In order to develop this convention we used a frame hold to pause the shot and then added a black and white effect. This differs from ‘Snatch’ as they use colour filters but we felt the black and white would be better for the world of our film. We added more depth to our titles rather than having just basic titles by using the forms of font styles of our genre type of films. We used a bold font with a solid red to stand out and captivate the eyes of the audience, it also compliments the black and white screen hold effect that we had appear at the same time as the title appeared.

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

Our film is the genre of action comedy based around the lives of a comical duo, Frank and Charlie trying to get money to buy a car. In order for the genre to be clear to audiences we followed the conventions of other action comedies such as ‘Rush Hour’ and ‘Snatch’ by using the right balance of action combined with comedy, and kept the comical/ slapstick element of film consistent throughout. By doing this we knew the

specific target audience we were trying to attract. The idea of the titles in the opening sequence was inspired by the titles used in Snatch.

Our two main protagonists were inspired by the likes of Del boy and Rodney from the TV sitcom, ‘Only Fools and Horses’. We used the elements of having an on screen chemistry to help engage the audience into the film. We used the idea of having both characters as unintelligent individuals that feed of off each others energy and company. We used the conventions even more by using the character Frank, played by Ashley Walker to have a similar build to Del boy, short and slightly wide, despite him being shorter than Charlie he is still played the leader to the twosome, which is much like the relationship of Del Boy and Rodney.

Charlie, played by Jack Glister has similar traits to Rodney as he is the taller and skinnier of the twosome and tends to follow Frank rather than take the lead. We developed this more by having Charlie follow Franks lead throughout the whole film as we have various shots were Frank is the one often dictating Charlie’s actions. In terms of costume, we also followed conventions found in ‘Only Fools and Horses’ as throughout the majority of the film Frank and Charlie are wearing dingy outdated clothing similar as to what Del boy and Rodney would wear.

To develop this idea, we combined the costume style of that of ‘Only Fools and Horses’ to the costume style in ‘Superbad’, shown in the scene where Frank and Charlie are strutting through the corridor wearing suits. We took the idea of the slow motion edited walk and the cheesy type music from what was seen in a scene from Superbad. This is a key example of where the action element and comical element of our film was combined. The costume relates to the action and the way in which their facial expressions worked well with their slow motion was made to make audiences laugh. ‘Dumb and Dumber’ is another film that inspired us. The comical duo are very similar to Frank and Charlie because of their stupidity and unawareness of it, however, we challenged the stupidity aspect by not making Frank and Charlie as unintelligent to the extremes and Dumb and Dumber. Big Pete and his Bodyguard are characters whose costume and persona were based on that found in such films like ‘Casino Royale’ however we challenged the idea by, rather than placing the characters in a strictly action based film we placed them in an action comedy. We also took away the violence and aggression that may be associated with such films, as keeping these aspects would have made our film gloomy dark, and unsuitable for our target audience. Big Pete and his Bodyguard wore black suits throughout the film and this added to the representation of the characters, presenting them as high class, high society business men and drug dealers.

Despite being inspired by various action, comedy and action- comedy films, we also challenged a vital aspect of the use of dialogue as sound as our whole film is silent. We decided to challenge the idea of the use of the use of dialogue as we felt it would be more interesting to show a conversation through the use of dialogue boxes, also, our brief required us to create a silent film. In order for our audience to not switch off whilst watching our film we used contrapuntal music throughout the piece to match the energy of the action in each scene. Depending on the scene we needed music for depended on the type of music we used, which

Our film has a non linear storyline editing, as our opening sequence of our film starts with various shots from days based throughout our whole film, creating not only audience engagement but audience questioning. This is an example of a convention used in the film ‘Inception’ .Inception starts off with scenes that occur at the end of the film which initially has the audience confused but eventually after watching the film audience questions are answered. This is the type of response we wanted to get from audiences watching our film, hence the reason why we incorporated non-linear editing.

differs from most silent films as they tend to use one type of music throughout. For example, for the following scenes where Frank and Charlie follow Big Pete’s bodyguard, we used the type of music found in such films as ‘The Pink Panther’ however, we challenged this as the Pink Panther is based on a detectives where as are film follows the theme of get rich quick schemes similar to films such as ‘Catch me if you can’. Once again we developed the use of the schemes by making them less corporate and more humorous to go well with the genre of our film. We use split screens throughout our piece similar to those found in such films as ‘CSI’, having said this we challenged the idea of using split screens to show different scenes at one time, by using the split screens to show the same scene from different angles, this was done in the scene where Frank and Charlie were in the room with Big Pete laughing. We incorporated the use of split screens as we felt it would be more interesting than just simply having a total shot of the action going on onscreen. The setting of our film takes place in a dingy estate similar to the setting used in ‘Only Fool and Horses’ so this used the convention that the sitcom would use however, to develop and possibly challenge the idea we shot some scenes in a prestigious hotel to highlight the difference of lifestyle between the body guard, Big Pete and Frank and Charlie. Once again this corresponds to such films like ‘Rush Hour’ as some scenes are also shot in expensive and prestigious hotels. Our film ‘Switch’ has challenged typical conventions in various ways but has also used some. We tried to develop certain conventions that we used whenever possible in order to create an added edge to our film and also to create audience interest. To conclude, I am very pleased with the final product of our film and I liked the typical codes and conventions we used, challenged and developed from other real media products in the industry.