Evaluation Question 1

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

For this question we shall identify the typical conventions of short films. We shall then explain how we have used, developed or challenged these conventions in our short film Life of Hermit.

Use

Short film conventions

A short film refers to any film not considered a feature film in terms of length.

Length:
Being as they are 'short' films, the maximum running duration of a short film is 35 minutes. However, the typical duration of short films tend to be around 5 - 10 minutes including credits. As if short films were any longer than 35 minutes then they wouldn't be classed as a 'short', instead they would be considered as a feature film.

Storyline:
Storylines for short films are generally in the form of everyday situations. This makes them easy to watch and also allows the audience to relate to what they are watching, which keeps them intrigued. Being as they are limited in length, short films usually have minimal dialogue, which develops characters through images and actions rather than through long dialogue sequences.

Characters:
Due to the length limitation of short films and the simplicity of the storylines, shorts tend to only include 1 to 3 main characters. As they only have enough time to create background stories for these characters. Shorts purposely do this as it keeps the audience engaged without having to pay attention to new information, which would happen if there was too many characters. Shorts are usually long enough for the audience to create a connection with at least one character, as they don't have developed enough storylines to do this with more than three characters.

Morals:
Although short films don't have to include morals, it is common that they can be integrated into the storyline as a message for the audience at the end of the film. Moreover, if the short doesn't include a moral then they will usually have a specific emotion as the theme throughout the duration of the storyline. As these themes and morals will give the audience something to think about and maybe relate to throughout the film.

Plot Twist:
The majority of short films will include a plot twist, as this is a common short convention as they simply help make the film more interesting. Usually when the plot twist takes place the moral of the story will begin to be apparent to the audience if there is a moral included.

Budget:
The budget for short films are mainly rather low due to the fact that they are unlikely to make money. This effects the amount spent on making them, also the producers of short films are usually first time film makers, experimental artist and film makers with diminutive budgets. Short film producers will usually only have 1 or 2 locations and actors because of this reason as they don't have the budget to travel great distances and to pay large casts. However, actors may work for free in some circumstances depending on if the are friends of the producer or if they like the storyline or moral which the film is promoting.

Niche Audience:
It is a formality that short films will have smaller audiences compared to mainstream films due to the length, creativity and simplicity of the storyline. Shorts will appeal to specific audience depending on the genre and style of the film. Additionally, a significant amount of the population are not aware of short films despite their easy accessibility. The prime reason for this is due to them not being advertised compared to mainstream films as the producers can't afford an advertising campaign to their budget.

Credits:
All short films alike mainstream films will include credits. Stating the producer and the cast, shorts also include titles.

All of the points stated above are general conventions of short films.

Genre Conventions

Before we can identify what genre conventions we have conformed to, we firstly need to recognise what genre Life of Hermit is and by analysing all of the themes used in our short film, we found out that Life of Hermit is a psychological drama.

Psychological Drama is a cross-genre between drama and the sub-genre, psychological. This means that the film include the same elements from both of these genres. Life of Hermit is a psychological drama because it involves a protagonist going through normal, everyday situations like a drama however, it includes a psychical representation of the protagonist’s emotions which is an element of a psychological film.

Here is a list of the main psychological drama conventions:

• Real life situations
• Personalities are realistic
• Issue with the protagonist’s sanity
• Themes about the mind
• Usually set in the present time
• Psychological films usually include a plot twist

We decided to conform to all of the psychological drama conventions because we believe that our target audience will find it easier to delve into the world of Hermit, as they are familiar with the themes and atmosphere of the film.

In order to get a clear idea of how we conformed to the conventions of a psychological drama, here is 9 key frames of Life of Hermit in compare to 9 key frames of existing films that include the same genre as our short film:

Life of Hermit

 Existing films

1. We were inspired by the unusual atmosphere used in the psychological drama film, Donnie Darko (2001), as throughout the film the main protagonist, Donnie, is followed by someone dressed as a rabbit. From this, it created an unusual atmosphere as we wouldn't know who is in the costume until the end of the film. This inspired us to create the same atmosphere by having the psychical emotions of Hermit wear masks that represent their emotions. We also used the same non-linear narrative as Donnie Darko as in the film, events repeat themselves until Donnie realises what he has to do. In Life of Hermit, the different scenarios that the protagonist goes through are repeated in order for him to realise that he is alone.

