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

Real media texts:

—They’re funny
—The script is spoken at speed, often with quick fire puns.
—Uses exaggerated acting for a comic effect.
—May have references to other films and will play on the seriousness of it.
—Certain music is in ironic fashion, for example a cheerful instrumental during a fight scene

Our product:

—Over exaggerated the acting of the nerds, for example the laughs.
—Played on the ‘reservoir dogs’ walking scene to comic effect.
—Used serious music during the walking scene, which added to the fact that the nerds couldn’t be ‘gangsta’

Develpoing the conventions of a comedy

One of the scenes from our production includes three of the ‘nerds’ who have tried to become ‘gangsta’, walking slowly along a path. This idea was taken from the film reservoir dogs where the men all walk adjacent to each other along a path. We added a piece of music over the top and added slow motion during the editing to play on the idea of a spoof or parody. Comedies use a lot of short often hard to spot spoofs or references to other films to make a scene funnier and by using this ourselves we have developed this convention.

Challenging the conventions

One of the scene from our production includes three of the ‘nerds’ who have tried to become ‘gangsta’, walking slowly along a path. This idea was taken from the film reservoir dogs where the men all walk adjacent to each other along a path. We added a piece of music over the top and added slow motion during the editing to play on the idea of a spoof or parody. Comedies use a lot of short often hard to spot spoofs or references to other films to make a scene funnier and by using this ourselves we have developed this convention.