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


Our film follows the genre of a drama, the main aim of a drama is to create a believable and realistic story that shocks and conveys a serious message to the audience. Our story is based around the main message of domestic violence we mainly wanted to show that domestic violence can happen to anybody you know whether they are male or female, old or young. I believe by our film carrying this message we have followed the codes and conventions of a drama. By using a character that is represented as young, innocent and lovable we have challenged the stereotypical character used in a drama which is normally a character in their mid thirties who generally focus on a life breakdown or crisis. We have also developed the theme of domestic violence within our film, to do this we have steered away from the typical patriarchal oppression related to women and now focus on the oppression and deception of a young girl who evokes sympathy and vulnerability. We chose to develop the character because we looked at the representation of children, considering we live in a child centred society and children are precious to us we thought the film would evoke more feeling furthermore sympathy conveying the message of our film better. (The Little Princess) like our story focuses on a young girl who needs the love from her father, however is constantly isolated as he goes to war leaving her behind in a cruel all girls school. From (The Little Princess) we have adapted the young and fragile character however like (Provoked) we have chose to use a more serious story line of domestic violence however using a young female character to evoke sympathy. In a drama it’s important to capture the mood and stableness of the character and this can often done through the use of lighting. In dramas the lighting is often made over contrast using too much light to show that the world around the character is at its natural state, this use of lighting highlights the fact that although the character is suffering the world around them still goes on. For example this is done often in dramas such as (Ashes to Ashes). On the other hand in Dramas like (Life on Mars) the lighting is made very dull this shows the realism of the characters life and the fact that nothing seems to surprise or thrill the character in The monster we have stuck to the codes and conventions of a drama by using dim light. On filming we were fortunate to get a permit to film in the park I believe the weather really worked to our advantage because the dull and isolated weather echoed the mind of our main character. Another way in which we created an isolated and unwanted character just like in (E.T) is through the use of misenscene which we kept to a bare minim, just like in dramas we only used the props necessary and did not over crowd the set. We have followed the codes and conventions of a drama as we have used flashbacks however we have developed them because by the end they tell the whole story. Furthermore we have challenged the general concept as they are used in more in a psychological way as you have to match the flashbacks along with the voice over in order for the story to make sense as the voice over and flashbacks have hidden meanings. In our story just like the film (Black) which is common in drama however it develops the voice over by combining it with music and challenges it because we use a child’s voice.