DETAINEE 238

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

Storyline

Detainee 238 uses a similar principle as the film ‘Road to Guantanamo’ by using a comparable storyline of an innocent Muslim man being accused of terrorism. As both storylines were quite similar, Detainee 238 challenged the convention by breaking the comparison between the two films and not clearing the actor for being innocent, whereas in the film ‘Road to Guantanamo’ the actor does get cleared for being innocent.

Suspense

Producers of films add suspense to the storyline to create a various atmosphere. Some film producers may add suspense to create excitement within the audience whilst others may add suspense to leave the audience feeling emotional or sympathetic. Detainee 238 uses and develops this convention by leaving the audience feeling sympathetic for the characters.

Happy Endings

Detainee 238 is classified within the drama genre and therefore we would expect it to end with a happy ending as the majority of drama films have a happy ever after. However, we have challenged this convention by ending our film ‘Detainee 238’ with an open narrative. Open narratives are usually used if there are more parts of the film to be released at later dates however Detainee 238 has no plan of a continuation of the film which also challenges the convention and leaves the audience questioning about what happens next.

Costumes

Most films have their actors dressed in the way which the personalities of the characters are communicated quickly to the audience. This is vital as it helps the actors leave their own personalities behind so that they can become believable people on screen. Costumes also help the audience to understand the characters. In Detainee 238, the orange suit is used so that the audience are able to recognize the innocence of the character as the same orange suits are used in the detention camp ‘Guantanamo Bay’, where hundreds of men are wrongly abused and accused even after being innocent. (Innocent until proven guilty, a majority of those men have not been proven guilty as there is no proof)

Editing

When flashbacks are being shown on screen, it is important that it is clear to the audience that the scene is from the past. In order for the flashback to be apparent, during the process of editing the film we changed the natural colour of shots we had taken and changed it into a sepia shot. By doing this we have used the convention of flashbacks. It was difficult to challenge this convention as flashbacks can be shown in a number of different ways. Some are shown from the difference of camera angles, some are shown from the change in music, some are shown by the way in which the transitions move from scene to scene and some may be shown by the change of colour. The choice of how you illustrate the flashback is dependant on the producer and his/her ideas.