When looking back on our final task that it is clear that in general we didn't really challenge the conventions of real media products, although there are some parts in our film which may go against what you would expect in a crime drama film. It was best to do this as if you make a film that doesn't conform to any norms of that genre then really it isn't that genre at all. But personally i think its good to challenge the norms of media products sometimes as it can make it better if it is done right. With our piece with the parts that are not seen as conventional it was easier to be inventive and come up with an idea that nobody had thought of before and if noone has done it before it can be seen to challenge the norms. A key example from our film would be the main character as his choice of costume is a cow costume which would not be expected and also the character isn't seen as a rough, drug dealing violent type and is seen to live in a nice, daily sized clean house. When thinking of the plot for our film we did take other films into consideration such as Harry Brown or Ill Manors but we didn't base our films around those films, only certain elements what would usually be in a crime drama, such as crime obviously. Also adding in drug dealing which is what many crime drama films use so in that sense we followed conventions with most of our film opening.
This grid shows screenshots of certain things that follow or go against the norms of a crime drama.
1) The title of the film
The title of our film both conforms and goes against the norms of a crime drama. Firstly it goes against a crime drama as when looking at other films the names imply that they are crime dramas suck as Kill the Messenger and A Walk Among the Tombstones as they imply death where as our film is called 'The Unexpected.' when you look at this title you wouldn't think it was a crime drama, you would probably think it was a horror or a thriller. It also conforms to media products as in crime dramas there is some element of mystery and with our film title the unexpected there is some mystery in the title and obviously there will be some things that are unexpected.
2) Setting/ Location
The location that we used really needed to conform to the codes and conventions of a crime drama because, for example if there was drug dealing in a quiet village it wouldnt look right so we used a typical place which was an abandoned place which had graffiti on it. For a minority of the time it was in a house which went against the norms as the house is well kept and fairly sized where you would associate a drug dealers house to be less well maintained and potentially smaller.
3) Costumes and Props
Again our costumes and props go both with and against forms and conventions of real media products. The main thing that goes against the norm is the costume that the main character wears a cow costume and that is not expected in a crime drama film, this is good because its not just the same old stuff. I mean that like usually theres gang members all dressed like they are gangsters and the deal drugs and kill people and that's pretty much it. But it is different in our film. But the other characters are dressed like they are the sort of people that would participate in drug dealing which will go along with conventions of real crime dramas otherwise it would look pretty weird and unrealistic if theres people drug dealing and killing in fancy dress costumes. So it was good to have people that look like stereotypical drug dealers.
4) Story and How the opening sets it up
Our story uses forms of real media as the story is inspired by some crime drama films as there are two gangs that fight each other because one gang was selling drugs in the other gangs area. Gang war is pretty common in crime drama films and the opening sets it up similar to other films in that genre because you don't know what the films really about yet but you know that it has important elements in it that makes a crime drama interesting, such as drugs (inspired by 'Ill Manors') and killing so at the moment it is a mystery and you would want to carry on watching it so you know whats going on
5) How characters are introduced
The main character is introduced in a way that is not seen to be completely normal as it starts off with him getting dressed into a cow costume but he is drinking vodka with some money on the side and listening to rap music so it doesn't give it away that he is someone who later kills somebody. The other two characters are introduced by going straight to selling drugs which uses conventions of media products as that is to be expected in a crime drama. The final character is 'Sammy the Rat' who is not seen but heard in a phone conversation, he is introduced like a stereotypical 'Rat' that lets the rival gang know what is going on .
6) Title Font and Style
The style of the title went along with crime drama films as if it had the same style as the opening of Step Brothers it wouldn't look good as it would take away that is a serious film. Our title style makes it look serious as its all in upper case letters and the letters are straight instead of wavy. The font is a standard font so it makes it look simplistic which was ideal as it was easy to read and you can concentrate on the film. This conforms to conventions as when i looked at crime drama film openings the titles were simplistic and straight so you can also concentrate on the film.
7) Special Effects
The special effects that we used didn't really challenge or use the conventions of real media products because firstly the blood that we used at the end of our film was just tomato sauce which isn't a great substitute for what they use in crime drama films but in the end using tomato sauce didn't work out too bad but to avoid using it for other times we could have just searched on the internet some recepies for fake blood and use that but because of certain setbacks we just wanted to get it done. The cocaine (which was just flour) worked quite well because when watching it you didnt see much of it so it could be believed that it is cocaine. The effect that worked the best was the vodka which was just water. Vodka just looks like water so you could believe its vodka when the actor is really drinking water and it worked well which will probably conform to conventions as people in films will drink water instead.
8) Camerawork and Editing
The camera work worked with normal media products as we used camera shake to our advantage because the tripod actually broke when we went to swindon to try to film there. Most media products do not use tripods anymore and this was good in our product as it represented at first the fact that the main character is drinking so it looks like hes a little under the influnce of alcohol and secondly it was used to represent nerves as the situations that our actors were placed in were nerve-racking situations. Also using match on action was used well as it is used in many media products and in pretty much all media products the 180 degree rule is used and we also used that so it uses conventions. We learned all of this through our preliminary task.
9) Genre and how the opening suggests it
The opening suggests it is a crime drama by following standard conventions. These standard conventions are what the film is usually about, in our opening we included the main aspects of a crime drama which is drugs, which was used in the opening of 'Ill Manors' and violence/ killing which is used in the beginning of 'Harry Brown' as they use both of the main things in our film in real media products then it suggests that it is part of the crime drama genre.
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