Evaluation 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop, or challenge forms and conventions of real media products

The codes and conventions of a drama film are structured in a specific way in order to keep the audiences attention and make them become emotionally attached to the action and that is going on in the film and the character. We have structured our film like this by introducing the character first and explaining her feeling in a voice-over. We based this on Girl, Interrupted as the main character also had a voice-over. Both of the voice-overs show emotion and demonstrate the inner-feelings of both characters. Our story-line mirrors the introduction as Girl, interrupted such as the sad beginning to the film with both main characters expressing how bad their lives are.

Shot one (Top left):

This is an establishing shot which features in both films. Our media product's shot is of the school classroom in contrast to Girl, interrupted where they show a dark room. We decided to challenge Girl, interrupted as their establishing shot reflects the sad, dark mood of the characters and gives an incline to what the film's story-line might be. In contrast to this we decided to have a 'normal' school classroom with what seems to be happy teenagers which then allows the audience to feel shocked when the voice-over begins. 

Shot two (Middle):

This is the main title of our film 'Impact' and 'Girl, Interrupted'. We decided to make our title in black so that it would match the rest of our titles and also so that it can reflect the darkness that is depression. Girl, interrupted has a title which is in white. We decided not to use the same font colour as we associate white with purity. We felt that purity was not part of the codes of a teen drama therefore decided to have our title in black as we felt that the connotations fit better.

Shot three (Top right):

In this shot both our main characters are looking directly into the camera. In Girl, interrupted the main character is looking with a more blank expression whereas in our media product she is crying. We wanted to mirror this shot as it makes the audience feel connected to the character and it also allows for the audience to sympathise with them. We liked this shot as it reflected the codes and conventions of a teen drama as well. We wanted the audience to feel like they could relate to the main character therefore by having our main character starring into the camera it makes it more personal. 

Close up shots (top and bottom right and middle left) :

As you can see from the pictures we have use many close up shots of our main character similar to Girl, interrupted. We have shot our media product like this as we wanted the audience to get to know the character's straight away meaning that they could be more relatable. We took inspiration from Girl, interrupted as it shares many similarities to our film and we also felt that by having close ups it leaves the character feeling vulnerable and showing that there is no where to hide - just like she cannot hide from her feelings.

Music:

When researching the drama genre we found that most of the music that is used in typical drama films such as Girl, Interrupted and Kidulthood has a melancholy feel to it. The music used in the openings to both these films does not have lyrics and the tone of the music doesn't distract from the action happening on screen. The music we used was 'Boat Floating':

 The music used in Girl, interrupted and Kidulthood are 'Bookends' and 'The Angel'.



 

All of these instrumentals create tension subtly and add to the feel of the film. Music is important in teen drama's as it sets the tone for the film and allows the audience to feel more connected.

Costumes:

Due to Girl, Interrupted being set in a different time period to our film we wanted to take inspiration from another teen drama due to our film being more current. We took inspiration from 'It's Kind of a Funny Story' as this is again a teen drama focusing on teenage depression. We noticed that the clothes that they wore in 'It's Kind of a Funny Story' were casual and 'normal'. We noticed as well that none of them wore school uniform therefore made our characters members of sixth form. We wanted our characters to look as normal as possible so that they could be relatable therefore we kept costume and make-up simple. As you can see below the two characters in 'It's kind of a funny story' are dressed like normal teenagers and we wanted to replicate this in our media product. We wanted the costume of our character to still reflect a dark nature so the costume was mainly black.

Setting:

A typical teen drama setting is inside a school. We decided that we would have our media product set in a school and a home as these are the two main places that most teenagers spend their time. In .Kidultood's opening we noticed that many of the shots were filmed in a school therefore used this to develop the conventions of a teen drama and represent them in our film opening. Below are examples of the school setting in 'Kidulthood' and our media product: Impact.