BY: HASSAN TAHER

Question 1: In what ways does your

media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of
real media products?
 Brief Outline

 The tasks that we were set for our G324 Advanced Portfolio was to produce a 5 minute short film and top of
that each group had to do their own ancillary tasks which was:
 A film Poster
 Film Review

 Everyone had to create their own Film Posters and film review which shows a detailed interpretation of our
film which is for the film review, whereas the poster shows symbolism of our film genre.
 When it came to brainstorming before the project began, we had to decide which genre we would want our
film to be based on like we had many options such as comedy, action, horror, thriller and drama. But at the end
we decided to make our film genre drama. This is because we initially thought drama is such an when we
looked back at our target audience most of them responded that they preferred drama, hence why we decided
to create a drama film. Drama films are very common to us, as the story lines reflects back to our daily lives and
we intended to do that as our film conveys powerful messages regarding topics about anxieties teenagers face
in todays’ society.
 Codes and Conventions

 Codes- This term refers to the ideas of within a media text, these are signs that hints something
to the audience.
Types of codes:
Technical Codes: this is the way the equipment is used to create meaning and aid in telling the story.
For example, props, when a serial killer has a knife, through which the audience can depict that
something dangerous is about to happen.

Symbolic Codes: This is the director’s way in aiding the audience in figuring out the deeper and
implicit meanings within the narrative. For example, a characters actions and speech can evidently
dictate how they are feeling within.
Our film is classed as a drama film, which follows a girl, called Amirah Khan who is depicted as a
normal person on her day-to-day life. We go in a poignant journey discovering her life story and what
tragedy she has come across in her life, through the use of voice-overs. This allows the audience to
understand the storyline as well as sympathise with her by understanding her true feelings that she
has got from her unfortunate experience. The conventions of the genre, drama, involve displaying
realistic and relatable characters, which correlate with the sense of pragmatism within the settings
and in the storyline itself. A drama is meant to impact the audience and make them feel some type
of emotions through the build-up of tension, conflict, and struggles and even physical pain. This
should allow the audience to be able to emphasize/ sympathize with the character due to their
pragmatic representation. Our film follows the codes and conventions of a typical drama.
Generic codes and conventions
 Setting/Locations

 Setting and location plays an important part of a film-making and are not just ‘backgrounds’.
 The three main location we have used in our film is a Gants Hill under ground Station, Seven Kings Park and our
cinematographer’s house which is Tanika (Cinematographer).
 Settings can manipulate an audience by building certain expectations and then taking a different turn.
 The two main location for our film was in the underground train station and our cinematographer Tanika house

Tanika’s House Gants Hill Underground Station

 Titles, studio, distribution company, production company,
actors, final credits production teams. Director etc.

 Title- Our film title is ‘Bad Faith’. The reason why we went with this title is that our film’s genre is
drama, and we wanted to incorporate how life situation tends to have consequences, such as
portraying society issues with teenage couples nowadays. We as a group thought that this title
would be suitable as it relates to storyline perfectly. Distribution company- As a group, we
believed that it was in our best interest that the best distribution company would be Future
Shorts. The reason being is that this company has a reputation of launching the bests short films
by filmmakers and setting up a new platform for young aspiring filmmakers. Our source of
distribution was mainly our ancillary tasks which consisted of a film poster and film review to
reach out to our target audience, we followed a typical strategy to how film companies reach out
to their target audience.
 Costume/Props

 Costume, Hair & Make Up act as an instant indicator to us of a character’s personality, status and
job.
 -It immediately tells us whether the film is set in the present and what society/culture it will
centre around.
 - In our film, both characters will be wearing normal casual clothes to set the present setting. As
time goes by, the characters will be switching up their clothes to symbolize how time has gone by
in their relationship.
 - Looking at Make up, our protagonist Amirah make up will change as the bit where she gets
brutally beaten up by Jesse, her scars will reflect on the domestic violence she has experienced in
her relationship. This will symbolize the idea how in society is patriarchal, as in this case women
are seen inferior to men.
 This is very important for our production as it helped me create a believable verisimilitude for the
audience within the film. As we had tried to conform to the codes and conventions of a drama
film. We used props that are very common in society, so the props we used was mobile phones
to show how time has gone by in Jesse and Amirah’s relationship, Knife which symbolises the
weapon Amirah used to kill Jesse.
 Editing

 We intend to use slower paced editing at the start of the film to help develop the tension as
Amirah walks closer and closer to the edge of the platform rail. However, as the film gradually
progresses with the use of flashback to explain why the character has ended up where she is in
the present, this will help the audience to understand the narrative of the film clearly. Since I was
the editor I organised a clear step by step guide on how I would make the best out of this
production. To successfully achieve this, I have the opportunity to use software’s such as Final Cut
Pro to assemble a great film. Furthermore, I have the ability to be more flexible using Final Cut
Pro due to having experiences in working alongside the editor for my previous group and some
extensive research on this specific skill for me to execute this attribute to my full potential.
 Titles and Credits