2. Throughout the film Black Swan (2010), the main protagonist, Nina Sayers, is psychologically consumed by her dark emotions and this eventually led to her downfall. We decided to follow the same events in Life of Hermit by having the angry emotion push Hermit against the lockers to show that the anger is consuming him.

3. In Fight Club (1999), the main character, Jack, has a split-personality disorder and does not realise this until the last 30 minutes of the film. While we didn't use the idea of having a split-personality, we liked the idea of how Jack found out that he is not what he believes to be. In that scene, Jack is with his split-personality in a dark room and from that, he realises that he has a split-personality disorder. We used this idea by having Hermit in a dark room with one of his emotions and from that, he realises that he is alone.

4. Both of the main protagonists in The Way Way Back (2013) and Life of Hermit have the same personality and looks the same. In The Way Way Back, the main character, Duncan, has a very awkward personality and in some ways, he himself can be seen as a hermit. While this film leans more towards the drama genre, we liked how Duncan interacts with real life situations so we wanted Hermit to act the same way as he does with the events that he faces.

5. In Shutter Island (2010), the main character, Teddy, is seen to be a normal, US marshal throughout the film until a plot twist occurs that reveals Teddy to be a mental patient. In Life of Hermit, we also used the realisation scene as a plot twist because throughout the film, Hermit is seen as normal teenager until the reveal scene shows that he is actually by himself the whole time and lives as a hermit.

6. Throughout the events in American Beauty (1999), the main protagonist, Lester Burnham, goes through his normal life with these dream sequences that reveals his ideal scenario, such as being with an attractive woman other than his wife. The same idea is used in Life of Hermit as the protagonist would want to have friends so he dreams of these scenarios where he is with a group of people, socialising, however he is actually alone.

7. In the film, Misery (1990), the main protagonist, Paul Sheldon, is stuck in a cabin from a car accident. While the plot-line of Misery and Life of Hermit are completely different, the themes of loneliness are the same, as it used as a key plot point for both films. Paul Sheldon constantly reflects on his isolation while he is stuck in the cabin and Hermit goes through loneliness with each event that he is in.

8. In the film, Rebecca (1940), the main character, Mrs. de Winter, marries a widower and from that, she is constantly followed and taunted by the widower’s first wife as a ghost. We liked this idea that someone being followed by something psychological so we decided to use the same idea in Life of Hermit as the protagonist, Hermit, is constantly followed by his emotions.

9. We decided that we wanted to use the same style of film score as other psychological dramas, as we believe it will set the right tone of the story. For the opening scene of Life of Hermit, we were inspired to use the same style of music as American Beauty and Birdman (2014) because it creates a strange atmosphere that represents Hermit’s personality. For the locker, reveal and park scene, we were inspired to use the same styles of music as American Beauty, Donnie Darko and August: Osage County (2014) because we wanted to create an emotional impact to the audience so they understand how Hermit is feeling.

Here are the soundtracks that we were inspired by:

Opening Scene

Locker scene, Reveal scene and Park scene

In summary to the genre conventions, it clearly shows that we have conformed to the conventions that a psychological drama includes. We have shown this by having the same themes and narrative techniques as existing psychological drama films, as well as being inspired by some of them.

Representation

Youth:
In Life of Hermit, teenagers are the only social group who are represented as our film includes only 1 main character who is Hermit the protagonist. The actor playing hermit is 17 years old, the film only includes him and the physical form of his emotions who are the masked characters. Before Hermit realises that they are his emotions, they accompany him when he is at parties and the cinemas.

During the party scene, teenagers are portrayed negatively as we see Hermit alongside his emotions drinking alcoholic substances such as vodka.

This represents teenagers negatively as drinking underage is against the law due to the obvious health risks. 

Also when Hermit and his emotions are playing a game of spin the bottle, this also portrays teenagers negatively as this game reflects reckless and irresponsible behaviour because the game can be harmful. It is also a negative portrayal as by playing the game the teens are gambling in a sense as it could land on them. Gambling is also illegal if you are under the age of 18 as the characters in our film all are. 

Gender:

Seeing as the protagonist of our film is Hermit, who as we have discovered is not the stereotypical manly male character. We have portrayed males in a rather mature light, as from the mise en scene that we have used and the clothes that we decided Hermit should wear I believe we have for filled this portrayal.

 Notice how the clothes that hermit wears are not the every day clothes that you would see teenagers wearing. By wearing a shirt, bracers and a blazer makes Hermit look like a mature male character. Also throughout the film we see lots of shots of Hermits school where he is doing sixth form at, this again conveys males as being mature and sensible as he is doing something that could give him a better future. Compared to how teenagers are normally conveyed in films as being immature, thuggish and troublesome.

