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

The Title of the Film and Setting/Location

At the start of the film in the 'dream sequence', the setting of the film is immediately presented to the audience through the iconic building of the Big Ben, one of the most prominent symbols of London. The purpose of using shots such as this, and others for example the London Eye, is to symbolise the wealth held in this city and how much our protagonist Jane wishes she was apart of it, as it is in her dream. Many people are aware that London is an extremely popular place to do feminine sports such as shopping, especially in the infamous road, Oxford Street (sights such as this also reinforce the target audience). Through our research, we have learnt that the use of an iconic or an establishing shot is an extremely common convention of a romantic comedy, and this further persuaded us to use it. An example is in 'Sliding Doors' where the location of London is established in an establishing shot:

Costumes and Props

This shot represents costumes and props. The magazines seen on the bottom left hand corner symbolise our protagonists desire for a more thrilling, more feminine, and fulfilling lifestyle. Close to the magazines we have scattered sheets of paper to symbolise her ordinary, lifeless working life. The juxtaposition of these two props emphasize the difference between her dream, and reality. The use of the magazine as a prop is very

typical of a romantic comedy which revolve around the media industry (for example, The Devil Wears Prada).

Similarly, the phone is another significant prop in our film opening. In this scene, the protagonist is holding an old Nokia phone, in comparison to the one she was holding in her dream, which was a Blackberry. The Nokia symbolises her low income, whereas the Blackberry symbolises wealth. Although, a phone is not typical of a romantic comedy, and it might challenge the conventions of a romantic comedy, it is an aspect which appeals to our target audience of teenagers and young women.

The protagonists costume is simple and one of her socks is pulled up, whilst the other one is down.We decided to use this because it is portrays a sense of quirkiness about the character, but also symbolises how her life is unsteady. As this convention is not used in romantic comedies, it is common among the more teenage romantic comedies, broadening our target audience.

Genre and how the opening suggests it

Although this challenges the ordinary conventions of a romantic comedy, it works well to represent the comedic side to the genre, and symbolises the protagonists lifestyle. The colours used in this shot such as pinks, greens, blues and purples can be identified a number of times throughout the opening of the film. We used colours in association to romance such as these to attract the target audience, but also to fit with the conventions of a romantic comedy.

The font style we have used from www.dafont.com, named 'Comic Andy', adds a sense of quirkiness which romantic comedies do not usually have, but which comedies do. It is feminine, what the protagonist is desiring to be, but still rather simple. The contrast between the credits created from beans on the toast, with the feminine backdrop represents our protagonists life. The backdrop symbolises her desire to be the stereotypical girly-girl, but the beans on the toast signifies her stereotypical working class lifestyle.

A shot similar to this was one from the comedy film opening, Napoleon Dynamite, where they take on a similiar aspect of applying credits using food. Although this shot complies with the conventions of a romantic comedy, it also challenges them

Camera Shots

Throughout the film, there are a variety of different camera shots used to improve the quality of our film but to also act as symbolism. An example of a shot that acts as a symbolism is the high angle shot of our protagonist going down the stairs.

We used this shot to reflect our protagonists status and how she is looked down upon, and the stairs reflect as how she is trying to make it to the top, but it stopped by obstacles, for example the piece of paper she has pick up, after it was dropped. We have also used close-up to reflect the important of an object in the clip. For example, the close-up of the tube map highlights its important as it is centre of the screen and also points out the next location.

We also used close-ups to highlight other important props such as the Blackberry mobile and the Nokia mobile. The close-up highlights there importance because it is centre of the screen, and acts as a symbolism of her social status in the beginning of the film opening, and her status at the end.

Camera work and Editing

One of the positives about our film opening is that the camera work really helped in creating symbolism.

The type of shots we used:

- Close-ups: showing significance of a prop, eg. tube map.

- Mid-shots

- Long-shots

- Establishing shots

For example, in the shot of our protagonist running down the stairs there is a high angle shot of her. This symbolises her social status and how she has to work her way up but is constantly interrupted and stopped by obstacles (such as the paper dropping). We also used editing techniques to help with create make our film as effective as possible.

Techniques which we used:

- Fast forwarding

- Reverse

- Overlap

- Soft Focus

Techniques such as fast-forwarding and reverse, were used throughout a number of times. This represented the feelings of panic that were created when she realised that she is late. These techniques are not conventions of romantic comedies, however techniques such as the reverse and fast-forwarding added to the comical side of the film opening.

Title Font and Style

To reinforce the genre of our film we used the comical font 'Comic Andy' from www.dafont.com, for our film title, and the credits. Its style is curvy, and very feminine, and appeals to our target audience. Although fonts are not a typical convention of a romantic comedy, it is used in comedies. The range of colours we have used such as pinks, purples, blues, whites, blacks also add to the sense of quirkiness. Both the title and the font reflect our protagonists quirky and the hidden out-going character that is deep down inside her.

How characters are introduced

Our aim when starting to film the footage was to make it clear who the protagonist is during the dream sequence. This was harder than we thought because of the location we decided to shoot it in, the busy, atmospheric Oxford Street. The first time our audience see our protagonist is as she is walking out of the train station in a low angle shot. Here she is portrayed as confident, quite happy, and fashionable character, reflecting her ambitions in life. As our film opening holds quite a unique beginning, it is not a recognisable convention of a romantic comedy. This convention is usually seen in Chick-flicks, for example, Mean Girls and St. Trinians.

Special Effects

In our opening we used a number of effects such as fast forwards, overlaps, reverse and soft focus.

In this screenshot below we used the soft focus effect on Final Cut Express.

We used this to represent the dream sequence. It is obvious that there is a difference in comparison to what a simple shot would look like, and this was our aim. We tested out a number of techniques for other members in our group, and asked them which one they thought worked better for a dream. They all voted this one.

Another effect that we used was the fast forwarding effect. We used this to represent the panic that she is in, and also to add to the comedy in our film opening.

The use of the reverse effect is used to convey that a change is happening, as the protagonists footsteps are being traced back, and then fast forwarded again. The purpose of this is to show the two alternative paths the protagonist could take in her life. These are not seen as a typical convention of a romantic comedy however, Sliding Doors does use this effect. Another exam

ple of an editing technique we used in overlapping. Overlapping two images shows that time has passed and we placed this effect inbetween the end of the dream sequence and when she wakes up by the Nokia ringtone. This symbolises that she is back to reality and is further reinforced by the change of phone ringtone (eg. from Blackberry ringtone to a Nokia ringtone, emphasizing her class), and the phones that are shown (the Blackberry and the Nokia). The use of modern technology is a convention of romantic comedies and this also acts as a way of attracting our target audience.