 At the beginning of our film, we state who is our director and we move on to show the title of our
film and that is ‘Bad Faith’. We decided to start it off in this way, as when it came to researching
short films most of them introduced the film in this manner. We had our title in white with a
black background because white connotes the idea of innocence and vulnerability and our
protagonist lived up to that expectation as she is seen as a powerless young woman. The font we
used was Vtks Madalena, and this font went very well with our film concept as the film shows a
broken image of our protagonist Amirah as her life becomes worthless and helpless. We did not
encounter any problems, as we knew what fonts we were going to use from the beginning.
However, getting this font was very difficult as this was not available on the computer, that is why
we had to look for a font and thankfully we managed to find one and download it onto our
editing software.
 Characters

In our film, we have three characters and their names are Amirah Khan, Jesse Fraser and Soraya
Flood. This film focuses on a poignant journey of Amirah Khan and she narrates to us her emotional
life and how she came face to face with her darkest moments in her life. Jesse Fraser is shown as a
humble and friendly character as we see how much affection he has for Amirah since they were in a
relationship, due to the fact that he is a black male character his attitude and persona is shown
clearly after when he is caught cheating on her for another woman, he retaliates his view by abusing
Amirah is a vicious manner resulting her to fall into her demise. Soraya Flood had a minor role to play
as she is Jesse second love interest as she comes in the way of Jesse’s relationship with Amirah as
she wants Jesse all to herself. This story results in a negative way for Amirah as her life comes
crashing down with a broken relationship which results in her committing suicide. This story will
seem relatable to the audience as our film conveys the issues of what teenagers face in today's
society, hence this could build a bond between the audience and the characters.
Amirah Khan Jesse Fraser Soraya Flood
 Music/Voiceover

 The main music we used was a soundtrack called despair and triumph as this was an
emotional soundtrack, we initially used this to correlate to Amirah sad story and go
with the narrative. The Voiceovers were mainly from Amirah as this her story and she
is narrating to us her story and what feelings and emotions she has gone through. We
had voiceovers throughout the film as this will ad the fluidity to our film and so that
the audience can understand and sympathise with her. We decided to use voiceovers
as it conforms to the codes and conventions of the genre of drama, We wanted to
highlight the key elements of drama for our target audience. We also decided to use
score music throughout the entire duration of the film. We chose slowly paced score
that was primarily composed of a piano. We chose this score as we believed that it set
the mood of the film. The score music helped to set the theme of sadness and despair
throughout the film. This helped to attach the audience, as it would’ve made them
feel emotional. Overall, I believe that our media text included enough codes and
conventions that are typical of the drama genre. We decided to not put the score
music throughout the entirety of the film as that would be seen as repetitive, we only
incorporated the music when we show significant moments in our film and if any
emotions were displayed to set a mood for the atmosphere.
 Narrative

 Narrative theory is the way in which a story is told in both fictional and non-fictional media texts. We followed
a non-linear structure for our short film, we intended to do this because we thought this would appeal to our
target audience as they can put the pieces together and know what the film is about. From the start of our film
we immediately created tension, this enabled us to create an enigma for the audience as we wanted our film to
be very non-linear so that the audience could interpret their own view of our film. Towards the end of the film,
you will see how much pain our protagonist has to bear as her love interest(Jesse)cheats on her, on top of that
she gets assaulted violently by Jesse as well. The story shows the hardships of Amirah’s life, hence why she
decided to kill herself to get away with all the suffering she has faced in her lifetime. At the end of the film, it
doesn’t finish off with a happy note as Amirah realised that her existence in the world is no longer worthwhile
hence why she jumped off the platform and committing suicide. We decided to end the film like this is because
we thought that we wanted our protagonist to take a drastic step and see how the audience would react.
 Character representation

 Throughout our short film, there are various of representations of both Amirah and Jesse, which
alter the way our audience views the characters. Representation has a direct link with
stereotypes of either men or women which are heavily portrayed in the media these days on TV.
For example, in our film, the male character is black and black people have the ideal stereotypes
of being strong and rough which is clearly evident in our film when he assaults Amirah. However,
moving onto women’s representation in our film we see Amirah as a vulnerable and sensitive in
the film, this is shown in the film as we see her vulnerability triggering when her trying to assert
authority onto Jesse backfires completely. This could be argued that our film conforms to
society’s norms and values of women being oppressed by men and the force of patriarchy have
total domination over them. Overall we show the generic representation of both men and
women accurately in our short film. If the audience were to view our male character they would
see he is the antagonist of our film due to the traits he portrays within the film such as his
physicality and his overwhelming strength to dominate his partner.
 Short film/ poster/ mag review codes and
conventions…

