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

Conventions

Match on action:

• This was used as the very first clip. We wanted to start the film with a bang (or thump in this case) and the feet jumping down provided us with that. As walking followed this jump, we decided to add an interesting effect of the walker walking towards the camera and using match on action to shoot them then from behind.

• This really gave the effect that the audience doesn't know who this character is, and already gives the sense of someone sneaking and being suspicious.

• This effect took a while to master, as it needed the correct foot infront for it to look realistic. If we were to perfect it, we would cut it just before the walker steps ovr the camera for the first time as this would have been more accurate.

• This our other main use of match on action. We used a quite a few throughout, such as the peaking around the corner after running or opening the first door and coming through it or starting to walk up stairs and then viewing the character from the top, but this is the main one we used. The character is opening the door and then it switches to the inside of the room, closing the door. There are actually 4 shots in this sequences to show the opening, stepping inside, and closing, but I will only show the two main ones here.

• We chose to use this as it easily explained the movement into the room. The use of several shots also created a sense of haste and rushing, fitting with the music and previous shots. This is a general convention of films, however, by adding more shots between, switching back and forth, and using a slightly different angle, we have challenged this convention. Although it is slightly different, I feel it works well and does what it is intended to.

180-degree rule & Shot-reverse shots:

• During dialogue we used the 180-degree rule which is very common amongst dramas and films as this allows you to understand who is talking and the positions of the characters. An exception of this is 'The Peep Show'. They tend to use direct face shots with the character looking directly at the camera as if you were the person they were looking at or talking to. We used a shot like this during the conversation however it didn't work as well as we would have liked. It would have been better to use two shots like this, rather than other, and use the shot-reverse shot with the same type of shot/framing.

• To follow the rule, we kept the camera behind the characters and used their shoulders to do the shot-reverse shots. This allowed the viewer to know that Rachel was on the left whilst Philippa was on the right. We chose this angle for the rule as it allowed the viewer to see the map the characters were pointing to and refering to.