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

In this question I must analyse my own film and relate to other films in the genre, I must cover;
> Mise en scene,
> Locations, 
> Camerawork,
> Editing,
> Sound.

This year for A2 Media Studies I was required to make a short film between three and five minutes long to go alongside ancillary texts; a film poster and a magazine review. The travel/wanderlust genre was the genre I chose to cover this year in A2; therefore I had to research codes and conventions of this genre or of similar genres. The research I conducted was essential when producing my ancillary texts and short film, I had to ensure that I knew the codes and conventions of my chosen genre so that I could apply them to my own film.

Location and Mise-en-Scene;

I chose to film the entirety of my film, minus a few shots taken in India, in the wilderness of North Wales; namely the Gwynedd area. This in itself challenges the forms and conventions of real media products as it is a place that is untouched by Hollywood blockbusters and various other types of films. I filmed my film here as to me, there is a sense of home, something that I wanted to be portrayed through my shot film.

I have chosen this key frame as it shows the rawness of the footage that I obtained and used in my film, I did not want to glamourise nature at all throughout my film; I wanted to show it for what it was. I wanted to show my audience the pure extent of the landscape and this is why I mainly used establishing shots when it came to areas such as the Cnicht. Throughout my film I tried to keep a blue-undertone in all my footage and this was highly successful; it allowed me to link all of my shots together beautifully, enabling the viewers to know that it was all shot in one area. This is uncommon in films produced today as they are usually shot in various places all over the world or country; such as in Sean Penn's Into the Wild, whilst I produced a film in the same genre as Penn's, Into the Wild shows a journey all over America; where as mine stays in the same area of Gwynedd/Snowdonia throughout.

Narrative;

There is no storyboarded narrative to film, there is simply only a voice-over that links with the visuals on screen. I chose to have no characters in my film as use the landscapes themselves as nature. This again challenges the codes and conventions of real media products as there are little-to-no films that are produced in this way. My short film does not use a linear narrative; nor does it use a constructed one;

My film has no set narrative structure. There is no issue raised, nor is there an issue confronted or a resolution to said issue. My short film is lyrical; it is based off of the words spoken over the visuals. I did not want to create something that had no feeling or meaning behind it, I wanted it to be personal and real. The voice-over IS the narrative, it takes the audience on a journey through the fantastical visuals and it is entirely open to interpretation. 

The media theorist Barthes proposed the idea that texts may be closed; where there is one clear ending - with an agreed reading or that texts may be open; open to interpretation or with an alternative ending; a preffered reading, mine is entirely 'open' - open to interpretation for each and every viewer to take away a different thought or view from it.  

Cinematography/Camerashots

Throughout my short film I used a variety of cinematography elements and camerashots, ranging from super-macro to establishing shots. 

I used super-macro and macro shots so that attention to specific detail would be paid. For example, in the shot below I wanted my audience to really be engrossed in the flow of the water, to feel as if they were there in person witnessing the waves;

In ways, this technique does conform to the codes and conventions of real media texts, as Hollywood blockbusters and other films do use the camera technique of Macro to make the audience pay attention to any detail. 

I also wanted to show landscapes for what they truly were and this is why I chose to use extreme long shot establishing shots throughout; I wanted to show my audience the pure extent of the landscape and this is why I mainly used shots such as these when filming areas such as the Cnicht; 

This technique is evident in films such as Penn's Into The Wild, Penn used frequent establishing/extreme-long shots when in a new environment/landscape, for example when Alexander first comes across the stranded bus;

the shot is used to show the extreme landscape in which the bus has been stranded in. 

To conclude this section, through my camerawork I do at times conform to and develop the codes and conventions of the travel and wanderlust genre; I used the same camera techniques as others do to create the same atmosphere and effects. 

Sound;

The ways in which I used sound in my final media product challenge the forms and conventions of the majority of real media texts entirely; I used a voice-over in order to progress my film. By using a voice-over it meant that I did not need characters speaking in my film, or characters at all. 

The score for my short film is entirely independant, I gathered sounds through my recordings of Ms. Lambert, YouTube, raw footage and other audio files. I then wove these together to create a soundscape that would overlay the visuals as the short film progressed; I chose to use a song (Sleeping at Last -Arctic) that progressively built to a crescendo as I wanted there to be a point of climax in my film; where everything was purely personal and had a sense of home.

The use of a voice-over is also evident again in Penn's Into the Wild; a voice over is used to tell and progress the story of Alexander Supertramp/Christopher McCandless - the emotions that the voice over in Penn's Into the Wild evoke are similar to the emotions that I wanted to evoke in my film, except they were for nature and the landscapes alone - not for a person or character.

Editing

Throughout my film I used a simple form of editing, I cut clips where they needed to be shortened and I used fade ins and outs for all of my transitions, I did not want to distract the viewers from the landscapes or from the voice-over at all, so I kept the editing minimal and discrete. I did not use any form of jump-cut as I wanted the viewers to feel as if they were at the landscapes themselves in person, I have challeneged the forms and conventions of real media texts as they often use jump-cuts in order to remind the audience that what they are viewing is not real; for example in Andrea Arnold's Fishtank, jump-cuts are frequently used, especially in the high energy or more violent/up-roar scenes.