Evaluation Activity 1

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

In our film, there was no main prop so to speak of, and similarly there was no stereotypical costume to help the audience identify the genres or themes within our opening two minutes. On these terms, it could be said that our use of props and costumes did not adhere to the conventions as stereotypical expectations may have presumed there would be obvious signs provided (through the use of costumes and props) to help aid the audience with their understanding. The most obvious example I can think of where costumes have played a large role in revealing the genre of the film is the Spiderman series with the world renowned Spiderman superhero costume. Despite this, there are almost many other less obvious costumes which still conform to the stereotypes of certain genres, such as the dark colours in spy/crime films providing a sense of mystery or similarly the lighter more colours items of clothing in light hearted films, such as comedies like We’re The Millers 2013. Costumes and props play a large role in portraying the themes of the play to the audience, and in turn help to unravel the plot. It is stereotypical of an opening scene for the main prop or character with a key costume to be revealed close to the beginning in order to grasp the audience’s attention, or create enigmas, helping to help set up the story of the film. 

In our film, we chose to dress Christie our protagonist in dark subtle clothing. Although it may not be obvious to the audience as it is not something typically thought provoking, we purposely chose dark clothing to suggest that she was just a regular, everyday teenage girl, going on a run. We thought that it would be effective to dress her this way as it would help to set up enigmas, causing the audience to wonder why she was a specific point of interest. We also wanted to help create suspense as we thought that by dressing her in dark, yet still colour coded clothing it would suggest that she was quite experienced at what she was doing, giving the impression that this was something she did quite often. We thought that this would be interesting as it would imply that the crime was premeditated and so would again help to build on those enigmas created at the beginning, also causing the audience to wonder who it was that was interested in her. By using clothing that would help produce enigmas, we found it useful in also helping to set up the story of the film as it easily allowed us to introduce the antagonist as he was a character the audience would have been interesting to see. It could be said that the introduction of our antagonist in the opening scene was unconventional as usually, their identity is kept hidden for longer in order to build on the tension created through the use of camera work implying their movements, however this was something we were unable to do due to the time restraints. For her age, the choice of colour of her outfit could be considered to subvert the conventions of what is expected of teenagers because typically, it would be assumed that they would wear bright and outgoing colours to demonstrate their youth and energy, however this is known as a stereotype for a reason because it is not necessarily correct. Despite this, this stereotype is often used in films, but we decided against following that stereotype because we believed it was more important to suggest that she was serious about the sport in order provide a sense of realism rather than just follow the stereotypes for the sake of it.

Our antagonist’s costume was more stereotypical to the expectations of the genre in that it was dark clothing; however that is as far as the stereotypes extend. We aimed to portray our antagonist – Adam in a creepy, unhinged manor mainly through the use of camera angles however his costume played a part in illustrating his role to the audience as well. We wanted his dark clothing to portray the themes in which the colour black connote, such as mystery, negativity and even death, using the antagonist from Prisoners as inspiration. Similarly, we wanted to follow the stereotypical portrayal of characters such as these, making them seem normal and almost unnoticeable, helping to evoke emotion from the audience through the shock factor. Despite all of this, we wanted to create a balance between the stereotypes and so decided to dress Adam in normal clothing, such as a shirt and jacket in order to make his intentions less obvious. We also thought that his facial hair would be beneficial in that it would add to the themes of our film as it could suggest a slightly un-kept mannerism which would add to his slightly uncomfortable presence.