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

I have decided to present the ways in which I have used conventions in real media products through sound podcasts. The videos below feature my audio commentary of how my work has used real media products accompanied by images as examples.

  

Below is a video of Lucy and I commenting on how our short film challenges the conventions of real media products. The sound hasn't picked up very well on the footage recorded so I have included a transcript of what is said below the video clip.

Transcript

Abigail: Hi I'm Abigail Stafford

Lucy: And I'm Lucy Matthews

Abigail: And we're going to talk about how our film PULSE challenges the conventions of real media products. The first way in which our film challenges conventions is the repetition of our cut shot of the train passing by. Usually in short films and features films there are various cuts used and loads of editing techniques are used to implement these cuts, however in our film only the video of a train passing by is used. The repetition of this allows the audience to build up a relationship with footage they're seeing and acknowledge that this is the cut between the two narratives. Also because the train is moving it shows the motion between the two narratives going from the future back to the present.

Lucy: Our film also challenges conventions by having no dialogue. We believe this an effective way of engaging the audience and make them become attached to the character in a more emotional way. It also builds tension and suspense, a main convention of a thriller short film shown through our research. We also wanted the expression of the body language to be portrayed stronger through no dialogue. 

Abigail: Another way in which we challenge the conventions of typical media product is in our ending, in an iconic film where there is a stalker and a victim usually you find out at the end what happens to the victim, so whether they're freed or attacked. However in our film, we've left it quite open ended as you can see by the broken camera shot at the end this is the kind of cliffhanger which allows the audience to be more engaged with the film as they wonder what happens as it unanswered and because they're engaged they are more part of the film themselves as they participate more and they'd like to find out what happens and so intrigues them to watch more.

Lucy: Also our film challenges the linear narrative by having a dual narrative this goes against Todorov's theory, something which was found effective in thriller films. It gives the element of surprise for the audience and allows them to be more engaged with the storyline and also is an effective way of building tension and suspense again.

Abigail: So they're the four main ways in which our short film has challenged the conventions of real media products.

The main way in which my media product develops the forms of convention of real media products is that although it is an iconic fairy tale plot of a vulnerable girl being kidnapped there are many developments to the usual storyline. First of all the parrallel narratives is a new approach to telling this iconic storyline and so keeps the audience engaged. Also, according to Todorov's theory there is a restoration of the status quo at the end of a fairytale yet our storyline ends quite open-ended and on a cliffhanger where the situation appears quite grim.