Nick Lacey’s schema of genre

GenreConventions used

Fairy tales and legends, have been an important source for the fantasy genre.

Our idea is based around the traditional Cinderella story, except we have added a element of

technolgy Fantasy films generally have a element of

magic in them take Harry Potter for example,in our film we have used a magical wand.

Chickflicks are a very popular choice with teenage girls, we have used sterotypical characters an

binary oppersites between Cindy and Ella ‘ugly sister’ which is a common technique used in this genre. Eg meangirls’ Cady and Reginna In Mean

girls they uses Lindsay Lohan ( Cady) as the protagnist the hero of the film and Regina as the

antagonist ( binary oppositions).

Conventions Challenged

The fact we have chosen a Chick flick genre challenges conventions as short films generally steer clear, as the main audience for shorts is a

middle class, middle aged audience.

So we took advantage of the gap in the market and have tried to introduce shorts to a younger

audience. Involving their interests eg parting and alcohol .

Character typesConventions used

In chick flick there is normally very stereotypical and normally over the top characters. We have

tried to do that.

Cindy – Young blonde, hard worker, we tried to show this through her clothes hooded top

outfit. Eg Sam in Cinderella Story Ella – Mean, spoilt and popular, present in many

chick flicks again we showed this through clothing again and her mannerisms, ‘siiting on the sofa all day’ eg. Reginna George in Mean

Girls

Chris – Tall dark and handsome boy, everybody’s prince, seen in many fairytale and Chick flicks

eg Duke in She’s the man.Drinks Stella typical mans drink.

Conventions Challenged

Fairy Godmother – is young we have done this to relate to the audience and modernise the old

classic fairytale story.

Also the role reversal between Ella and Cindy challenges conventions as usually characters

stay the same throughout, we have done this to show Cindy’s growth and her story.

Audio/visual styleConventions used

We used three tracks of music this means the music now supports the visuals, the beginning track is very repetitive this is to show how Cindy's life is dull and repetitive. The second track is more

upbeat and something you would hear in a night club, we tried to emulate music you

would find in the charts, as this is the music our target group would listen to.

The last track is still upbeat but quite romantic this links to the visuals and also sets the mood.

We have also added sound effects such as ticking and background noise to the party, this is a typical convention used in film making and

is to make the film more lifelike and to add significance to certain things in the case time.

Conventions Challenged

We have created a pause in the audio this is to give dramatic effect and to enhance the comedy

element to the situation.

NarrativeConventions used

We have mainly challenged conventions with the narrative, although we have presented the story for one characters point of view this is done in mean

girls where Cady Herron narrates the story throughout. We have done this using a diary entries.

Conventions Challenged

We have inserted text plates to make the narrative more clear, this is rarely done in feature films but is sometimes used

in short films.

We have also made our film silent, this is so the audience are more focused on the story as it’s a short film we didn’t

want speech to confuse the story and audience.