Film poster and review codes and conventions

 The codes and conventions of a typical drama film poster revolves around both the male and
female symbolising their relationship, however I decided to put in my film poster the protagonist
because I believe that the protagonist played a pivotal role in our short film, hence why I decided
to put her in poster since shes the main star of the film. We found that most drama film poster
incorporate a colour scheme and I decided to put colours such as white, black and grey. The
reason why I decided to use these colours is that I wanted to show signs of contrast within her
character, e.g. the use of white shows hope and innocence, whereas black shows how
destruction and darkness have come onto Amirah’s life. For our film magazine, the ideal codes
and conventions a film magazine contains are quotes which relate to the quality of the film.
Moreover, the quotes can be from our target audience or from other film magazine companies.
One of the main features we have included in our film magazine is a final verdict, this is where
film critics scrutinise our film debating the good and bad aspects within the short film and it sums
the whole film in general in a few sentences. This decides whether our film is worth watching for
our target audience.
Our film posters and reviews
 Location

 Our film contained few locations such as Seven Kings Park, Tanika’s House and Gants Hill
Underground Station. The use of having a variety of locations enables our film to be realistic. The
main location our film would be Gants Hill Underground Station, this is because the location had
triggered the suspense and tension our film was displaying. The location showed the last
destination Amirah would end up in before she decides to commit suicide. The symbolism of the
train station conveys the idea of having a transition in life as in moving to a different place, and
Amirah did the complete opposite instead of going away from her troubles in life she does a
cowardice move by ending her life.
Semiotics representation through sound/ symbols/ images
or icons

 Semiotics is a very integral aspect of a successful film. Semiotics is the study

of signs and their meaning in society. A sign is something which can stand for
something else – in other words, a sign is anything that can convey meaning. We used
various symbols in order to exemplify clear enigma threads leading up to the plot
twists. This will, therefore, allow the audience to get clues or hints on what will
happen next. For example when we saw a knife that was covered in blood clearly
indicates that someone died. Another example of where we used signs to create
meaning was when Amirah came back home not knowing that Jesse is in bed with
someone else, this creates the tension of Jesse getting caught of having an affair with
another woman behind her back.
 Representation, codes/ groups etc…

 It could be argued that throughout our film there are various of representations of both Amirah
and Jesse, which alter the way the audience to view our characters. Stereotypes come under
representations heavily as we followed the ideal stereotypes of men and women as, such as
women being fragile and vulnerable, whereas men are seen to be dominant and tough. This is
evident in our film as we see how Amirah’s fragility allows Jesse to overpower her in the domestic
violence scene as we see Amirah sinks to her demise allowing Jesse to have full advantage over
her. Codes throughout media are very important as it helps convey the story and depict a deeper
meaning. There are two types of codes which are technical and symbolic codes. Technical Codes,
this is the way the equipment is used to create meaning and aid in telling the story, whereas
symbolic codes, this is the director’s way in aiding the audience in figuring out the deeper and
implicit meanings within the narrative. We also incorporated the use of camera not just to
capture the significant moments, but the camera also expresses and portrays the story of its own.
For example, the use of extreme close-ups helps the audience to depict the character’s emotions
and feelings.
 Audience Theory

 An audience is a group of spectators/listeners that consume media. Media needs an audience,

otherwise there would be no one to consume the products – hence, no profit will be made. This
in turn will cause a decrease in the amount of media, as there will be no one to consume it.
 Audience Types
 It is argued that there are two different audience types in relation to media products: passive and
active.
 Passive:
 A passive audience is an audience prefers not to interact. A passive audience takes in text and is
effected, however they don’t actively respond to it. For example, watching a game without
playing it. An example in relation to media would be watching a film and understanding the plot,
however as a pass time or as enjoyment.
 Active:
 An active audience is an audience is an audience that has an interest in involving themselves with
the content, as well as creating a meaning out of it. They actively involve themselves with any
messages or coding in the media. For example, this could include questioning certain aspects of
the plot, or finding a deeper meaning.
 When choosing a target audience for a piece of media, it is important to consider if the audience
will have to question or accept the message as it is. If an active audience is chosen, the plot must
be compelling with an enigma to engage the audience. If the audience is a passive audience, the
plot must be somewhat simple.
 Theory

 The fundamental aspect of our short film is based on conflicts between teenage
couples in today's society. So we incorporated Giroux theory, he believed that we deny
reality and simply believe what is in the media. Therefore, we intended to show what
the media think of teenagers these days. His theory states people or adults believe
whatever the media portray teenagers they are right although that’s not always the
case because the media keep demonizing teenagers which allows them to always
portray teenagers in a negative light. In our short film, we see Amirah committing
suicide and teenagers these days take these drastic steps which enable adults to label
them as ‘stupid’ or ‘trouble’. We don’t intend to send this negative message to our
target audience, instead we give them a lesson on how teenagers deal with their
situation and how adults can help them overcome that barrier and move on in life.
This idea helps us create realism as our film can be seen to our target audience as
something that happens in our daily lives.