Conventions Timed Response

“Sometimes, working within constraints produces the most interesting work” (Branston and Strafford)

How have you used real media conventions to produce interesting or effective coursework productions?

Across my two productions (thriller opening at AS and music video at A2) including typical conventions found in both of these helped to create convincing work, and having to work around these enhanced my creativity. Essentially, the quote means that by having to include certain conventions the outcome is better than it would be without them, and if you challenge them the reasons for doing so must be justified. The audience expects to see these conventions within productions.

In my thriller opening a build up to the action is the first predominate convention that features and this was created in a number of ways. This is a typical thriller genre convention so by including it I was following what was expected. To achieve this build up and tension, there are many scenes of the protagonist walking on his own through a particular location at night time. This raises questions for the audience such as why is he on his own, where is he walking to and for what purpose? Therefore this creates anxiety because the audience is waiting for these questions to be answered and should be wondering whether something might happen to this character. This was not a particularly adventurous use of a convention, but it is often found in existing thriller films.

In comparison to this safe use of a convention, I was more able to experiment in my music video after not doing so very much in my thriller opening. I challenged a lot of conventions here by first of all using stop frame animation throughout the video, a feature which is not often found in music videos. Along with this stop-motion effect a concept was introduced, which again is challenging because music videos are often performance or narrative based. The concept was a toy camper van embarking on a journey through a house while a band member was out. I feel that this whole idea with the genre of music which matched the concept perfectly expressed how creative and adventurous I can be with production. By challenging conventions alone has proved progression from my AS production because I was not brave enough to do so then. I wanted to create something more exciting and original than a typical music video, but still containing other music video conventions.

I also followed the conventions in my music video by sticking to Goodwin’s principals. A distinct relationship between music and visuals was created and the use of stop frame animation exaggerated this. The shot cut exactly on the beat and the fast-paced genre of music matched the speedy cuts. A blackout appears at a particular point in the music when it stops and the images appear again when it starts, the action is also slowed down with an instrumental to highlight part of the song. By following these principals very closely here I was more able to experiment elsewhere in the video with other elements to create a vibrant production. This shows progression from my thriller opening because the guidelines in some ways were tighter and more restricting, at least that is how I felt creating it unlike with my music video. I realised with my A2 production that it was ok to subvert conventions as long as I justified my reasons for doing so.

By including a flashback scene in my thriller opening this again shows that I followed the conventions closely. I used a black and white colourisation effect to connote this element. The flashback featured the protagonist having a conversation with his sibling and giving her a present. However, he does not have a job so how did he afford to pay for this? The answer follows with the introduction of the ‘main dealer’, whose face is never shown, so this is another use of a thriller film convention. Although I did what was expected by using the conventions, I did not express much creativity like I did in my music video. If I had somewhere included something unexpected to throw the audience off track then it could have been a more exciting production. For example, somebody about to watch a music video would not be expecting it to be a concept idea built from still images in a stop-motion effect.

Close ups of the main vocalist often feature in performance based music videos but instead I used close-up shot of the toy camper van which means that another convention was challenged. This was a positive thing because it helped to create a personality for the vehicle and almost make it appear to be in place of a main vocalist.