In what was does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and

conventions of real media products?

In my media text the conventions of a satirical comedy are closely followed.
Aspects such as exaggerated movements by the main character, overly
expressive facial language and bright colours are used throughout my short film
production. My production also has plenty of sound effects and backing music to
aid setting the atmosphere of the scene or how John is feeling, this will allow the
audience to automatically connect with Johns feelings and know how he is
feeling; emphasising the true emotions and meaning that are trying to be
portrayed. Furthermore, my film has minimal dialogue so if we wanted to really
get our meaning across, then these sound effects really helped to portray what
meanings I was trying to create throughout the film. My film had a subliminal
message as well as the basic storyline of the plot; this followed the conventions
of the film. In the film the obsession of Nutella can be related to by the audience,
as we all have our own personal products we couldnt live without, this
symbolises the control that we are under by corporate companies. This is the
subliminal message to our film, the companies have so much control over is we
are unconsciously consuming in their products through their different advertising
and marketing they put out all around us; which has become a part of society. If
we had all of the advertising and marketing taken away from the public, it would
be almost if we woke up in an alternative universe. After all of my extensive
research in to other short film (focusing especially on comedies) I found what
sort of different conventions were followed by successful films that had already
been produced in my genre. I found that bright colours was a major one as well
as the use of pathetic fallacy, I managed to end my last scene of John being
homeless after his struggles in the shade which was a powerful way of showing
that he was experiencing a dark time. I also tried to use bright colours the whole
way through my film, such as making sure that John (our main character) was
dressed in bright colours rather than dull colours i.e. black. However, one thing
that I learnt was that the use of bright colours is good however, making sure that
I didnt overdo it by using neon colours was of high importance, this is because
then the message wouldnt be being made on a subconscious level, but the
audience would automatically realise that I had tried to create these messages
and this could break the mundane realism of the film. Within my film I tried to
limit the dialogue to make sure that still got the strong messages that wanted to
convey across I needed to make sure that I followed the generic conventions of
my genre to make sure that I didnt confuse my audience. These conventions
included everything from sound to compliment how my main character was
feeling to the height difference between different characters. An example of this
would be that the actor who played my landlord was much taller than my main
character, this allowed me to show a difference in status and power between the
characters. My main character John is shown to be vulnerable and powerless in
the conversation with his land lord, this is due to the landlord looking down on
John as he is evicted out of his house.

In my film the main character shows a lot of his emotions through his body
language , when he is feeling stressed he represents how someone potentially
would be feeling on the inside, this leads to strong messages being made,
allowing the audience to get an inside connection with the main character. This
connection will allow the audience to relate with my film and almost put
themselves in Johns shoes. Johns character profile is built up through different
conventions, such as aspects of mise en scene, in the supermarket scene John is
seen to be out of place due to his costume and frantic behaviour. By dressing
John in his pyjamas in the super market scene, it strengths the message that we
were creating as it shows that he was in such a rush to cease the Nutella in to his
possession he didnt have time to get changed, this helps to add to the
atmosphere that the audience are injected in to as they will feel the frantic rush
John feels, whilst laughing at the amusement of going to the supermarket in his
pyjamas. The character profile is touched on again when John is unable to locate
the product he is so obsessed with, this allows John be presented as a fool or an
idiot allowing the audience to laugh at his conventional over-exaggerated idiocy.
I think one of the reasons that we created so many ideologies in to Johns
character profile was to really create that personal connection with the audience
and the main character; this allows them to want to know what is going to
happen to John due to this connection, this leads to the audiences attention
being grabbed and held on to; leading to them being engrossed within our media
product and therefore enjoying it all the way to the end.
Following one of the main conventions of a short film my film has an open tailed
ending. I didnt want to give the ending away due to leaving it to the audience to
make a decision. If they are left with a decision what happens from there in then
they can chose what they would like to see. Furthermore, the audience can
create a buzz within themselves talking about all their differing opinion on what
will happen to John next. They may also want to rewatch my film so they can
reanalyse what they think the ending is, creating higher revenue. Lastly, another
reason that I left my end open would be if the audience chose what they want
the ending to be/their own interpretation of what happens then they will have a
positive view on the ending as it is what they want it to be so there is no let
down if they didnt like the ending. This means that the audience will have a
positive view on the film ending and as this is the last thing that they will see
they will have a positive overview of the film, as this is what they will remember
the most. If the audience are coming out of the film with a positive end look on
the film then they will give positive reviews to friends and family members,
advertising my film in a positive way, drawing more audience in and therefore
making higher revenue.
The choice to do a satirical comedy really branched from the idea that I have a
personal belief that everyone in society is controlled by the big corporations to
some extent, this will mean that people could understand Johns situation and
empathise for him. If they are empathising for him then this really means that
they will feel saddened by the ending, strengthening the connection between the
audience and the main character, even though John is portrayed throughout the
film as a fool and everyone laughs at his idiocy, the audience will take the

