Evaluation Question 1

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

Convention: The widely recognised way of doing something, which includes content, style and form.

Conventions

In our opening, we used various means of mise en scene and cinematography in order to present and develop our storyline. In terms of editing, we used rapid frames (no longer than four seconds) in order to create an energetic atmosphere when Hadi is playing football. In addition to this, we added slow motion to some shots to emphasise the gracefulness of Hadi's movement and skill. This is a common aspect in many films with a sub genre of sport as it dramatises certain moments, hence it being used to show last minute goals in the films She's The Man and Goal. We also chose to include various conventions in our film such as young inner city teens being involved in crime. This convention was taken from one of the films that inspired us: Kidulthood. We utilised this convention as it allowed us to establish binary oppositions of good and evil between the hoodlums and Hadi, which therefore allowed us to challenge this convention, as it shows that young teens are capable of being both promising and hopeless. Finally, the sound that we used in our film opening is conventional considering the genre and plot. For example, we have Brazilian samba playing when our protagonist is playing football, which is typical of football films as South American music is strongly associated with the sport. Furthermore, as an urban film based on the youth of London, grime is also a common genre of music that is used. We also used it because films like Kidulthood and Adulthood have demonstrated the confrontational aspect that it can add to certain scenes.

Intertextuality

We also took some aspects from the two films that inspired us' Goal and Kidulthood, and incorporated into our own production in order to help develop our storyline. We took the location of a football pitch from Goal to emphasise Hadi's considerable footballing talent. It also allowed us to establish binary oppositions of good and evil between him and the two muggers when we filmed on a residential road in the second scene. This location also introduced a sense of danger to the scene as it is dark and had a low amount of passersby. In addition to this, our characters were also inspired by both Goal and Kidulthood. Our protagonist, who was played by Hadi, was based on Goal's protagonist - Santiago. We done this because we were influenced by his journey from an amateur to a professional; the same journey that we intended for our protagonist to embark on. The two youths that mug Hadi were inspired by Sam and his friends from Kidulthood. This is due to the fact that they are both youths from London, hyped and don't have a clear view on what is right or wrong because of their surroundings. The relationship between the two sets of characters is demonstrated by the similarity in body language, which highlights their youth culture.