QUESTION 1: IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL LIFE MEDIA PRODUCTS? ANGEL BIRDPART 2

Here is a link to our production: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGn0_tGAPm4

The first thing that our film started with was the production company name as every professional short film we analysed had this.

Our title was white as it stood out against the black background and represented the innocence of our protagonist in contrast to her dark situation. The glow conforms to convention as it highlights the genre of fantasy.

The score music playing was upbeat yet calm, signifying a dramatic start to our production.

The POV shot was used first to grab our audience’s attention and create a fast paced urgent atmosphere.

Diegetic breathing added to the atmosphere and created an enigma code as the audience want to know who the character is and what they’re running away from. This type of scene is conventional to the fantasy genre.

The contrast between the calm nature of this pan and the urgency of the previous POV shot further intrigues the audience.

The continued switching between POV shots and pans builds tension as the audience’s questions aren’t being answered.

The blurred point of view shot here shows Alexa desperately trying to open her door to escape from the bullies. The diegetic breathing highlights her panic and helps the audience sympathise with her. Here we inserted the diegetic rattling sound of the keys to create a verisimilitude and emphasise the realism.

When we switched to this shot, the sound changed from Alexa’s breathing, to a non diegetic slow paced, piano score. It showed the change in location as Alexa feels safer in her house.

The non diegetic score music also emphasises her sadness and helps the audience sympathise with our main character.

Throughout this sequence of shots, we showed both Alexa and the bullies as they got closer to her. This emphasised the seriousness of her situation and built tension before the time travel occurred, highlighting the fantasy genre.

This shot highlighted the contrast between the calm nature of the environment (the flowers) and the fast paced running of the bullies.

This establishing shot sets the scene and shows the audience Alexa’s house. We did this to show the audience the fact that she is a normal teenager to help them empathise with her and to highlight the fact that this is a normal environment to increase the surprise of the time travel that will occur later in the short film.

This close up shot shows Alexa as she has just entered the house. This close up shot shows her distress and highlights the sub genre of drama to our audience. In the shot her expression of fear helps the audience sympathise with her.

This high angle shot represents Alexa’s vulnerability and further establishes the inside of her house. The fact that the foreground of the shot has high key lightening shows the safety of the location Alexa will entering later in the narrative.

We decided to include this shot as it fits with the darker side of the drama genre. The low key lighting connotates the danger that the bullies represent. This is further highlighted by the diegetic sound present in this shot, created by the bullies banging the bats threateningly on the door.

This shot is present before Alexa is shown running up the stairs. The high key lighting represents her current safety in the house and is a convention of the fantasy genre.

This is an experimental shot that we used which represented Alexa’s desperation to get to the safety of her room, as shown by the focus on her feet.

This close up shot is the first in Alexa’s room and focuses on her facial expression which connotates her relief. The shot also shows the blood left on her face which represents the danger that she was in and helps the audience sympathise with our protagonist.

We then switched back to a POV shot accompanied by diegetic sound of the bullies shouting at Alexa from outside her house. This creates a juxtaposition to the beginning of our short film when we used a point of view shot when Alexa was running away from the bullies outside. This connotates that the house may not be as safe as Alexa hoped.

The low key lighting here again reflects the present danger that Alexa is in and highlights her desperation to escape. This challenges the forms of the fantasy genre where high key lighting is typically used. The high angle nature of the shot also connotates Alexa’s vulnerability.

This point of view shot shows the inside of Alexa’s wardrobe before she climbs inside. We deliberately showed this to highlight the fact that it is just a normal wardrobe. This allowed us to subvert the audience’s expectations by having Alexa travel back in time.

Additionally, this reflects the inspiration we gained from a real life media product- Narnia: the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

We used a foot shot before Alexa climbed into the wardrobe to show a link between Alexa’s emotions in both foot shots we used. In the first foot shot she was running away to somewhere she thought was safe, similarly here she is trying to achieve this safety by climbing into her wardrobe.

We used slow motion in this shot to build tension before Alexa travelled back in time. Additionally, we wanted to slow the pace slightly to show the contrast between the situation she is presently in with the bullies chasing her, to the safety and calm of the environment she will be travelling to.

