Ganesh Pillai

Evaluation Activity 1: In what ways does your

media product use, develop or challenge forms
and conventions of real life media products?

Our task set from the Unit G324 Advanced Portfolio was to create a short
film which would last from 4-5 minutes approximately. We were also
tasked to create a poster fo our short film and a film review.
For our films genre we had a choice from a wide variety. We as a group
enjoyed a lot of comedy films and so were going to plan on creating a
comedy but we instead decided to do an action thriller film due to the
comedy genre not having as wide of an audience as an action thriller
would. Also we found that executing a comedy would not be easy as it is
hard to create a comedy which is suited to a wide range of viewers as
some people just do not find some jokes funny. An action thriller is a
common and popular genre which is loved and enjoyed by a wide variety
of people which is perfect. Our action thriller is about a young man called
Jay Chowdhury who has his bag switched when at his local park. When he
arrives home he finds drugs within his possession and has to deal with
whats to come when the police come knocking at his door.

What are Codes and Conventions?

Codes: a code within a media text is one which creates meaning for the
audience to interpret.
There are two type of codes, technical and symbolic. Technical codes is
the way in which equipment is used to tell the narrative to the audience.
An example of this would be the use of camera shots to show the
audience what is happening. Symbolic codes are used to show what is
beneath the surface for example we can see how a character is feeling
through his action. Music fits into both categories as it both technical and
symbolic.

Conventions: Conventions are known as the normal or the accepted way

of doing something. In terms of media and my short film, conventions can
be applied to different aspects of the film such as the sound used or the
cinematography. Genre conventions are used to show the audience what
genre of film they are watching. This is due to many other films with the
same genre having the same conventions used and so the audience will
be able to tell what the genre is easily. We chose the action thriller genre
which has many conventions. One which we displayed was a chase scene
within our films, this is a convention commonly used in action films as it
builds tension.
Ganesh Pillai

Forms and Conventions: Action Thriller

Suspenseful music used to create tension
Chase scene
Some sort of authority such as the police
Good vs Evil
12/15 Certificate
Low key lighting
Unknown identity
Hidden danger
Setting/Location:
Within our production we used three locations. The first was the park
which is the first scene and is where the bag swapping commences. We
showed the audience that this is a park through the use of having a
common park bench which is sat on by Jay. We can also see all the grass
which surrounded the bench which further displays to the audience where
they are located. This scene is quite short and so the main two locations
which we used was Jays house and the interrogation room. These two
locations take up the most screen time and is where the main part of the
film commences. There is a clear distinction between the two locations,
we used different lighting for each location to further the contrast. Within
the house we used high key lighting and within the interrogation room we
used low key lighting. The low key lighting was used to show the intensity
and also the fear and worry which Jay had. We used a high angle shot
when Jay entered the house to show how he was vulnerable as he was not
aware that he had drugs within his possession. Within the interrogation

room scene we used a single lamp to create the light within the scene,
this is a common convention seen within interrogation scenes in films.
Ganesh Pillai

Park Inside Jays house

Interrogation Room

Costume/Props:
Costume and props are very aspects which go into when making a film,
this is because costumes and props can be used to connote a lot of
meanings. An example could be how we used a bench in our opening
scene to show to the audience where we were. The costumes which is
worn by the characters also allows the audience to get an idea of who
they are. Within the first scene we can see that the character who sits
next to the main character Jay is shady. This is shown to the audience
through the use of costume, he is wearing all black which connotes
darkness and mystery. We can also see that Jay Is wearing tracksuit
bottoms, this was used to connote to the audience that he just came from
playing football with his friends. The use of dark clothing by the antagonist
is very common convention displayed by films of the action thriller genre
and also other genres. A very important prop which was used in our
production was the drugs for without this prop the film would not make
sense and thus would not work. Another costume which was shown to the
audience was that of the interrogator who wore a black suit, this was done
to connote to the audience that he is someone in a position of power as
he is dressed smartly and professionally. We also used a prop which was a
note book, this is used to reinforce the fact that he is professional and
organised.

Editing:
I took the role of the editor and so I had to make sure that I edited the
work to the liking of the directors vision. I also had to use some common
conventions seen in action and thriller films such as fast pace editing to
clearly illustrate the genre to the audience. There was not a lot of effects
used in our film, we did however use an effect of duplication where we
showed the main character Jay sitting on the sofa speaking to himself. We
created two copies of Jay one which represents the good side to him and
Ganesh Pillai

the other which represents the bad side, this reflects a sort of angel devil
scenario. There were instances of pure darkness used to create suspense
for the audience. This allows the audience to wonder what is going to
happen and creates excitement. A shot reverse shot was used within the
interrogation scene, this is a common convention used in most if not all
films for when two characters are speaking to one another. A montage
took place displaying the emotions which the main character Jay had after
finding dugs within his possession. This allows the audience to understand
what he is going through and clearly see the different stages of emotions
he is cycling through.

Characters:
We chose to have our main character
play the role of a stereotypical young
man, this was done to allow the
audience to be able to relate to the character and feel for him when things
go wrong. Our main character is seen to be wearing tracksuit bottoms to
display that he just came back from playing football with some friends. A
lot of boys this age enjoy playing football with their friends and so it
allows the audience to relate further with the character and make the film
seem more realistic. Another stereotype which we used was for the
protagonist, we dressed him in dark clothing. This is a common
convention used in films as it creates mystery and also can allow the
audience to not be trusting of this character just due to the way that he is
dressed as he looks to be a person who gets up to no good. We also used
the common convention for our investigator to be dressed smartly to show
to the audience that he is someone who is a position of power and
authority.

Titles and Credits:

The first words to be displayed at the beginning of the film is that of our
production companys name. This was done as every short film which we
analysed had this, this resulted in our film also beginning in this way. This
allows the film to look and feel more professional as it is a familiar
opening for the audiences to see. The next thing to appear on the screen
is the name of our film, The Delivery. Both Titles were in white text on a
black background, this is a common convention used in films. This is due
to having white text on a black background makes the text more clear and
makes the text look more prominent on the black background. Our film is
Ganesh Pillai

an action thriller film and thriller films tend to have either red text to
connote blood or a simple colour scheme.

Music/Voiceover:
Within our short film we used a lot of non-diegetic background sound to
keep the suspense within the film as it is a part thriller film. We used some
fast past drumming score for the chase scene within our film. This allows
the scene to seem more dramatic and helps to keep the pace of the
scene. This also allowed for us to create some tension in the scene as the
audience are not aware whether the main character Jay would get away or
not. We also used some park sounds for the beginning of the film due to
the amount of wind which there was on the day of the shoot which
sounded terrible. This score music sounded realistic as it was taken
directly from a park. This helped make the beginning scene of being in a
park be more realistic. We also used a voiceover in our production, this
was recorded on a zoom mic. We has to adjust the recording to make it
sound like the person was speaking from the phone and we also adjusted
the pitch of the voiceover to create a more deep voice which helped keep
the mood of the scene.

Conclusion:
Within our production we used a lot of codes and conventions seen in
action thriller films and in films in general. This helped make the
production look and feel more professional as it followed conventions seen
by a lot of films.
Ganesh Pillai