message that corporations will go to the far extremes on the society to draw as
much money as they can out of all of their customers as they are purely selling
to benefit themselves and each member of society gets involved in their games
and tricks. This a major message that the audience will all be affected by
whether they are part of the big corporation or a member of society being
involved in these games and tricks. This leads to the film having a sense of
realism and therefore the audience can really inject themselves in to the fantasy
film world with real-life experiences being displayed in a funny, light-hearted,
exaggerated way. This realistic message is breaking the convention of a
stereotypical happy ending to a comedy to show the harsh reality of the raw
underlying message that we have tried to entwine within our product. This will
lead to the audience thinking deeply about the message and then discussing if
they agree with the message, once again starting a buzz within the audience to
talk about my film, leading to them recommending people to go to watch it so
they can give their viewpoint on the message being presented.

When looking in to different narrative theories, I really think that the uses and
gratification theory can be applied to my film perfectly. If audience members
have been caught out of money by large corporations before then they can
watch my film and see that they are not the only one, providing them with
comfort. Also if they are stressing and want a funny film then they can watch my
film for a short time of diversion and entertainment. Furthermore, they can gain
surveillance and information about how big corporations are trying to trick them

out; as the satirical comedy follows the conventions of the obvious meaning and
the discreet meaning, this means that they can really understand/learn
something about the power of the corporations in modern society. Furthermore,
my audience member quite possibly have been in the same situation as my main
character, leading to them being able to relate with my film, if they are
connecting with john and being put in his shoes this may get the audience really
thinking about what they would do in his situation. Furthermore, due the
convention of leaving the ending open as well as the discreet meaning of the
short film which is a convention of a satirical comedy, this will lead to a buzz of
conversation within the audience members and then lead more audience
members going to see the film so that they can join in with the social interaction
my film would have created within its audience.
A lot of short film comedies also have a running gag throughout the film, in our
product we have managed to follow this convention by having a running gag
surrounding the commodity of Nutella. In normal running gags the main
character is usually being ridiculed throughout the film, generally with making
mistakes that the audience can laugh at, I display this irony as throughout the
film the audience only grows more aware of the extent of Johns obsession with
Nutella. In the opening of the film, one of the first things that the audience are
met with is the product Nutella being photographed on lots of different location
around the world (on holiday with John). This is ironic as Nutella is just an object
whereas John is treating the object as a human, the film ends with the same
product leaving John homeless.
If I was going to do my product over again then I would make sure that I was
extra careful with continuity errors, even though I was conscious, we still had
some errors which meant that we couldnt use some clips and this meant that
the quality and depth of my film were damaged in certain parts. I would also try
to give some kind of light to the ending as this breaks the conventions of the
genre and may leave my audience in a saddened mood due to the fact that they
werent expecting this break in convention, however this does separate my film
out from the rest of the comedy films, giving it a unique selling point.