Media Platforms:
One key way in which I have conformed to common conventions show by many real short film productions, is the use of YouTube to share my film. YouTube and Vimeo are the most common platforms that short filmmakers use to share and upload their productions. Personally, I have chosen YouTube as in an average month, 8 out of 10 18-49 year old watch YouTube. This age range includes out target audience and therefore ensures that our film will be made easily accessible to them. The website also has around 1.3 billion users, which is often the reason why it attracts many filmmakers to publish their work on the site.
Credits:
An additional way in which we conformed to conventions of real media texts was in our use of credits. Typically, short film open with the title of the film, then end with rolling credits (similar to feature films). We chose to follow this popular format as we wanted to create a film that appeared professional. Below have displayed screen shots from our film, along with images from films that I have analysed earlier in the course. I have put these images side by side to show how we have taken inspiration from real media products.
Camera and Editing:
We also remained largely conventional in our methods of filming and editing. Much of the inspiration for our short film came from the films we had analysed earlier in the course. These included:
- 'Youth' - Tommy Petroni
- '9 Meter' - Anders Walter
- 'We Were Awesome' - Jesse Coane
We chose to follow the common conventions and features we had found throughout our research, as we wanted to create a film that appeared professional and of a high quality. Below, I have created a short video displaying a few of the ways in which we took inspiration from real media products in terms of shot types and editing.
Mis En Scene:
One reoccurring element that I found in my research of real media products, was that short films tended to depict much of the action taking place in one key location. This appeared to be due to the low budgets and short running times of the film. However, our short film has subverted this convention as the action takes place in multiple locations. Although these differing locations may not be conventional of short coming of age films, they remain conventional of the genre. For example we included locations such as schools and a teenagers bedroom. This therefore made our film easily identifiable as a coming of age story, thus appealing more to our target audience. This decision also made out film unique as a short film, as few other films include as many locations as we have within their narrative.
Narrative and Genre:
Films within the coming of age genre typically follow a journey of personal growth. Usually the narrative will follow the protagonist as they develop from an immature teen to a emotionally mature young adult. We have followed this basis for the narrative, however we have challenged Todorov's narrative theory. Rather than following a narrative with three conventional stages (equilibrium, disequilibrium, followed by equilibrium again), we have chosen to use a voice over to suggest what she may have done differently in her past. This is effective as we were able to conform to the conventional story line of personal growth as we have presented an older, more mature version of the character, reflecting back on her childhood. Our narrative also allows us to offer an interesting storyline within the short running time we were given from the specification. Also, we remained conventional to the coming of age genre by including familiar experiences such as exams, relationships and break ups, which our target audience will likely be able to relate with.
Voice Over:
Voice overs are typical within the coming of age genre. However, from my research, I found that voice overs are much less common within short films. By making the decision to include a voice over within our narrative, we have successfully created a narrative that is well established within the coming of age genre, however stands out as unique against existing media texts.
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