By Jack Archer

In what way does our media product use, develop, or

challenge forms and conventions of real media

products?

Evaluation Question

1...

For our genre of social realism, these were the conventions that we wanted to either adhere to, or challenge:

Locations are either urban or in the suburban areas. Use of establishing shots. Use of Non- professional actors. Music from the era (i.e. Present day). The plot should have a realistic approach/ perspective to lives of

those concerned. Having characters that appear to be in the lower working classes

(i.e. In the D2/ E income bracket). Evidence of the exploration of wider social issues through the

emotional or dramatic stories of characters. Possible erosion of regional identities The inclusion of both humour and seriousness and also triumph

over adversity.

What were our conventions to start with??

Generally, our locations were conventional to the genre, as we included shots in a high street environment and also a city centre park. Thus, we were able to optimise our interpretation of expressing various ideologies.

Also, the majority of our actors (excluding Liam Wilkinson and Rosie Jones) did not have much experience of acting. But, all of our actors certainly did not have any experience in filming. Therefore, as they are not professional actors (i.e. Are not paid for their service) we have met the convention of using non- professional actors.

Furthermore, we used present day music to reflect the setting of the film, as we produced a rendition of a rendition (!) of the song “We Own It” from the film “Fast and Furious 6” (2013), consequently keeping our opening sequence conventional to the genre.

Genre conventions... Where did we meet and/ or challenge them?

In addition, I feel that our narrative has adhered to the convention of it being realistic particularly due to the rise of peer pressure and bullying. As Laura joins the gang to initially make new friends, she is then peer pressured into committing criminal offences such as theft. Which is possibly a common situation for people in the working class.

What's more, I feel that our narrative/ opening sequence explores the wider social issues within society quite well. The inclusion of bullying, fear and peer pressure are common issues that arise and are experienced by people from all walks of life and therefore, I believe that Laura in our narrative is a relatable character to many people as well, as our audiences are able to decide whether to actively consider their viewpoint on these issues for social interaction, or simply gain personal identity from Laura/ The opening sequence (according to Blumer and Katz’s uses and gratifications.)

Finally, I believe we have shown people from various classes as according to the Income brackets, if the characters were actual people, the gang members and Laura would mainly be categorised as those in the D2/ E income bracket (the lower working class) and the policeman for example would be seen as middle/ lower middle class (the B/C1 income brackets).

Genre conventions... Where did we meet and/ or challenge them? (con...)

Most opening credits follow this common conventional order:

Name of studio Production Company Producers/ Directors Starring... Film Title Casting Director Music Production designer Film Editors Directors of Photography Producer Director (Based on... True story/events, the novel by etc.

What were the Form Conventions??

For our production “The Longing” we in a way challenged the convention of opening credit order. This is because throughout our research, planning and production, we used the film “This is England” for inspiration and subsequently, we used a similar opening title sequence to “This is England”. This was mainly because this film is of the same genre as our film.

Despite this not following the convention, I don’t think that the order is necessarily important, as long as the order makes sense and ‘flows’.

Form conventions... Where did we meet and/ or challenge them?

Although the script was limited due to the majority of the opening sequence being overlaid with our rendition of “We own It”, I feel that our script could have been improved either by including more serious and/ or humorous text or even have sections of semi- improvised dialogue in order to make character interaction appear more natural and realistic.

Following on from this, through either the script, iconography or shot type the opening sequence could have introduced more political/ social issues such as those relevant to race and cultural differences, as our production included people of different ethnicities.

Furthermore, I feel that we also should have included more hand- held shots in order to promote the ideologies relevant to our female protagonist in particular, and aid to connote certain emotions too.

Generally however, although I think that the genre social realism is appropriate for our opening sequence, as our narrative includes criminal offences driven by peer pressure, I think that research into the genre crime should have been considered as well, with its conventions also.

Where could we have used (or not used!) these conventions better?

Here are the two main theories that applied best with “The Longing”:

AUTEUR THEORY: As this theory derives from the idea that a film reflects a Director’s vision and is a unique idea, this shows that our production is also unique, especially as we have a female protagonist as our main character and our production goes against common conventions of our genre.

HEGEMONY THEORY: Due to the nature of our narrative, Hegemony is also relevant to our production, particularly as we have a female protagonist passive audiences (such as people in the lower income brackets) would initially believe the dominant ideologies present in the film, such as women can achieve triumph over adversity like men.

What theoretical theories were relevant to research, planning and

production?