Q1a: Use of conventions...

using conventions from real media texts
 I'll remind you firstly of some of the prompts suggested earlier:

•     In what ways have your productions used or developed conventions adopted from real media products?
•     In what ways have your productions challenged or played with conventions adopted from real media products?
•     In other words, is your work generic, or postmodern – or both?
•     Some media producers adopt a style of working that is quite distinctive – explore how work you have produced may have been influenced by your own favourite producers/directors/designers/publishers.

There are clear overlaps between this topic and Research + Planning, though it has also been used in combination with Creativity for a question. Given the nature of the blogs and the evaluations, this should be the most straightforward topic, and the one you can bring most detail to...

This is also a topic where it might be worth discussing your print text, though I don't see any explicit instructions that you HAVE to within the spec.

You should not write a long intro for any DCRUP topic. HOWEVER, a BRIEF summary of what you did at AS and A2 should be your starting point:

At AS I created the opening two minutes of a new feature film (following on from a basic preliminary task), working within the slasher sub-genre of horror. I stuck with this genre/I chose [genre] at A2, creating a teaser trailer/short film.

The central issue here is GENERIC/FORMULAIC v ORIGINALITY, but there are various (overlapping) areas which can be discussed, such as (and this really isn't an exhaustive list by any means - this is a rich topic to tap into:

WHAT FORMAT

WHICH (SUB-/HYBRID)GENRE + WHY

WHY THIS GENRE

SAME/DIFFERENT AT A2?

HOW YOU RESEARCHED

KEY CONVENTIONS

EMERGING STYLE?

POMO?

WHAT FORMAT 

Consider the demands/limitations imposed by the format you worked within; as an opening/TT/SF were there aspects of the genre you couldn't reflect within your work? Did you find there were conventions within this format specific to your genre, or was your work reflecting general, cross-genre conventions (both surely?)? Were there any common aspects between AS-A2 which you developed? (Perhaps production co/distributor idents? Sophistication of editing? Greater variety of shots + set-ups?)
 

WHICH (SUB-/HYBRID)GENRE + WHY

Identify the genre. Is it a sub-genre of a larger genre? Or a hybrid genre? Why do film companies almost always work within recognisable genres?
Why did you pick this genre? Consider the following possibilities:
- I'm a fan of the genre so had a broad knowledge to work with
- I'm a fan of the director [NAME] who has worked mainly within this genre
- Halloween [etc] is one of my favourite films so I wanted to try to create something inspired by it
- I really like the genre, but am sick of seeing US versions/cliched middle class, Southern English characters
- I wanted a change from AS (and to challenge myself)
- I wanted to develop my genre work from AS
- the genre has clear codes and conventions which we could work with
- I knew I'd be limited to a teen cast, so made sure it was a genre popular with teens
- this also made (target) audience feedback more readily available
- there have been several recent hit movies within this genre (eg) demonstrating its ongoing popularity
- I knew of some local locations which would be ideal for a film within this genre
- I really wanted to try working with make-up/SFX which this genre gives an opportunity to do

SAME/DIFFERENT AT A2? 

If you worked within the same genre at AS and A2, you could pick out aspects of the key conventions to compare/contrast your two productions as a basic framework

Regardless of this, was your A2 work shaped at all by any lessons you learnt from AS work - by your mistakes or shortcomings at AS essentially?

Consider Propp and Todororv (+ Levi-Strauss: binary opposition) and your narratives: do you consider these theories to be still accurate and relevant? Perhaps you attempted a non-linear narrative at A2 (trailers should really move back and forth through time, ie be non-linear)

HOW YOU RESEARCHED

A brief point to cover in a sentence or two. Did you:

- view various texts from the genre

   - including historical as well as contemporary examples?

   - look for UK as well as US examples?

   - use YouTube to do this?

- research using the web (amazon? wikipedia? google searches? specific genre sites?)

- research using specific books (which you maybe identified using amazon/play?)

KEY CONVENTIONS

Consider the areas covered in the AS exam question on TV Drama:

mise-en-scene [costume/clothing; setting; make-up; SFX]

editing [pace; ellipsis; titles; transition; effects; cutting to music; jump cuts; intercutting or cross-cutting]

cinematography [framing; shot/angle types; shot variety; 180 degree rule etc; movement]

sound [music; diegetic v non-diegetic; cutting to fit music or creating music to fit footage; creating sound FX eg stabbing]

Its also worth considering the group dynamic: did working in a group tend to favour generic aspects? Would you have done anything differently if working individually (as always you need to tie such points into specific examples)? If you did work alone, do you contrarily think your work suffered from not being sufficiently generic (I'd argue in several cases it did)?

EMERGING STYLE?

Focus on the common links between your 2 productions: do you think you've begun to establish an identifiable style? If someone watched both, what might signify your involvement in both?

Don't be conceited on this point: if you do have a certain style then surely it will be based in large part on a particular film/director?! As much as every filmmaker will set out seeking to be original it is surely inevitable that they will build a style, and their film language, from examples they have seen, consciously or otherwise - look back at the point I raise in other Q1a posts about the likes of Brian de Palma and his Hitchcock obsession.

This whole area of style of course raises the issue of...

POMO?

You really must address this point: do you consider your text/s postmodern? Is this because of irony; intertextuality? Perhaps your narrative style is postmodern?