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

As shown in the teaser trailer, I paid close attention to the mise-en-scene and the codes and conventions of my chosen genre, which is a drama. My use of strong female characters taking control of the situation, this is represented in by the character of Angela, she is incredibly head strong and cynic about the letter that she has received. However she is a stereotypical character and her character arc is stereotypical as well, mainly these independent strong women usually meet there demise or comeuppance, like Kate Winslet’s Character in The Reader (2008, Stephen Daldry) she is very independent woman and ends up getting herself into a life sentence in jail. However the characters that comply to social conformity end up becoming richer from the experience.

The distribution company as big as Miramax pictures have so much experience with drama pictures.
• The Piano (1993, Jane Campion)
• Muriel’s wedding (1994, P.J Hogan)
• Good will hunting’s (1997, Gus Van Sant)
• Chocolat (2000, Lasse Hallstrom)
• Amélie (2000, Jean-Pierre Jeunet)
• Doubt (2008, John Patrick Shaunly)
• Chéri (2009, Stephen Frears)
After looking carefully at the type of films that Miramax have produced it’ll be the same as my film as they’re in the same genre.

The mise-en-scene I used for most my scenes were carefully picked to create an emotionally effective scene. I chose locations in the home or places that are naturally comforting to be around, to therefore make the audience more tense to see a really bad argument happen in a place that is familiar and warm. This follows the same technique as Sam Mendez, who exploits the ‘American Dream’ by manipulating American suburban life. Another aspect of mise-en-scene I looked at closely the lighting and made sure that most of my scenes where brightly lit, especially the first scene where Angela see’s James, I made sure it was set in the daylight to lull the audience into a false sense of security into thinking that everything will be okay until they see the dead corpse on the bed. Another technique with lighting I used was coloured lighting, I used a yellow filter over the lighting in the scenes with Lucy, to make the room seem dirtier and darker, this is so the audience can grasps a better understanding of Lucy’s torment and distress. Another part of mise-en-scene that I looked at was the performance, drama genre is renowned for having substantial & award winning actors, so I made sure all my actors that I cast were from the performance courses at my college, and therefore they are able to create believe characters who are able to portray very complex emotions.