Females in our film are represented as being slightly promiscuous due to the clothes that they are wearing. For example, in the party scene the female characters are seeing wearing tight and short dresses.

These dresses show lots of their body off which is snared upon nowadays in society as they are seen to make females look cheap. 

Mise-en-scene

For some Mise en scene in our film we decided that we would use medias forms and conventions. This can be an aspect that audience members are used to seeing conform to the conventions, so we thought that as our film may be difficult to understand, we decided that we would use and conform to the colourology, props and costume throughout out film.

We used wide shots purposely when filming in Hermits bedroom. The wide shots allowed us to focus on hermits actions whilst also being able to see his pink wallpaper.
  

We chose to film Hermits bedroom scene purposely in a pink room due to the colourology aspect of the colour. As pink is viewed as a feminine colour which has connotations of innocence, compassion and love, this reflects to the audience that the protagonist of our film is not the stereotypical manly macho male character. Instead it depicts that he is more of a independent and isolated character. Our group wanted the character of Hermit to come across in this way as we felt that this type of character would fit in with the narrative of our film. 

Camera Work & Editing 

In order to fully realise how we have conformed to the representations of youth and gender, we have decided to analyse the film through the use of camera work and editing.

Here is a video to show how Life of Hermit follow the stereotypes of gender and youth:

Theories

Throughout Life of Hermit, we have followed some narrative theories in order to create a familiar atmosphere to the audience while keeping the story original.

Here is a presentation that demonstrates all of the narrative theories that we have conformed to:




Develop

CHALLENGE
In this part of the question I will be explaining how we challenged forms and conventions.

Camera Work:

Rule of thirds is a technique film makers use. It is when you position the camera in a certain way that is proven to be more comfortable for the eye to see, enabling the audience to watch the main action in the shot without having to think about it. 

Example of ROT being used in film:

We decided that in our film we would challenge the rules of camera work in film. We decided that in some shots in our film we would subvert from the rule of thirds, and place the main image in the centre of the screen. I will show the comparison with our media product to existing media products using a key frame:

Our media product: 

Existing media products:

1 - Close up:

Life of Hermit: The beginning of our film shows a close up of Hermit opening his eyes and looking into the camera. We have decided that we would challenge the rule of thirds and have Hermit directly in the middle. We decided this would interest the audience straight away because it is unusual and may be something they have not seen before.

Frank: Frank is like our film in the use of Masks and has the same target audience, but unlike our film this film has followed the rule of thirds and placed the character on the right side of the grid.

2 - Cinema Scene: 

Life of Hermit: In this scene Hermit is in the cinema on his own. We decided that we would subvert from the rule of thirds in this scene as it shows the dead space around Hermit to express to the audience his loneliness and emphasise the empty seats around him.

Donnie Darko: Donnie Darko is the same genre as our film, and is also a non-linear narrative and the main character is somewhat like ours. But, in this scene they used the rule of thirds during the cinema scene but it is still effective because you can see the three characters but with the dead space and empty seats in the background.

3 - Medium Close Up/Seated:

Life of Hermit: This is the scene when Hermit is reflecting on his life and accepting his loneliness, so placing Hermit in the middle in this scene shows the two empty places beside him, but him choosing to sit in the middle represents that he is content with his loneliness and is accepting it and choosing it and by using unusual shots, it is reflecting his unusual personality. 

The Breakfast Club: The Breakfast club is based on young teens with different personalities and emotions like our film. This character is unusual and lonely like Hermit, but this film has used the rule of thirds.

4 - Establishing House Shot:

Life of Hermit: This shot is showing the audience Hermits front door. By using challenging the rule of thirds and leaving the door open after Hermit leaves it, gives the audience an urge to want to know more about this character and film because it is unusual.

Kill Bill: Like our film, the main protagonist subverts from their stereotyped gender. In this establishing shot we see the main protagonist entering the open doored house, in this shot we see the whole house but the main focus is on the protagonist who is walking in the rule of thirds and the main focus is on her, however in Life of Hermit the main focus is on the door.

We thought this may be risky to challenge this film, but after looking into it there have been successful films that have also subverted from this rule:

The Shinning (1980) has similar genres such as physiological horror and mystery. Using shots like when the main focus is in the middle of the image is something the eyes are not used to when watching a film, which adds to the mystery and physiology of the film.