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There are many ways in which our film review used, developed and challenged the forms and conventions of real media products.

From analysing the short film poster “SHORT TERM 12” we realised that short film posters are generally filled with a lot of information and I think this is because there is only a certain amount of time (conventionally) allowed in short films. We wanted to challenge this convention and not include a lot of information therefore creating an anticipation factor to the product with the audience wanting to know what the film is about and therefore being more likely to see it. We do however include some hints as to what the film is going to be about as the protagonists are in front of a school and the title is about educating. Generally in film posters the title foreshadows the plot as you can see in the “SHORT TERM 12” poster.

We also included the actors names and the directors and producers names to adhere to conventions of a film poster. If the names are included then a percentage of the audience could recognise the names and want to see the actors more in this short film as they have done in others.

Another way we challenged conventions was the fact that the majority of our information is situated on the bottom of the poster as opposed to the top as seen in the other poster. We thought that doing this would make the poster look different to other posters and therefore create interest.

Our Film Review Poster

Existing Short Film Poster

Ancillary Task Poster

Our film review also challenges forms and conventions because raw footage stills were entailed in ours. From the film reviews we analysed they all seemed to just have the one main image. We challenged that convention by using a group of three images to make the review more aesthetically appealing to the audience. The still image in the top right corner challenges the conventions because usually the Images are posed for and edited a lot but we have used them right from the camera. This also gives the audience a further insight into what kind of short film it will be as the shot is with a teacher stood in a classroom.

We also challenged the codes and conventions by being sparse on the information we included about the film. We did this again to create anticipation for the film and make the audience want to see it.

We did however include names of the cast members and this was to give the audience an insight into the quality of the film because if they know the actors then they will also know the quality of the films they are in and set an expectation based on that judgement.

Our Short Film Review

Existing Short Film Review

Ancillary task Review

Our final product challenges forms and conventions of the genre of the short film. The genre is mockumentary and in every mockumentary I have personally seen there has been a voice over and this has been to further explain what is happening in the scene. We saw this as a patronising feature and we wanted the audience to come up with their own interpretations and assumptions as to what is happening so we did not include a voice over. One was initially wrote in with the script but upon sampling it didn’t fit and it didn’t feel right. Also the genre is mainly popular with TV shows so we have again developed the conventions we’ve adhered to and adapted it into a short film. Because it is a different medium you are experiencing the film through we thought we would have to change things as to not confuse the audience on what kind of product they were watching. For example ; thinking it is a TV show when it is in fact a short film.

We also did a rating on the film so that we could add profanity and more adult related storylines as these are things our target would want to see.

EDUCATING IDIOTS: Our Short Film

Our Short Film