ICONOGRAPHYSticking to conventions of art-house/surreal films we have used props as representations of the narrative and the characters emotions:The mirrors are a metaphor for the three main ideas within our film;The idea of self-reflection, thinking about who you are as a person and whether you like that person or not.Obsession with self-beauty, wanting to look pretty based on what is popular within the media. Having a destructive paranoia with the way you look and how you think others see you.The reflective personality (bipolar disorder) how she feels really happy or the complete opposite, completely depressed. The reflection of herself is the opposite of herself, as is the way she sees herself and how she feels because of this.The TV set:This was our way of linking the issue of warped beauty directly to the media as this is a current and relevant issue, particularly for our less mainstream audience. The TV represents the way the media says young girls should look and the way the doll reacts (bipolar~) shows how badly this is effecting their generation. We also found this an ironic idea to include as it is being shown through the form of media.The Clock:The clocks represents one of the main messages to so with our narrative about how the doll is only herself at one time of the day and how the little girl controls her at 3 o clock when she plays wither.This is also a representation of how we are running out of time to make a difference as more and more girls views of beauty becomes warped.AUDIO/VISUAL STYLE: We have used both parallel and contrapuntal music to crate meaning and atmosphere within our film:The Nursery Rhyme:- Use of a nursery rhyme allows our narrative to become clear straight away while also hinting to our twist. Nursery rhymes are associated with innocence and children which creates an eerie twist to our main narrative. This could also hint to the doll coming alive as the child enters and at as a warning signal to the viewers. The echo effect added also makes the chimes sound more relatable to the type of sound typically heard within a thriller film. This music is contrapuntal and conveys that something is not how it should be right from the films start.The Beating Music:The beats within the music help to build the tension as the idea of the doll being controlled at one time of the day is revealed. This music is parallel as it matches the increase in tension on screen.The recorded voices:We do not have any voices during the video recording as we wanted to highlight how these voices are not coming from the doll and raise questions. The doll also cannot talk and this will also help to highlight how she is controlled and her emotions are not her own. She represents the young girl and does not exist herself as a person with emotions. Voiceovers are commonly used within art-house short films and we used this to create the voices she hears inside her head. We also created an echo effect on this to help the atmosphere, match up to surreal film conventions and make the sounds more thought like.The Piano Music:Piano music is typically used to create ambience and emotion within short films and for ours we used it to achieve the connection of contrast between the doll being seen as a pretty child toy vs. the emotions trying to look like this creates. This sound contrasts with the beat of the previous music which was tension building and because this music is dark yet slower with a more elegant tone to it, this changes the overall atmosphere effectively to a more reflective, calming mood. Bringing the tension sown allows us to be able to build it up again closer to the end. This music is both parallel and contrapuntal. It is eerie to match up to the atmosphere but it is also fairly calm compared the fits of crying we see the doll going through visually.

CONCLUSION: In conclusion, using genre was important to establish our films style and narrative to an audience who would appreciate it most aswell as challenging conventions to maintain the viewers interest and create enigmas/twists.

SETTINGSShort films normally have very few settings therefore we have one main setting and one very short scene in another. Our setting is minimal to stick to art house film conventions and the white box set fits to our surreal genre.Originally our set was thought up to look like a room in a dolls house. We took influence from photography of minimalistic antique furniture sets which were already set up in the studio space which we intended to film in but later decided the set was too confusing and we were creating a surrealistic film that a more minimal and adaptable set with few metaphorical props would make our narrative easier to understand.

INTRODUCTION: For A2 media I was a part of a group who made a surreal, arthouse-thriller film entitle Reflection in which we used many genre conventions to make our hybrid genre recognisable.SHORT FILM CONVENTIONS: Few characters, we included one main character and another at the twist within the film. This allowed us to build the connection between the audience and our main character to give the film optimum impact.Few locations, to keep the audiences focus on understanding the narrative and not have their attention absorbed by a fancy backdrop or set, we used a white box set which brought focus to the metaphorical values our props had and portrayed the narrative clearer.A twist, this is possibly the most important part of a short film as it leaves the audience interested and makes them think about the film even after it is finished. Our twist was the reveal that a small child was controlling the doll and therefore lead to many possible scenarios the audience could take from this. This also fits to art-house film conventions as they often have multiple meanings.A relatable situation/idea, this is typical of art-house films as they are often sued to bring attention to current and relevant issues. We focused on the effect the media has on the way girls view themselves and the negative effects this can cause.WHAT FILMS CAN BE COMPARED TO YOUR OWN BASED ON GENRE?Eraser Head: David LynchEraserhead is a surreal film which also features a protagonist with a bipolar disorder displayed in a very similar way to Reflection. Eraser head is in black and white, as is our film, and uses many bizarre, unrealistic sets to show the metaphorical characters. The doll in our film could be seen as similar to the character of the radiator lady in Eraserhead as she is the creation of the sufferer of the bipolar who uses a lot of metaphorical movements to show the visualizers feelings.We took inspiration from: Inside A short, surreal, thriller, art-house film with a very similar theme based around mental health and what the main character sees in their mind.The Queue A short surreal comedy which used change overs in black and white to colour to represent location changes into/out of a more surreal world.WHAT IS GENRE? Genre is based on the many similar narrative elements which build up the typical structure of an individual group of films. A genre consists of a particular theme which the viewers expect and recognise the film by. These generic codes are what creates a genre. Overall, genre helps to group different types of films through the use of setting, theme, narrative and character types.WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO BOTH PRODUCERS AND AUDIENCES? Producers: Producers can then target advertising at the specific audience for the genre.Producers look into which genres are more popular at the moment to predict which type of film would be the most successful.Genres come with generic codes and narratives which the audience expect so the producers know how to please and surprise their audience.Audiences:Genre helps an audience to define their taste in films and to be able to base how much they would enjoy a film on its genre.With the industry creating so many films, the sorting process allows viewers to understand which films out of the hundreds released they would enjoy the most. Without this sorting process this would be impossible.An audience is able to understand what the film narrative will consist of before they even watch it so will understand its context at a far quicker pace.DID YOU CHALLENGE ANY GENERIC CONVENTIONS? HOW AND WHY?Todorovs Theory of Equilibrium (short film convention)Equilibrium, everything is normalDisequilibrium, a problem occursNew Equilibrium, problem is solved and everything is back to normal although specific changes are noticeable (a lesson is learnt)Our narrative starts off eerie and it is clear everything is not how it should be. From this point the problems are shown through separate section in the film as the tension rises and the problem increases. The problem continues to increase up until the doll freezes and falls to the floor and is silent again. However, this would not be seen as the problem being solved so therefore our narrative does not fit to Todorovs Theory of Equilibrium. Our ending twist also does not fit to the theory as it create another question and further problems.MEDIA QUESTION 1B: GENRE