media coursework

1. CCR TASK 1: ‘HOW DOES YOUR PRODUCT
USE OR CHALLENGE CONVENTIONS AND
HOW DOES IT REPRESENT SOCIAL GROUPS
OR ISSUES’
By Rufus Gleave

2. Genre
■ Our opening sequence is an adventerous, coming of age film
■ Some key iconography of this genre that can be seen in our opening sequence
is that it can be seen to be an adventurous journey by teenagers who want to
explore the world which follows the cponventions of coming of age movies an
example of this is the smiliarity between our opening sequence and the
sisterhood of the travelling pants which is also set around an adventure of
young adults wanting to explore. The music also follows conventions with a
indie style theme

3. Similar Films
The Kings of Summer (2013,
Jordan Vogt-Roberts)
Stand by me (1986,
Rob Reiner)
The sisterhood of the
travelling pants (2005,
Ken Kwapis)
Trainspotting
(1996, Danny
Boyle)

4. Editing
comparison
A comparison that can be made between
our opening sequence and trainspotting is
the switching between fast paced and slow
paced cutting between shots used in the
running sequences.

5. Camera
Comparison
In our opening sequence we used a
handheld camera during the running shots
which created a sense of immersion and
pace to the sequence this is the same in
trainspotting where the same techniques
are used.

6. Mise en scene
comparison
Our opening sequence takes place in a very small
british styled train station in the middle of the day.
Just like our opening title sequence Trainspotting
takes place in a similar location of a british styled
town.

7. Sound Comparison The same style of music has been used in
our opening sequence as in train spotting
following the british indie music genre

8. Narrative Comparison
The narrative of our opening sequence follows basic structure of coming of
age stores with teenagers, an adventure, an argument, a romance and
different stereotypical characters. We have shown this through use of
technical skills:
■ Camera – Wide shots to show the train tracks and arguments about
being late
■ Sound – Indie music soundtrack to create an upbeat theme to the
sequence
■ Editing - eye matches, long shots with not many cuts to create an
elongated peaceful moment
■ Mise en Scene – dressed up in raincoats and tracksuits for a gap year
adventure

9. Opening
sequence
titles – How
do these
connect to
the themes
■ We used a “mindflyers regular” font – conveys the
coming of age genre
■ White colour to fit with the bright colourful scheme of
our opening sequence
■ We placed some of our titles in spaces so that when
the train passes the title disappears however this was
done with editing the time on screen instead of
animation
■ These connect with the upbeat hopeful teenagers
themes as the font adds a cheerful and animated
twist to the titles

10. How does the ordering of the titles
follow institutional conventions of the
form?
■ Ordering of titles in films is laid out as a Hierarchy building up to the most
important at the end
■ Conventions for titles usually start with the people involved with editing and
sound and build up to the write, producer and editor at the end of the
sequence
■ We started the titles by introducing the director to show her importance in the
film, distrubutors and a production team to establish expectations of the film
for the audience
■ We then introduced the actors which flows into introducing the editor and
then the director of cinematography, the director again to show her
importance and the writer
■ This means that my group diverted from institutional conventions of titles

11. Have we challenged any
conventions?
■ My group have conformed to Steve Neale’s genre
theory since we have stuck to conventions of the
coming of age genre but also diverted from them in
other areas
■ Some of the ways we conformed to the coming of age
genre was by including arguments and recognisable
individual personalities of different teenage girls
■ However in other ways we have strayed from the
conventions through

12. Social groups and
issues present in
our opening
sequence
■ In our opening sequence we
have presented a middle class
social group of girls on their
gap year.
■ However a working class group
has also been hinted at in this
title sequence
■ We have set up this title
sequence in a setting that can
introduce many different social
groups and arguments as a
train features many different
classes of people

13. How these social
groups and issues
have been
represented
■ We have presented these girls in the middle class by
having the camera following them.
■ These girls are also represented as middle class through
the editing by switching between shots of them and a
peacuful countryside model.
■ Using the cheap yellow rain coat we have hinted at the
idea of a working class gap year student through
costume

14. How these social
groups and issues have
been represented
■ We have represented a middle class
through presenting them in
tracksuits and north face jackets.
■ This title sequence also takes place
in the country side as seen by the
model train.
■ This sequence is also set on a very
modern public train and the actors
enter the train to be seemingly
quite loud.

15. Theories of
representation
■ Tessa Perkins: Adhering to
Stereotypes “Although stereotyping
can have negative effects often it is
based of some degree of reality but
distorted and manipulated for the
purpose of entertainment values”.
We have stereotyped the middle
class though use of a north face
puffer jacket
■ Levi-Strauss: Theory of binary
opposition. In our title sequence
this can be seen through the
difference in the working class
jacket and the middle class puffer
jackets.
https://revisionworld.com/a2-level-
level-revision/media-studies-level-
revision/key-media-studies-
theorists/representation-theorists