Critical Evaluation - Question 1

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

Whilst filming our production we made a concious effort to maintain continuity, continuity is a key feature when making a production as it is important to set the scene and establish the characters without confusing the audience. To ensure we didn't break continuity throughout our production we obeyed the 180 degree rule and whilst filming our production we aimed to use the same types of mise-en-scene, for example we avoided using different types of props, costumes/clothing, setting/backgrounds and types of weather that had already been filmed in order to not break this continuity. We also used a range of establishing shots to set the scene of the film and used eye-line matches as an additional piece of edit. 

Eye-line match

Eye-line match

However our production featured a time passing sequence and therefore in order to show a substantial amount of time passing as the characters in our film, love develops and grows we had to film a range of shots in different weather conditions and the characters in different outfits, despite filming in the same location, this was used to show a montage of the couple together and to show the couples relationship as it grew from a first date to them being in love. When editing this piece of continuity, we used fade in/fade out to express the passage of time, yet still maintaining a sense of continuity. The time passing sequence featured in our production reflects other montage sequences in films such as Beastly 2011 and Up 2009, both these films show a range of shots of the couple's together and as the love grows. Time passing sequences have been used in these films to generate a false sense of security with the audience, the couples are seen to be together a long time and therefore when something happens that rips the relationship apart it has a more dramatic effect on the audience as it is seen to be unexpected and spontaneous.

                         

Tea, Coffee and Cancer - Characters meet 

Beastly -  Characters first meet

Tea, Coffee and Cancer - Characters first date together

Beastly - Characters first spending time together

Tea, Coffee and Cancer - Characters as their relationship progresses and they become closer

Beastly - Characters as relationship progresses and they become closer

Tea, Coffee and Cancer - Characters spending more time together/ relationship progressing 

Beastly - Characters spending more time together/ relationship progressing

Tea, Coffee and Cancer - Characters now in love, female character in the males arms shows she is  comfortable sat in his arms and feels safe with him holding her

Beastly - Characters now in love - the female character falling asleep on the male shows she is comfortable in a relationship with him and feels she can do this due to them being in love

                                                                     

Once we'd establishing a narrative for our production we came to the conclusion that our film was that of a dramatic romance. After researching into this genre and real media products that revolved around our idea we noticed that romantic films are based around a male and female character, that in some cases are the complete opposite yet are still attracted to one another despite their differences. For example, the film Romeo and Juliet 1996 revolves around this concept that the two characters are not meant to be, yet still fall in love. We used a range of shots and camera angles in our production to reflect the romantic genre. For example we used a  medium close up of the characters sat in one another's arm to emphasise the couple in love, this type of shot is also used in the romantic drama Dear John 2010

Dear John - Medium close up on both characters 

Tea, Coffee and Cancer re-enactment 

Similar to this dramatic films are based around real life events and situations and as a result have a huge impact on the audience as they can relate to what is happening in the film. In the case of our film, the main character Molly suffered from terminal cancer and the character Alfie was addicted to alcohol and drugs. Drama productions generate a sense of emotion that necessarily isn't as easy to relate to as in such genre of film as fantasy and horror. Therefore using these real life situations that the characters go through made our production more realistic. We also adopted the idea of the characters killing themselves in the end, due to them unable to be together, this idea was based around the film Romeo and Juliet 1996, and we reflected this in the final scenes of our production, Molly's chemotherapy fails to work therefore she takes her own life instead of suffering with her illness and as for Alfie he finds the letter from the hospital in Molly's bag which explains her treatment hasn't worked, he then begins to drink and passes away.

Tea, Coffee and Cancer - Molly's suicide - Takes her life with drugs/overdoses - Medium close up

Romeo and Juliet - Juliet's suicide - Takes her life with poison - Medium close up

Tea, Coffee and Cancer - Molly's suicide - Long shot 

Romeo and Juliet - Juliet's suicide - Long shot

Tea, Coffee and Cancer - Alfie's reaction - Medium shot of his reaction to Molly dying

Romeo and Juliet - Romeo's reaction - Medium shot of his reaction to Juliet dying

Tea, Coffee and Cancer - Alfie's suicide - Takes his life with alcohol/overdoses to be with Molly in death 

Romeo and Juliet - Romeo's suicide - Takes his life to be with Juliet in death

Our production plays on the audiences emotions of happiness and sadness due to the film being the genre of dramatic romance. The film plays on both the highs and lows of emotion and therefore relates to Richard Dyer's theory of entertainment and utopia, for example by showing the couple in love, having fun together and being happy with one another this generates a sense of pleasure and cheerfulness amongst the audience. Whereas the death scenes in our production are very dramatic and realistic therefore generate a sense of grief and sorrow amongst the audience, they can relate to what is happening in the production and therefore be affected by what is happening on screen as a result of the characters taking there life to be together in death, rather than be apart alive. This can be seen to be relating to Dyer's theory of entertainment as the production shows both the intense emotions of love and sadness, according to Dyer these emotions are a  'utopian solution' that audiences will seek if they are lacking something in their lives, for example if they are bored they will seek the intense emotions featured in our production and therefore this will provide pleasure amongst the audience. We are confident that we achieved mixed emotions of audience pleasure throughout are film due to the feedback we have received, for example in general the audiences enjoyed the romantic storyline, felt moved by it and enjoyed following the story of the characters. We also received feedback which proved that the audience felt our film was tragic due to the characters unable to face their problems any more. The audience were sad and upset that characters took there life and therefore felt the film was both upsetting but also sweet due to the characters relationship and them being in love.
Link to audience feedback -
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Atu6KvJhadokdGw3Q2gtVEFBdEdBbmlOYVBhT1RkOEE#gid=0