidulthood- From this we took inspiration for the behaviour of the Black british- We used  this convention to build Mellisa's character and her family's attitudes- in particular the roles of her brothers are based on the gang members. Also, we used this film to base the dialogue and slang of our film on.



Fishtank- This is where we took inspiration for the working class female character of Melissa, in particular the problems she faces in life as she grows up. By developing the convention of a struggling female protagonist and highlighting the problems of racial ignorance and its effect on her.


One convention of the genre is that it carries particular themes, these are present throughout most urban productions:

-Love
-Disaster
-Conflict
-Friendships
-Relationships
-Growing up

We effectively managed to base our film around these themes, using this convention to create an obviously urban atmosphere for the opening, yet also contrasted it by sowing the journey of Clem through his Middle Class neighbourhood.

Style

One of the key conventions of a British Indie Drama is the setting- an obvious or relatable location- most likely a council estate within the city (often London). For our film, we decided that an urban setting was most appropriate, and specifically chose our location based upon the fictional estate 'Summerhouse' in the British TV Drama Top Boy.



We took the stereotypical estate- Gloomy stairwells and dirty hallways, however we replaced the stereotypical male gang members with the two females. By presenting the presence of females within this environment, we developed the convention of an stereotypical estate.

Titles

-Somers Town:

When designing our titles, we used the British indie drama Somers Town as an influence. The titles within Somers town are minimalistic- a pain white font in small text usually in the bottom left or right corners in the shot so as to keep the focus on the urban city theme.

We conformed to this convention by creating similar small titles to highlight the setting and character types to the audience, yet retain the gritty theme central to its narrative.

Romance

We also challenged the conventions of a stereotypical romance film. By including the theme of forbidden love, our film bases its romantic nature on a Romeo and Juliet-styled relationship, with the lovers torn apart by those around them. However, by including a Black female within the narrative, we have challenged the expectation of two white lovers, with the urban twist providing more of an appeal to our target audience.

The meeting of  Clem and Melissa

The meeting  of Romeo and Juliet in Romeo and Juliet(1996)

Style

We designed our film specifically so that it recreated a realistic representation of modern London- highlighting both the positives and negatives of inner city British life. We purposefully chose to grade our film so that it appeared dark and miserable- similar to the mood in Misfits- a comedy TV drama about a group of friends doing their community service in the city. We also a similar pace to misfits- cutting between fast action shots eg. the skateboard, and slower shots of dialogue being exchanged-to give a professional, believable look. By using these conventions, we successfully gave our fiml the desired look, using the professional style of editing to make our own film look as realistic as misfits.

Dark grading and mood in Misfits

Dark grading and mood in our film

We also used continuous, tight framing, and close ups of Melissa's conversation in order to create a real-time sequence- our carefully edited production displays high level editing similar to that in Fish Tank, a British Urban Drama focusing on a female lead in particular. The film, like ours, uses close ups and match constant shot reverse shot and match on action to effectively present the urban environment from Mia, the female lead's perspective:

Close ups and shot-reverse-shots in our film

Close ups and shot-reverse-shots in Fishtank

Through using this conventional style of editing, we were able to present our working class characters realistically, just as they are in Fishtank- reflecting their attitudes and behaviour with one another through the use of shot reverse shots and close-ups.

Overall, during the production of our film opening, we used many conventions from other media products, specifically films and TV shows, in order to ensure that our own product was believable, understandable and engaging. Furthermore, we also occasionally developed these conventions in order to employ our own message- specifically regarding racial attitudes within society, and challenging other conventions to give a modern, more realistic portrayal of inner-city life.