Evaluation Q1

In what ways does you media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

My media products fall under both, British Social realism and crime genre that focuses on the issue of teenagers and criminal activity in London. My products are conventional but these forms and conventions have been developed to create something that is More unique. Most genres have elements that the audience expects as they have been used many times in previous films from their genre/sub genre, these elements are known as codes and conventions. Codes and Conventions can be displayed to the audience, for example through setting, acting or narrative. Media texts especially films are often conventional to allow recognition and familiarity. This often leads to stereotypes such as those challenged and reinforced in my products.

When deciding on my Genre I decided to choose British Crime, I wanted to work with this genre as it is an interest of mine, I undertook secondary research to become familiar with it and looked at past texts. Successful texts in this genre are 'Brotherhood' and 'Top Boy.' I am creating a film which is similar to 'Brotherhood'. 'Top Boy' however is a series but as it contains lots of codes and conventions it was worth viewing this series to inspire me. I textually analysed both to discover key conventions which I could use and develop. I particularly focused on their use of representation, like ethnicity, gender and age. I also looked at how the setting is portrayed. Social realist productions are always set in real life settings and focus on real life issues where representations are kept as close to reality as possible.

Film poster for Brotherhood

Advertisement for the series Top Boy

 My film(TRAP) is set in the east end of London, a common location for Social realism productions that i have researched such as Top Boy, Legend and green street. The setting is a key theme of my product and has been represented as close to reality as possible, representing the true parts that are not often portrayed in the media where it is seen has a high end wealthy city with white British people as the dominant ethnicity. In TRAP, London is seen for how it really is, it focuses on the considerably bad parts that are heavily associated with crime. This representation was achieved by actually going to council estates around east London and using them as my setting, similar to the setting of the series Top Boy. This representation of the city allows a large audience to familiarise with this type of setting and feel more in the atmosphere of the production and this realistic representation of the setting is very conventional of my genre.

These two shots of London taken from the trailer show the sharp contrast between the two parts of London that are represented, the nice conventional part with the nice buildings and the red buses contrasted with the rundown estates that are considered dangerous. 

Social realism productions are based on real life issues, TRAP is focused on a big issue that is seen in London which is gang violence. As the amount of stabbings and gang related deaths have increased in the city, i feel that my production is very relevant to the current times. Representations of age and ethnicity are  displayed in my production which would be argued as stereotyped or generic. Teenagers in the media are usually stereotyped as troublesome associated with drugs and anti-social behaviour, especially black teenagers. As a Seventeen year old black male i feel that my main character (Micheal) has been represented in a stereotypical way but also in a way that certainly exists in reality, therefore I have followed the conventions of social realism. The character Michael was carefully constructed by the way he dressed and through the way he acted. It was important that I chose someone who was experienced in drama and had been on stage many times because this can be a difficult role to play.

I made sure that the trailer set the mood of the film so I used a number of signs and semiotics to convey this. This was done through using props such as replica guns, a selection of cars, and prop money and narcotics. These props were used for the trailer in order to clearly show the key themes in the film, I feel that its also vital to use these kind of props in order to make it as realistic and as close to industry standard as possible. This has also been displayed in the trailers for similar media products such as Top Boy. This is an example of where I have used forms and conventions of real media products.

This shot shows the setting I created which the audience would recognise as a 'Trap House', this is a slang term for the place that drug dealers go about there business. The shot has been carefully constructed with props to show there daily lifestyle which is drug dealing

 

This close up of a hand gun screams out crime and violence to the audience, it is a key convention in this genre. It is arguably my most important prop because of its effectiveness. it is a dangerous and serious item and appears in each one of my products.

As well as using key conventions from past texts I came up with my own ideas to. I feel that one of my best ideas was to use a CCTV overlay which I had in mind from the very start. This is a semiotic that clearly represents crime and the city. London is the most watched city in the world through CCTV, and its hard to find areas of the city that are not CCTV monitored therefore using this  in my trailer is a good and realistic representation of London as well as the crime genre. It shows that the main Character is being watched and hints that he will most likely end up in trouble. It also looks very effective in the trailer and like a genuine CCTV footage. I achieved this by placing the camera in a high up corner when we filmed in the council estate.

The comparison with rich and poor, and a 'fight to the top' are key themes brought up in the film so I showed contrasting shots of the wealthy lifestyle involved with the men at the top of the game compared with the shots of the poorer lifestyle with council estates as the setting, this is the lifestyle that Michael is associated with. To show this contrast between lifestyles I used shots of nice cars. I managed to film my friends dads car which was perfect for my trailer and would be extremely appealing to my target audience.

As well as making the genre conventional, the lay out of the trailer needed to be conventional as well so I made sure that the detail and lay out was as close to industry standard as possible. Through my research and planning I discovered what trailers always include. These are things such as company logos, age certificates and inter titles so I made sure that I included all of these. The age certificate appears at the start of the trailer and inter titles appear throughout the main body.

All trailers usually include some type of audio track. At first I thought I was going to use a rap/grime audio but I felt that this would be to generic. So I decided to challenge conventions of similar media products and use a classical piano soundtrack which starts of with a light pulsing piano sound that builds up with time, it then drops into a sort of hip hop beat. The beat drops after the voice over that is supposed to make the audience sympathise with the main character. The beat drops in the timing of the main character mugging someone. The change in beat is meant to go with the change in the visuals, it goes from a peaceful atmosphere to a strong and dangerous one full of crime. This was designed to make a strong punchy impact, it shows the main characters switch in lifestyle and indicates that is what the plot is about to the audience. The loud pulsing Hip Hop beat starts to calm down and return to the original calming state in time for the second voice over where the main character seems to sound different, his voice has a more aggressive tone to it, his speech is less clear. This suggests that he has undergone some life changing scenarios and has been through a lot that has ultimately effected his personality. The trailer  ends with a Trap song which is a UK rap sub-genre. It goes with the dark visuals of the main character pointing a gun towards the ground and shooting, he has just murdered someone. This trap music that comes in at the end suggests that Michael is now fully in that lifestyle, he is 'trapped'. 

This is the ending shot that goes with the trap music. It goes perfectly with the visuals because its dark and the lyrics are about money and violence which reflects Michaels new lifestyle and the person he has become

I feel the audio has really worked well with the visuals and the voice over, It adds a deepness to the trailer which I like. The audio is something that I feel I have been creative with and have developed from those of existing products. I have tried to stick to being conventional throughout the construction of my product and I have been heavily inspired by past texts I have researched but I have also tried to be creative and develop from them to be more challenging and original.