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

Reiss Langdon

Conventions of short films

One of the first aspects I looked when developing the story for my short film was narrative. Todovorovs theory involves a cyclical style of story telling and this is what i this style as the vehicle to create the story for my media product. The two main characters start off not knowing one another and end in the exact same place.

As I looked deeper into this theory in regards to a story I could tell through the form of short film I thought what is the disturbance of normality with in my story.

In many ways “the girl” was used as the disturbance. From the minute the film starts the audience are presented with the male character as being a loner. Almost being represented as a traveller was the sort of effect I wanted to convey, and did so by making his first appearance be walking through a field on his own. I did this in order to make the audience have intrigue and thus make the central character almost mystical in his appeal. Also I did this to suggest a man looking for something, perhaps love. However at the risk of losing a element of comedy we added the fence gag in order show the whimsical simple mindedness of the main character.

His appearance in the film as a solitary character ends straight away when he decides to sit down next to the young girl in the pub. Then the resolution comes at the point when he finally speaks to her only to realise she can’t understand a word he says because she's French. This propels the main character back to the starting point at equilibrium. This is shown from the comical ending, the film started with a comical element and end on one, and also through the single close up screen shot, he is back on his own almost frozen in time. Both if which helps to establish that central character is in the same position as he was at the beginning.

The only point where the film strays and breaks away from these conventions is perhaps that there isn’t a particular happy ending. However he isn't any worse off so in theory the film completely submits to the conventional narratives.

Credits and ident

I felt like the film was expressing a style that suggested independent cinema, especially of the 90s. Due to this simplistic and subtle style, I decided to create and use fairly plain font and for both all the credits even the company name ect. This can be seen as going against the conventions because I choose not to use a typical ident, and instead felt the film should speak for it self. Which perfectly suited the home – grown, independent and honest feel I wanted the film to have.

Conventional camera shots and angles

The two shot is a key convention the majority of films, the film shot to the left is from the 1994 independent film “clerks”. This was much like the plot to my short film not sensational, and featured low key realistic humour. The two shot is used extensively throughout “clerks”, as there are only really two main characters, and the film is based around there relationship towards each other. Not much happens in the narrative throughout the film so all that is needed is the two shot. This was the exact same situation with fluent in love, by filming an almost excessive amount of stock footage in order to cut back to, we created the staple shot for the film. Although it is a simple shot we had to get the perfect angle as this is where the narrative structure is created.

The most conventional and common shots such as extra long shot, long shot and medium long shot were also used in order to conform to the conventions of short film.I believe I used these to great effect during the opening of the film, as it made it look professional. I thought the shots were also well framed in regards to the screen, which is key convention of most modern film making.

Extra -long shot

Long shot

Medium-long shot

Similarly to the previous slide the other staple shot sizes medium shot and close-up were also used throughout the film.Close-ups generally set up as reaction shots, so the audience has an understanding of the sort of emotions the character is conveying.Medium shot is generally used because it shows facial expression and large portion of body language. Much like the two shot I used this shot in order to go back to a more conventional shot after more inventive or claustrophobic shots such as close ups.

Medium shot

Close -up

More inventive shots were also planned and created throughout the process. The extreme close up was used extensively throughout my film as a signify of the awkwardness most of the time.The tapping hand shot enhanced the suspense and comically awkward atmosphere between the two character, just as many of the other close up on particular objects did throughout the film. A filmmaker who influenced this style for me was Quentin Tarantino who also uses this technique.The close up of the two pairs of feet was also in the same vain as this however this had significance because it showed the male characters foot tapping rapidly conveying he is clearly nervous. This worked great in contrast to the girls feet tapping calmly, further exaggerating the males awkwardness.

The close up of the beer bubbles rising, came up almost as a homage to the history of cinema. In the film taxi driver the main character Travis Bickle stares at his drink watching the bubbles rise, and there is an extreme close up of the bubbles. This imitate the rising tensions within his own mind. I thought id reference these shot in my film, and so the bubbles represent the awkwardness of the situation and the tension building.Although the crisp packet shot was incredibly hard to create I felt it was needed as it added to the playful light heartedness of the film .

Editing was also used in a creative way in order to add to the light heartedness of the film, just as the crisp packet did. I used stopped motion with the empty pint glasses mounting up to add comedy and also make the film feel a little playful and fun. Similarly with the last shot in the editing process i manipulated the image and turned it into a style image in order to capture the punch line joke of the film. This emphasised the comedy in the ending greatly. Both of these techniques broke away from the typical convention of cinema and the romantic comedy genre.

The diagetic sound through out the film also was used to add to the mise en scene. Conventionally background music is used a lot during films in order to add to the atmosphere of the scene. In my film I felt the music added to the comedic value as it was old unfashionable music, which I felt linked in with the males sense of being a little uncool and hopelessly awkward.

The one non- diagetic sound comes in at the end with a song over the still framed shot of the main character pulling a face. This music suited the situation perfectly as it further expressed the light hearted style of the film.

Conventional film posters for romantic comedies generally use a two shot of the couple the film is based around, and uses romantic font and often the colour red. This in order to represent that it is a film about a man and a woman and will be about love.

I followed these conventions with my own film poster using the colour red within the font and using a two shot of the characters. There is allot of space between the characters in my film poster to express the lack of communication in the film. This is why the film title is funny because it sarcastic as the character are clearly not “fluent in love” because they don't speak throughout the film hardly and when they do they speak different languages.