Question One

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

Our media products use forms and conventions of real media products. Firstly in the short film we wanted to make our film similar to Mr Bean according to Camera, Mise-en-scene, Editing and Sound. However for the print products we did look at other case studies like East is east and four lions. In most of the Mr Beans clips which we viewed on YouTube as part of our research and planning we noticed that in relation to camera work, he mainly the main focus on the camera and there is a mostly mid to long shot of him to show his attitude and behaviour because Mr Bean is about a guy who does a lot of slapstick comedy and physical humour which makes the comedy of the film and we wanted our film to be like this and we wanted our main character to be more or less the same as Mr Bean and for this reason we mostly used mid to long shots as well to make the audience see his physical humour for example at the beginning of the scene when we build the main character up by showing only the bottom half of his body and then when he comes into the train we pan the camera to a mid shot and show the upper part of his body. We did a mid shot of this to show his body language and his facial expression. We also used a long shot of our main character to show the people around him and their reaction as this could also show comedy. In Mr Bean we found a lot of long shots of him to show his surroundings and the scene clearer and we also used this shot in our film. When he comes out of the stations at Stratford he walks through a bunch of people as it is a busy area and we wanted to have this as a long shot to show the people the reaction of the people around him and this connote that he is actually from another country and is foreign. Mr Bean also uses close ups on his face to see his facial expression, Mr Beans facial expression is brilliant and he makes comedy through his appearance and physical behaviour and he doesn't talk much so he would need to use a lot of facial expression in order to show to the audience what is going on and for this reason close ups would be required, we thought this was a very key shot to use so we used close ups to show facial expression and we also zoomed in to a close up to show his facial expression for example when he gets slapped on the train by the girl because the girl thinks he is perving on her she slaps him and we zoom into a close up shot to show his facial expressions. We also used a point of view shot to show what the main character is seeing, for example when he is having a day dream he looks at the girl when he trips while they are skipping to their picnic area and the camera looks at the girl from Monty's point of view shot. We couldn't see many shots of this in our case studies but we used this to be more original and unique. Our film consists of a romantic scene which challenges forms of real comedy media products and especially our main case study Mr Bean because his films area mostly about comedy and nothing else but we portrayed comedy scenes and also a romantic scene so we were being original and different in that sense in relation to our main case study.

In terms of Mise-en-scene and Sound we also tried to follow these features in our films the way shown in real media products and we tried following there forms and convention. In our main case study Mr Bean he is dressed smart and he looks really formal because of his suite, tie and shirt he even carries a bag around looking like some sort of business men but even when he is dressed smart he still looks funny because of how his trousers are you can see his entire socks. And we wanted this in our main character. we realised from this that even though the main character should have a funny physical attitude to him the audience should find it funny even by looking at him just by his dressing and for this reason he made our main character wear a beige colour blazer, red tie, dark blue trousers and also a white shirt similar to the character of Mr Bean however we developed this convention by having our main character wear a sun hat to show that he is in holiday from another country, we made sure that he also had a back pack and not a formal bag, a backpack to show as if his going to a picnic of some sort. We even made our main character put the end of his trousers into his socks to make it even funnier. This was quite unusual to see in a character and so for this reason we thought it would be perfect for our character because he is acting weird in the comedy sense throughout the film just like Mr Bean. In terms of our locations we varied it according to the settings we needed to fit out story line. Our films story was about a man who tries to get to the Olympics and is new to the country and so we decided to set this in Stratford where the Olympics took place and we even used a location of a big field for our romantic scene and we followed this convention from our case study on the romantic scene on the romantic Indian song 'thuje dekha tho yeh jaana saanam' and in that case study the video is taking place in a big field to show make it romantic with trees and nature around to give a soft and loving atmosphere to the audience and so we used this convention and also set our romantic scene in a big massive field with a stream of water passing by underneath a bridge to make the scene look more realistic in the idea that it is an romantic scene. The sound that we used was also that music track and we played it in the background of that scene to make it scene more like a romantic moment and a common Indian day dream and we wanted to implement an Indian stereotype in our film and this is where we used it so we decided to use a Indian song for this. We also used a 'bhangra drum' tune to go at the beginning of the film when the audience haven't met the main character Monty yet only the bottom half and this was because firstly we wanted to build up suspense and wanted the audience to feel a bit impatience to know who the character and we thought the drums could help do this and also because the drums relates back to the idea that he is from a foreign area Pakistan and has landed into a British country so the beat could reflect back on his culture and the audience could see that he is from an Asian country. A lot of editing was done in order to give the film continuity. At the beginning of the film we used fast cut shots to build the mystery of who the character is because during them scenes only the legs were shown of the character and the whole body hasn't been introduced and for this reason we edited the shots to a fast rate. We also slowed down the speed of the camera when the girl walks up towards him on the train and we placed a slow track behind it as well to make it seem as though his fell in love and his breath has been taken away by this beautiful girl which then leads to him having a day dream. When the day dream appears the shot fades out and the shot goes lighter, to make it seem more of a misty effect of a day dream. during the day dream the edges of the day dream scene was not clear and fuzzy to give the idea that this scene is not real and is taking place in his head. To make it seem as though he is thinking about it in his head and it is not actually taking place in real life. 

