Our choice of genre for the film is a
coming of age drama, some of the real media products of this genre include:
submarine, perks of being a wallflower, Palo alto and Respire (French film).
There are many set conventions for this genre such as the use of
both diegetic such as accents and ambient noises that represent reality,
(Extreme)
close ups throughout, in order to display emotions of the characters as it’s a drama
which can be seen within all of the films that I previously stated. These
extreme close ups can be seen within submarine when Oliver
expresses how he feels about Jordana – these scenes usually also contains two
shots and conversational shots using the 180 degree rule. Other conventions
include the use of
establishing shots in order to introduce the character’s to convey their social
status, and social class status,
which we have used in abundance, by exploring the scenery surrounding the
protagonist such as the Brutalist Barbican, Seven Sisters Country park and a
bedroom. These establishing shots also correlate to the mental stability and
situation of the protagonist. Another convention of a coming of age film is to
present the characters within a school setting usually using low and high angles when representing the
different social groups making some seem inferior and other superior
such as in the Perks of being a wallflower, whereupon Charlie was seen to be
sitting alone in the canteen – using a low angel upon Charlie whilst panning to
show other tables at the canteen with characters socialising and having fun;
therefore excluding Charlie making him an outsider from the beginning. However,
this seemed as too generic therefore we decided to not include a scene in the
school and focus on teenagers when they are not in the school environment. We
also followed the convention of containing voice overs in order to imply what is
going on in the
protagonists head/their
thoughts
which conveys their mental stability. This can also be seen in Submarine
whereupon Oliver is established in a serene scene featuring long shots and his
voice over of how he is feeling inside. During our opening sequence we also
used a voice over, which was quite physiological and existential.
Existentialism is a philosophical
theory or approach which emphasizes the existence of the individual person as a
free and responsible agent determining their own development through acts of
the will.
Therefore the voice over will link to the overall theme of the opening sequence
and is supported by the establishing shots used. However we developed upon the
conventions by using an ethnic female within our opening sequence. Whereupon
most coming of age films are centred around a male protagonist we chose to
challenge this by using two female protagonists. Some of the dominant
ideologies surrounding ethnic women are that they are less intelligent, less
aware, and more aggressive and loud than other races – those are all negative
stereotypes, other media products involving black females usually sexualise and
objectify them, as seen in the feminist theory of the Male gaze by Laura Mulvey
in 1975 which states that all media texts are viewed from a patriarchal male’s
point of view, usually showing off women’s bodies and making them something to
look at rather than being a significant character. However in our opening
sequence this idea will be completely eliminated by not seeing the protagonists
as sexual objects, rather androgynous teenage girls from the costume choices to
their body positioning - therefore allowing the audience to focus on the
cinematography and the deeper meaning within the film. This can be seen in Palo
Alto as the female protagonist is seen in baggy and indie clothing which isn’t
sexualised – and she isn’t constantly done up with makeup and hair. Therefore,
in many ways our product has succeeded in both sticking to conventions but also
developing them.
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