Media Evaluation: Question 1

Q1
In what ways does your media product USE, DEVELOP or CHALLENGE forms and conventions of real media products?

Our film uses the conventions of crime dramas (gangster) films through our characters, narrative, sound, Mise en scene and opening sequence.

The opening sequence of ‘Granted’ follows the same form of most openings by
.Including title
.Including soundtrack
.Including characters
and showing themes

First of all in our opening sequence we used an establishing pan shot to show our location which follows the crime drama scene in which it isn’t nice but dirty and ghetto.


Another way in which we followed our conventions is that we showed medium shots of characters portrayed as gangsters in which crime dramas (gangster to be précised) use a lot, for example ‘Boyz ‘n’ da hood’ represent their characters looking like gangsters that they are.
Although our opening sequence follows the conventions of the forms of opening sequences, it has its own style. Throughout our opening sequence there are several hints as to the themes of our film which are similar to many themes of other crime drama films.
Some include:
Murder
Poverty
Drug dealing
Gang Culture
Surprises

The characters in the opening sequence of ‘Granted’ follow the codes & conventions in crime drama films because they are represented as gangsters committing crime living in inner city London. This is very familiar in crime dramas because gangsters are involved in crime which makes it realistic and inner city’s because they tend to have high levels of crime for example 'GoodFellas' uses gangsters involved in crime in inner city New York.

Our narrative as well follows forms and conventions of real media products. We followed the crime drama conventions in the way that crime takes part. This includes murder and drug dealing in which is involved in our narrative. One of our main characters gets shot by another main character which is seen as a convention for crime dramas especially if one is a protagonist and the others an antagonist like in Kidulthood when Sam kills Trevor. A different example of crime dramas (gangster) films that are similar to our narrative are GoodFellas in the way that the area you live and grow up in can change your lifestyle. This is because in our narrative, Nicholas who is one main character is separated from his brother at a young age, then moves to an area supposingly the establishing shot we used at the beginning and becomes influenced by it and later becomes a gangster, just like in GoodFellas Henry wants to be like the gangster and soon does because of the area that he lives and sees everyday.

In our film we used digetic sounds such as gunshots & a hip hop soundtrack(Parallel sound) beat and planned to use non digetic sounds such as cars and train noises going past, which follow the conventions of our genre because our genre uses these sounds to tell the story and brings the film to life. For example if I wasn’t opening my eyes but listening to the film I will be able to know what the genre of the film is about, because of gunshots and the fast aggressive hip hop soundtrack beat. The sound that we used also develop forms & conventions of our genre because after the soundtrack(non digetic) the next sound used is gun shots (countrab boundtal) which could suggest that the beat of the soundtrack is the action and after that is the gunshots meaning murder or someone gets shot.

When it comes to the Mise en scene my group used it to the extent that we followed the correct conventions of crime dramas. In our opening sequence for setting we showed the London underground, alleyways & council estates. We used them because they are all crime drama (gangster) conventions and they represent life in the ghetto. We used a pan shot of graffiti to represent the people living in the areas and the area itself which follows the conventions of gangster films because graffiti is stereotypically associated with gangs especially teenagers in which we use in the opening of the film. The costume the characters in our film dress in are track suits, hoodies & trainers excluding Trey who is the C.I.D and dresses casual (polo shirt, trousers & shoes) which follow crime drama conventions because the characters in crime dramas normally dress as stereotypical thug looking guys such as in ‘Boyz ‘n’ da hood’ & ‘Kidulthood’, in which the gangsters of our film do.

Props used in our film our guns, cigarettes, alcohol bottles & drugs. These props are common in almost every crime drama gangster films to show what the gangsters use in everyday life. We wanted to use it so that our film will look like our genre and so our target audience wouldn't feel disappointed. Another part we did in camera was the rule of third from low angle in which the three characters were standing from left, centre & right. This was to show how powerful the characters were & and how the area belongs to them, to which is a typical code and convention of gang crime films because the directors wants the audience to know exactly who these people are.

As well as using & following crime drama conventions we also challenged it. During the opening we had statistics & facts about London gang related crime which some crime dramas do not use and so challenged it so that our film could stand out from other crime drama films and so our target audience will realise that it is something they don't see often and therefore enjoy it. We also used a zoom in shot of a council estate which challenged the conventions of our genre because many of the crime drama films don’t show the homes but rather the location.

We also challenge the conventions of typical crime drama openings because we don’t include our main characters in which almost every crime drama (gangster) film does like 'Menace to society'. The audience will see the setting of the film and will get ready to know what characters to expect and picture them in their head. We also challenged conventions of typical crime drama (gangster) films in both our main characters and characters in the opening scene. They are not vicious grown men, of a certain ethnic group, like in 'Menace 2 Society' and 'Scarface'. In Granted the characters in the beginning are 3 young teenagers,1 black male, 1 white male & an Asian female, while are main characters are both grown men but only one is vicious while the other is a nice gentleman. We chosen to do it that way because we wanted our film to be different and have a unique selling point. We also thought it would be a good idea because the characters are from both genders and different races so would possibly attract all kinds of people because of the characters diverse.

Our film challenges the conventions of crime drama narrative with regards to characteristics. The main characters are 1 protagonist & 1 antagonist rather than a group of each. This challenges the conventions of a crime drama film because many crime drama films tend to use a gang, family/friends or police force as their main characters like in ‘Four Brothers’ while ours sticks with the two separate brothers’ lives.

We also challenged the conventions of gangster crime dramas especially in the opening scene because we didn’t include dialogue which was very challenging because it’s important for our audience to know what the genre will be about so they stay engaged. Another way in which we challenged our genre is by not including dialogue in our soundtrack. This was also very challenging because dialogue is mainly used so that the audience we listen to what it’s saying and relate it to the film. Especially in gangster crime dramas because when you hear the aggressive gangster rap you will know exactly who the characters will be like, where it will be located & what genre will be based on. British film 'Adulthood' is one film like this.

We also challenged our genre by race & gender. During the 70's and 80's particularly in USA most of the crime drama films used men from Italian/Latin ancestry like 'Scarface' and 'The Godfather'. In recent crime drama (gangster) films the gangsters are usually all male with African ancestry depending on the location such as British film ‘1 Day’ based in the deprived areas in Birmingham. (1 Day poster) (1 Day cast) .
Making our film different by the race and gender of the characters would attract more people because our secondary audience and others we believe that because someone in their race is a character the film will appeal to them. This in particular happened to me when I wanted to see the movie 'Hairspray'.