We also followed todorovs theory of a clear narrative structure with a beginning, middle and end. At the beginning of the film he comes into the country and is new to England, his really excited about the Olympics and he can't wait to get there. In the middle of the narrative he is on the train and meets this beautiful girl whom he falls in love with and has a day dream about, he suddenly comes back to life after she slaps him whilst calling him a perv. Lastly he gets to the Olympics however his ticket is out of date and he can't believe it, so we ended the narrative with a sad ending.

Our poster did follow the main conventions of a comedy movie poster. Again we completed our movie poster using a mixture of forms and conventions from three separate case studies. Our main case study for the movie poster however was Mr Bean. We liked the way the main character in this case study was the only and main focus in the poster and this was because he is the character with the leading role. He poses in a funny pose portraying the genre of the film and the audience could see that this is a comedy film so we wanted to use this and like this the most about those case studies so we decided to use it in our case study as well. We placed a picture of Monty in a funny pose and thus displaying the main character and also connoting the genre of the film. The shot type of the main image in Mr Bean the case study was a long shot, ideally we wanted to do the same shot however we couldn't because we couldn't find a suitable image for this so we just kept the main image to a close up. From east is east case study we liked how the characters were standing on the title and also liked the use of the stars displayed in the case study in which each star had a name of the director, producer and other people's name who took part in the making of the film. And we wanted to use this in our case study as well. So we placed the title underneath the main image to make it like his standing on it however we had to change the image into a picture of his face only because we couldn't find any other picture that would be best for the main image of the [poster and so we couldn't implement this convention in our own poster. On the other hand the other convention we intended to place in the poster regarding the stars we did implement and was successful however we developed this convention into bubbles that were coming out of his head to make it seem like he was thinking about them thoughts. The bubbles were a picture of the girl and the Olympics, two main topics of the film and his pose in the main image also looks like his thinking about something or as if his received an idea so the two conventions does work. Lastly we also saw in one of our other case studies that the tag line was rather interesting it said 'same family different country' and this case study was west is west where there is a sequel in which the film takes part in. We wanted to use the tagline in the same structure but just different words we wanted to initially use 'same Monty different country' however the teacher thought that this would not fit well as our film was not a sequel and west is west, where we got the tagline from was, and for this reason it won't make sense in our film. overall we did place all the features in which a professional movie poster would have, i.e. the title, the website, the age rate, the quotes, the tagline, the main image, the producer of the film, the date in which the film is issued as well. We also followed the colour scheme in our movie poster as we did in the film as well and the colour scheme was black orange and yellow, where the orange was the most dominant colour because it connoted a bubbly and lively attitude just like our main character Monty. The title 'MONTYS DAY OUT' is written in a way in which it shows the genre of the film because the name Monty is written in a comedy and cartoonist way to connote the behaviour of the character which is funny and full of life. And the day out is in white to make it stand out and grab the reader's attention and by having it bold and eye catching you immediately get the idea that something is definitely going to go wrong in Monty's day out and this is what we intended to connote through this. The font of the rest of the writing in the poster is also cartoony and isn't really a serious font type but more of a informal kind to connote the genre of the film. 

Our movie review also follows conventions of real media products because firstly the image that we used is a still image of him looking at the security guards and this is a long shot. We used this image because it clearly defines the character monty, which is innocent and confused due to the reason he has just arrived in a country he doesnt know about. Secondly it also explaines the genre of the film using this image which is comedy because his glare is over exagerated and funny.The way in which the Monty is posing in the main image of the review it seems like he is staring at the readers and this could help grab the readers into the film because he looks at them dirrectly, through this he also seems like his present infront of them because of the his using eye contact. The movie review also includes conventions in which real conventions would use for example the star rating, a tag line, the date the review was issued and by who it was issued, it also includes seperate other conventions like who the film stars i.e the director and producer. This stands out from the rest of the text to help grab the readers attention and so if they see the names who directed or produced the film they might want to read on because they know who the director or producer is. We have also made a 'verdict' box which act as a warning box that helps to grab the readers attention and we have found this in a case study called 'the kite runner' and they also try and advertise the film through this 'verdict box' use, and we thought this was an interesting technique to use, because we could use it to sell the film and advertise it so that the audience feel eagered to know more about the film. Note that the film name 'Monty's day out' is written in a different colour to the colour it had in the film poster and we have found this technique being used also in 'The Kite Runner' review, so this also shows that we are following conventions of real media product. We had to keep this colour because the background of the review was white and we had to keep the film name there so we just changed the colour and we found this being used in another case study. As many reviews have a page number, the magazines name and the date at the bottom of the review we have also kept this in our film review and by having lines in between each to separate them it looks professional, we also found this being used in the review 'the kite runner'.