This time portal after effect was used to further highlight the fact that Alexa travelled back in time. We also used this to address the convention of special effects within the fantasy genre. As we didn’t have access to CGI, we decided to use this after effect as it reflected the genre well.

This is the first shot that we show after Alexa has travelled back in time. It builds tension and is mysterious for the audience as the only thing they see is the sky which creates an enigma code as to where Alexa is.

The light blue sky represents the fact that even though the audience don’t know where Alexa is, she is safe. We used a dream filter on the garden scenes to further emphasise the change in location.

Here the diegetic sound changes to birds tweeting and a church bell ringing. This further connotates the change of setting and the safety of the new location Alexa has entered.

This is the first shot of Alexa once she has changed location. The audience are immediately drawn to her hair and costume which has clearly changed, creating more unanswered questions holding the audience’s attention.

The diegetic sound changes once again to include an old fashioned sounding song. This is the first hint that Alexa has travelled back in time and not to another world (as expected in the fantasy genre).

As director, I got the inspiration for this shot from a real life media product from a contrasting genre. I thought that it fitted well here as it disorientates the audience which helps them connect to Alexa’s confusion.

We used a point of view shot here to further help the audience empathise with our protagonist as they see the new environment through Alexa’s eyes.

Within the POV shot, Alexa’s attention is drawn to some objects sitting on the picnic blanket. This again hints at the fact that Alexa has travelled back in time and not to another world, subverting the audience's expectations of the fantasy genre. Additionally, the fact that these objects are old fashioned, helps create a verisimilitude within this scene.

This extreme close up of Alexa’s eyes allows us to use an eyeline match to the old fashioned objects she is looking at. We go back to the extreme close up of her eyes in between the shots of the various objects. The fast nature of these shots helps represent Alexa’s confusion and panic at the situation.

As director, I wanted to focus the audience’s attention on the props that we had used to highlight the specific time period. At this point some of our audience may be trying to work out what year she has travelled back to.

These audio cassette tapes would give our audience a further clue as to what time period Alexa has travelled back to, especially if they recognise the artists shown on the cover work of the tapes.

This shot teases the audience as there is a newspaper in shot on which they are unable to see the date. This keeps their attention as it hints that this may be an important prop further on in the sequence.

Here we used a close up to clearly show the confused expression on Alexa’s face. This is confirmed by her diegetic dialogue as she asks where she is.

We used a shot reverse shot whilst the characters are having a conversation as this is typical to any genre. We used a mid shot of Clarissa as it allows the audience to not only see more of the location, but it also draws attention to Clarissa’s costume.

This shot reveals to the audience Alexa’s full costume and may provide further hints as to what time period she is in. However, it also shows her facial expression which still represents her confusion at the situation she has found herself in.

In this shot we used a panning motion when Clarissa hands Alexa the newspaper. The fact that they both had their hands on the newspaper at one point connects the two characters and foreshadows their friendship that will grow in the sequence.

In this close up shot we alleviate some of the audience’s curiosity as this answers some of their questions (ie: what time period Alexa has travelled to), but leaves them with more questions to keep them engaged, such as how she ended up in this unusual environment.

Here we used an over the shoulder shot to show Alexa’s shocked reaction to the date on the newspaper. This is further highlighted by her diegetic dialogue. In the next few shots, the atmosphere of confusion continues until Clarissa offers her explanation of what has happened.

This shot shows Alexa’s reaction to Clarissa suggesting that the scenes prior to the time travel may have been a dream. At this point, the audience do not know whether what Clarissa has suggested is true. This keeps them engaged as they want to find out the truth. This allows them to empathise with Alexa as is she is clearly as unsure of the situation as they are.

We used a cutaway shot of a flower to represent the change in atmosphere between the girls as Alexa begins to feel more comfortable. The flower’s original colour is red before the filter was applied, showing that the danger Alexa found herself in has faded as her environment changed.

After the cutaway, the diegetic music changes to another song of the time period. The song here replaces the dialogue between the girls to show time passing. This two shot, showing Alexa’s more relaxed position, emphasises how Alexa has gotten to know Clarissa and is now more comfortable in her surroundings.

