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

Ragged 2wice

Evaluation Question 1
Andrew Jared Dean

Forms, Codes and Conventions Used

Short films tend to have a story that is very short, one that resolves in a very short time span. We developed a story that was short and easy to understand and one that unfolded in that short time span. A very famous short film Snap, is a very good example of such a story.

Short films have a lot of twists in the story. Our film is full of twists from the start of the film when Kamran is met by the bullies to the part where he meets the bully leader again. One short film that I had analyzed very early on which was full of twists is a short film called This is the Place.

Short films tend to have less dialogues and more action. We gave our main character less dialogues and the negative characters or antagonists more dialogues. However, we kept our film active by adding a dance scene and a few other enigmatic scenes such as the cigarette pack scene, the scene in the principals office and the scene of meeting the bully leader again. True Face was short film that had no dialogues at all but the story was clear.

Shots in a short film are very fast paced and so is the editing. Most of our shots were fast paced and so was our editing like that of a short film The Exam.

Short films either have no ending or there is an abrupt or sudden ending. We used an abrupt ending when Kamran enters the school again, when he meets the bully leader in reality. The short film, This is the Place also had a sudden ending, and that is where the idea of an enigmatic and sudden ending was used in our film.

We used ideas of juxtaposed shots in our film such as close-up shots of the Cheshire Cat smiling in a dark tone, from Alice In Wonderland that was released in 2010, directed by Tim Burton.

Short films usually contain a large amount of music to fill in the gaps of the story or dialogues. We used music and background scores by Kevin MacLeod. A short film that had a lot of music was Thats School, Thats Life.

Comedy films use music which is up beat and fast to add to the fast tempo of the story, or to assist a slow story. Most of the music that we have used has a fast tempo. Opening titles and end credits are something that short films do not focus much on. We have made our credits very simple. But comedy films have something to do with the main theme of the film. The title of the film has a stylish font (OCR A STD) and the 2 in twice is red because of the red tie Kamran wears when he is ragged.

Comedy films usually have certain kinds of factors such as clothes, make-up, acting, dialogues or characters that give the audience a reason to remember the film or certain parts of the film. This dialogue is repeated later when Kamran enters the school and hears the bullys voice in his head. We used the bully sidekick and gave him the dialogue, the choice is yours to Kamran.

This dialogue is repeated later when Kamran enters the school and hears the bullys voice in his head.

Comedy films are mostly made on a particular issue. Liar Liar! starring Jim Carry was a film on common practice of lawyers telling lies.

Our film revolves around the common issue of Ragging in the Pakistani schools and colleges. This is the main theme of the film and we have depicted how some students, such as the main character Kamran, are negative about this practice.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Comedy films also have a cast factor. It is commonly seen that a comedy film that has many characters such as Death at a Funeral (2010) had a huge cast. That way the audience is kept busy as the story revolves around the numerous characters. However there are also films that have a small main cast, such as Due Date (2010), which has Robert Downey Jr. and Zack Galifianakis. This requires a good story so that the audience does not get bored. Our story was not weak, but it required more characters to support it, which is why we needed 6 people on the main cast to support our story. These people were: Kamran Kamrans mother The Bully leader The Bully sidekick The Teacher The Principal

Forms, Codes and Conventions Developed

We have developed twists in many parts of the film. There is a twist when Kamran enters college on the first day and then is met by two bullies who ragg him and make him dance.

After that, there is a twist when Kamran attends his first class in college when someone sitting behind him puts an empty cigarette pack in his shirt. At this Kamran is caught and the teacher thinks that he is the one who was smoking and takes him to the principals office.

Then there is another twist when after scolding Kamran, the teacher and principal start saying Wake up Kamran! and then Kamran wakes up in the car with his mom waking him up.

The final twist of the film is where Kamran enters the college after he wakes up from his nightmare and he believes that nothing was real, till he meets the bully leader, the guy who he saw in his dream. So the film is full of twists and in fact, ends with a twist which is the best part of the entire film.

Enigma has been developed in the parts where twists are created in the short film, specially in the parts where Kamran is told to dance, to which he refuses at first, the part where the teacher catches him with the cigarette pack, when the principal is about to expel him from college and when he is finding his class room before he sees the bully leader from his dream in reality.

Juxtaposition is developed in the part where the teacher and principal are saying Wake up Kamran!. It is very disturbing to see large images of mouths on a screen and we did this to create a surreal feeling which would help the audience understand the twist and realize, like Kamran, that it was all a dream.

There were some areas of the film which had a dramatic tone. The dark tone or dramatic tone was purposely developed because it became a need. Since everything bad is happening to our main character on his first day of college, we thought that we should develop dark tones in some areas. Acting and music played a huge part in these areas. Examples of this effect are the parts where Kamran is caught with the cigarette pack and when the principal is about to expel him.

We developed real characters in our film by using people of older age groups such as the principal and teacher, and by using actors who looked like a nerd and bullies. In comedy films and in short films, looks and acting play a major role and especially if those actors have a natural look or tallent. Even though the mother of Kamran was not of the right age, we made her wear clothes and cover her head and wear a pair of sunglasses to look like one. We shot the film in our own school, Beaconhouse School System, because we wanted the location to be a real institution and this helped us develop the original college environment.

Extras were used in the film to make the environment a college environment. Had we not used these extras, it would seem that Kamran and the bullies were the only ones who went to college. The environment of the class room and the college corridor was created through the help of the extras.

In every film, props are used. Some black pain, a couple of pink ponies and a red tie were used to make Kamran look funny. A real cigarette pack was used to make the teacher take Kamran to the principals office as smoking is prohibited in most of Pakistans schools. A real car was also used to show that the mother was a modern woman who knew how to drive.

In films, it is very necessary to show in what era the film is situated in or based on. The use of mobile phones and cars helped us show that the film was showing the modern day college.

Forms, Codes and Conventions Challenged

The main character is usually the one who overpowers the screen by his/her dialogues. However, the protagonist of our film does not have as much dialogues as the antagonists do. In comedy films, the protagonist gets a happy ending and sometimes overcomes the antagonists. We did not give our character a happy ending, in fact we left it up to the audience to decide, but we gave an indication towards a sad ending. Short films usually do not have extras and in fact they have less actors, but we used extras to develop the college environment.