Lucienne's AS Level Media: Using, Developing, Challenging Forms and Conventions

Genre

My media product uses the forms and conventions of the romance genre. This is done in different ways:

Music= My song is "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You", a classic love song. This song is about the obsession and 'crush' stage of love, making it, perhaps, more suited to Teenage love (as we assume their love life is full of crushes. This, therefore, corresponds with my film's plot and the lyric 'Let Me Love You' (which, incidentally, is the title of the film) conveys an impression of an obstacle. This song was also used in a teen film with Heath Ledger singing it (10 Things I Hate About You - Modern interpretation of Shakespeare's 'Taming of the Shrew' another romance film targeted at female teens. The song is used as a form of serenading to convince the girl to go out with the boy.) My version of the song is sung by John Barrowman. The song was released in 2009, giving it a more modern sound. John Barrowman himself is known among teenagers as Captain Jack Harkness in Torchwood (Cert: 15). He is an attractive young(ish) man which targets my female audience. The music creates anticipation for love, it is a positive song. The other music (drumbeat) also creates anticipation. It's a twist on the drums set before an execution to create a more positive form of anticipation. This introduces her nerves as she approaches the Disequilibrium.

Plot/Characters = I introduce the girl in the pair first, which is a convention of the romance genre (as I saw from the film 'You've Got Mail' - where the man and woman fall in love despite a diffence (he was the boss of a major corporate chain of book shops whilst she works in a traditional single bookshop) the woman is the first of the couple to be introduced. This is arguably an issue of class though more so of the ideals. Another film that uses this convention is Pride and Prejudice; which is all about social class. Mr Darcy is very middle-class and Elizabeth Bennett is of lower-class yet despite this they fall in love. I also give the girl more screen time, which makes the girl more easy to create a relationship with as she receives the most screen time, targeting my female audience. This is shown through eyeline matches and close-ups so the audience can understand the characters though processes. She is also seen as very girly and likeable. Her parents embrace and she gets embraced, showing the love and support in her house. Her parents' relationship could be an aspiration for the protagonist to reach. Jo is moving school in my opening sequence, showing a potential for a new start from which the audience could consider a new love. She falls in love with someone who welcomes her to the new surroundings. They are pushed apart (obstacle) before reunited.

Title Sequence = My title sequence develops the romance genre as the credits appear on love hearts, similar to valentine cards. The 'i's' are dotted also with hearts, showing the theme of love. The title itself is in pink, the use of red (on the hearts) and pink (on the title) conveys the romance genre and show that my target audience are female. My distribution company logo uses the conventions of the heart.

Location= It's set in 'real time' and in 'real life' a convention of the romance genre. It is also set in real life settings for the character (school and home) which makes it easy to relate to. The romance genre is an escape and showing that good things can happen to ordinary people is one form of escapism - it is almost a sanitized version of real life.

Narrative Theory

Hero (Protagonist) meets the Agent of Change (Cause of disequilibrium.) which creates a Problem. The protagonist goes on a Quest to reach the Resolution of the problem.

In the romance genre, the problem is usually some kind of obstacle to love, in my product's case it was class.

The other theory was the idea of the Equilibrium (normal life) is altered to turn into the Disequilibirum (a destruction of normal life) then resolved into the same or a different Equilibrium. In the romance genre, the last equilibrium will be being with

a new love.

The initial Equilibrium is presented as Jo's normal life. We see her at her house and we meet her parents. She is in a supportive family.

The disequilibrium in my clip is the school, she is standing alone as she prepares to walk into the school. The disequilibrium would go on to be that she has no friends. She meets the boy and they fall in love. They fall out during this sequence. The latter Equilibrium is when the boy apologises and the couple 'fall back in love.'

Narrative Codes

Enigma Codes Action codes