To further highlight the fact that time was passing, we cut to close up shots of the objects shown at the beginning of the scene. This shot shows the change in amount of Coke left in the bottles, implying that Alexa and Clarissa have shared a drink during their picnic, further emphasising that time has passed.

Again, the fact that one sandwich is missing clearly shows that time has passed and the girls have grown closer.

This high angle two shot shows the relaxed manner of the girls. We wanted to make it a two shot to represent their closeness after the time had passed.

This shot shows Clarissa giving Alexa the box containing the friendship bracelets for her birthday, re-emphasising the growing friendship between the characters.

This high angle shot, shows the audience, for the first time, Clarissa’s vulnerability as she is anxious as to whether Alexa will like the friendship bracelets. This helps the audience connect to Clarissa’s character and builds slight tension as they are unaware how Alexa will react.

We faded to this shot to again show that time is passing. This is shown by the fact that the girls have changed position and are now wearing the friendship bracelets. Alexa looking at the cassette tape shows that she has accepted the new environment but is still curious.

This cuts from the previous shot to show time has passed. The girls have again changed position and Alexa is studying another part of the environment. This gives the audience time to reflect on the events of the garden scene.

Over the past few shots we have shown the girls getting closer, representing their growing friendship. Here Alexa is showing Clarissa something she has read, emphasising the fact that she now trusts and is comfortable with her.

The close up shot of the empty plate signifies just how much time as passed.

This high angle shot of Alexa foreshadows the fact that her vulnerability will be present again once she has travelled back to the present day. She is shown yawning, which is further highlighted by her non diegetic voiceover in which she describes how she feels drowsy. This keeps the audience gripped as they don’t know what is about to happen.

The fact that we showed this shot of the sky before Alexa re-enters the time portal, hints to the audience what is about to happen, as this was the first shot we showed when Alexa travelled back in time.

The reappearance of the time portal again conforms to the conventions of the fantasy genre and highlights the fact that Alexa is travelling back to the present day.

At the beginning of this shot a non diegetic piano score plays which creates an atmosphere of mystery. We mirrored the slow motion shot of when Alexa climbed into the wardrobe, indicating that these events are linked.

This shot of Alexa’s legs dangling out of the wardrobe represents her in a childlike and vulnerable manner. The low key lighting foreshadows the fact that she is going to find herself in danger again.

We used this shot of Alexa climbing out of the wardrobe to show the audience the clothes behind her. This again emphasises the fact that it is a normal wardrobe and creates an enigma code for the audience as they are unaware of how she travelled back in time.

The shot from inside the wardrobe shows Alexa’s confusion as to what has just happened. It also confirms the fact that there is nothing unusual about the wardrobe like Alexa suspects.

At the end of this shot the diegetic score music builds in speed, creating tension as the voices of the bullies are heard outside. This reaffirms the danger that Alexa is in.

We used this shot as it deliberately shows that Alexa is still wearing the bracelet, hinting to the audience that the events of the garden scene weren’t a dream. This puts the audience in a more informed position than Alexa as she still is unsure of what has happened.

In this shot the audience see the bullies again, re-emphasising the danger that Alexa is in. This is connotated by their dark clothing (presenting them as the antagonists) and the bats connotating violence.

At the end of this shot, a diegetic voice is heard telling the bullies to go away. As the audience don’t see who this voice belongs to it creates another enigma code and keeps them gripped.

This extreme close up of Alexa’s eyes following the bullies leaving creates tension as the audience have to wait to see who the voice in the previous shot belonged to.

This is the first shot in which the audience see who the mystery voice potentially belongs to. The over the shoulder shot confuses the audience as they haven't seen this character before, so therefore wonder how she can play such a large part in the narrative.

A close up here was used to show the older woman waving to Alexa and wearing the friendship bracelet. This reveals to the audience the twist in our narrative, that she is in fact Clarissa in the present day.

In this shot, the dialogue in Alexa’s non diegetic voiceover confirms that the older woman is Clarissa. We did this in case some audience members missed the reference to the older woman wearing the bracelet. Additionally, to confirm this and link the two characters together, we showed Alexa wearing the friendship bracelet.

The last shot of our short film is a slow motion shot of Clarissa walking away. This gives the audience time to reflect on the themes of our production and twist in the narrative.