Evaluation Question 1

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

Our film compared to other media products was limited in terms of the resources that other companies have access to. For example, we was unable to have access to expensive camera equipment that could have improved the quality of our film. We was unable to employ professional actors for the film so we had to use those who suited the role of each character that our group was associated with. In order to prevent these two factors from affecting parts of our film, with the usage of editing, we was able to improve the look of our film to make it look more like a film opening which improves the quality of our films. We also feel that we chose the best actors available to us for the film, so that minimised issues in terms of acting out each of the characters.

Our film differentiates itself compared to other films as in the film, the protagonist is shown to be the girl as she is seen throughout the opening and that she is the main reason as to why the detective is following her tracks. This is different other films that involves a crime, as the main character is usually a male (such as The Departed which features two male protagonists and Lethal Weapon which features both the main characters being both male). However, the detective is stereotypical as the male is usually shown to be of this role in films like these and is often seen as the person who is trying to solve the situation. 

The content of our film makes use of the location of where we filmed which is stereotypical because most films emphasise on their location throughout. This is effective because our film is mostly about the girl committing suicide in the river, which throughout our opening, nature is present to illustrate this setting. However the location itself is non stereotypical because most drama films take place in a more urban environment. This emphasises the fact that our film in an independent film because a typical mainstream film involves more characters. It is also non-stereotypical because the film is based around murder where the location is actually a peaceful and quiet environment. This shows the disturbance of the equilibrium because of this situation.

Kieran Belshaw