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

Social realismI chose to create a film trailer under the genre of social realism. Social realism films look at everyday social issues such as youth and rebellion.In my film trailer I have followed the conventions of this genre, using urban environments and focuses on challenging situations

During my research I looked at the film Project X which Is a comedy but has similar conventions as a social realism as it has a narrative of drugs, alcohol, violence and youth. I took a screen grab of both a shot from the film Project X and from my own film trailer which are both close- up shots of a female character presenting drug taking in what seems to be a dark party scene. In my shot I wanted to highlight that this protagonist has turned to drugs after her accident. In this shot I wanted a dark background to symbolize the dark period which the character is in, and only her face and body lit, these images both have sharp lighting on the characters face. This references drugs which is a convention of the social realism genre and is commonly used in social realism films.

This is very similar to my shot of a crowd with hands in the air where my character has been at a dodgy scene. My shot is similar to this as it is only aw few seconds long to give a fast pace to the trailer. The use of the shaky camera, the flash lighting and the dancing crowd create the idea that this is from the characters point of view and some element of distortion by the un-clearness of this shot as to what is happening.

Establishing shot / location shot

This is a screen grab of a shot from the film Trainspoting which is a Social realism with a focus on drugs.

And here is a screen shot of a shot from my film trailer. In both shots the audience may be in the characters point of view in a dancing crowd with arms in the air. Both shots are dark and the lighting shines through the arms and hand of the crowd. In a social realism we are lead to believe this could be a club a rave or a large party. This presents the conventions of someone who leads a party lifestyle. Both are dark and unclear shots.

This is a shot taken from Kidulthood where a teenager is outside smoking in an urban environment.

Outside smoking mid- shot

Another convention I used was the rebellion of youths. To make my genre clear I presented the young character smoking in what seems to be a hidden location. I wanted the audience to see the character smoking alone to show her loneliness and sorrow, I wanted the character to appear to be reminiscing her actions and thinking, this then leads into a series of flashbacks. From Kidulthood I then found a similar shot of a troubled teen outside smoking alone in a more urban environment

Challenging the conventions of the social realism genreIn Social realism films it is considered the norm for the protagonist or male character to me male. In many social realism films such as Trainspotting, Submarine, This is England and My name is Joe.

There are very few social realism following the narrative of a female character. I think this will attract a larger female audience and help my film stand out, making it more unique.

This shot shows how I have used and conformed to the traditional conventions of a social realism film by showing a drug deal. Although it can be a risky topic to focus on, it is largely focused on in social realism films.

This is a similar shot of a drug deal, this I got from 21 Jump street, which is a comedy, but has a narrative of young teenagers being involved with drugs which follows a similar storyline as to the storyline of my film.I could not find a shot from a real life media product of a drug deal in the same frame of shot of mine which I think makes my social realism more original and challenges the forms and conventions of social realism.

Here is one screen shot of a shot from the social realism film Fish Tank and also a screen shot of a shot from my film trailer. Both show female characters on a balcony/ high up and looking down, the denotes sadness, loneliness and possible signs of depression. This is a convention of a social realism film as it deals with and focuses on hard hitting serious topics.

Here is an example of how my media product uses the conventions of a social realism film. Here is a shot from the film Fish Tank and a shot from my film trailer, both are simplistic shots portraying the characters emotion, this is important in a social realism as of the strong emotions and emotional storylines in this genre so the portrayal of emotion is important when filming this genre of film.

Include some form of montage

In most social realism’s there is some presence of montage of clips. This could be to introduce characters, as in Trainspotting, or to recall a series of events. My trailer was in the form of a montage as it had no chronological order to it. The trailer was a series of flashbacks from the characters life before and after the accident. This is an example of how I used conventions of real life media social realism.

Use of text in my media product In my film trailer I wanted the text and font to fit with the story line of the film and suit the genre so I looked at the font in other social realisms such as trainspotting. Both mine and the text in trainspotting is very neutral and straight to keep a naturalistic feel to the genre.

I then went on to research the ‘Typical’ font of the social realism genre

“FontThe font of social realism is nearly always sans serif. Social realism deals with the working class, and a serif font would be far too professional and middle class. Serif fonts are also usually used because it looks like less effort has gone into it, and laziness is a stereotype of the working class, especially in films.Some films will take this a step further, and add their own style to a sans serif font. For example, ‘This is England’ has titles which are made to look like graffiti, an issue which is shown in the film. This also matches the stereotype that the lower classes take part in vandalism.”

http://scottlampon.wordpress.com/2010/11/05/conventions-of-social-realism-titles/

Setting and location

Here are both shots from my film trailer and from Trainspotting. Both show location which follows the conventions of a social realism. A social realism is normally set in a relatable location in today's society, the location being somewhere that the audience can relate to. Although, my location my social realism is more middle class than the conventional grungy rural locations of social media films, making my film a bit different and slightly challenging the forms of social realisms. My film varies from this as it is set in a large country home and focuses largely on horse riding and eventing before the downfall of our protagonist happens leading her to drugs and an outcast rebellious life.