Media Main Task Evaluation - Question 1

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

The main conventions that my group and I discovered when doing our research on the ‘RomCom’ genre, was that there was always a contradictory commentary from the films protagonist, the credits generally faded in and out of the action, and also the last convention we picked up on was that there always seemed to be a point where the worlds idyllic view of love was mocked and ridiculed. When researching we decided that these three conventions were key when it came to our chosen genre. The contradictory commentary generally communicated the comedy element of the film because it wouldn’t match the action and what the character was actually doing. We incorporated this into our film by having a voice over playing when the protagonist was talking to the guy she liked, the voice over expressed what she really wanted to say and what she thought-but what she thought she would never have the confidence to say. We portrayed the idyllic view of love through a daydream that ‘Babs’ was having whilst her love interest was asking her about work, but instead of having an idyllic view of love, we showed an idyllic seduction that ‘Babs’ wished she was confident enough to actually do, and that was one of the ways that our film deviated from the conventions of the genre. This convention also provided an opportunity for comedy within our main task, and it also triggered another comedic element to our film, which was ‘Babs’ actually, trying to succeed in performing this idyllic seduction. Our credits faded in and our of our very opening sequence as they appeared when the camera was taking a journey into the office, revealing ‘Babs’ in her workplace, with one of the emails she is about to reply being read out and acting as a voice over. We noticed that this way of putting the credits in didn’t distract from any important action, and also this way they were clearly seen.
When comparing our main task to the films we researched, it would become apparent that our film is more similar to Bridget Jones as appose to the other films we researched. We had a female protagonist that was hapless, and couldn’t handle herself in romantic situations, without seeming awkward or uncomfortable. Our main task portrayed the same sort of clumsy image that Bridget Jones did, which proved to be the main source of comedy, and was what aided us when writing the screenplay-especially the section where she embarrasses herself. We decided not to begin our main task with something immediately comedic straight away, because we wanted to introduce our character and her workplace, something that not all of the films we researched did. For example, the film Music and Lyrics began with a fake pop band performing one of their songs in a music video, and the film About a Boy began with a screen in screen shot. We decided that by showing the audience where our character worked, with the voice over telling the audience what she really does when she is at work provided the audience with the information they needed to know straight away. Also, because Bridget Jones was our main inspiration, we decided that we wanted our commentary to be chatty and informal, which was what we did. In comparison to Bridget Jones, our commentary was more lustful instead of her pining for a loving, long-term relationship.
Our main task stuck to the conventions of the genre because we included the commentary that the majority of RomCom’s have in them, and also we clearly showed our audience who the main protagonist was straight away. We also stuck to the conventions because we showed an idyllic view of the characters idea of love/lust, and we also definitely stuck to the conventions with the way credits entered and exited. We also stuck to the conventions by having the protagonist as someone that looks as if they would never be able to succeed in a relationship. We also stuck to the conventions by using appropriate music to accompany the action, such as having a seductive piece of music accompanying the idyllic seduction. The credits also stuck within the conventions of the RomCom, by having them creep in and out of the action then having the title appear in big letters at an appropriate time in the sequence, when an important scene had come to an end.
Our task deviated from the conventions by having an idyllic seduction, rather than an idyllic view of love. We decided on this because we felt that this could provide more comedy for when she attempted to perform this seduction. Also, the seduction provided more opportunity for ‘cheesy’ lines to be used, lines that would make the audience cringe, but also laugh. We felt that if we had displayed the characters view of love, then we could have run the risk of the film not being as funny as it should be straight away. We also deviated from the conventions by having an email read out by the character through a voice over, because it’s rare to find a RomCom about an agony aunt. In comparison to the films we watched, it seemed as if all of the protagonists were very self-involved, and were moaning about their own problems, whereas in our main task, our protagonist is talking about other peoples problems and not her own. Then her own problems become apparent to the audience through the action, as appose to blatantly telling them through a voice over.