Throughout the process of creating my products, and the development of the short film, I have attempted to keep the products as professional as possible. In order to do this, I decided to stick to conventions for the most part, but still wanted to allow my creativity to come through, and therefore broke some conventions in order to keep the content of the short film fresh and different. Within this evaluation, the conventions and how they are broken or conformed to within my short film, poster and magazine spread will be analysed to show their usage or breakage of conventions.
The short film has conformed to a large amount of the conventions within the genre and medium, but has still broken conventions of the form itself. The reason I chose to break conventions was due to wanting to make the short film slightly different in order to keep it as something new, within reason. some of the conventions that exist within this products are based around it's narrative ability and environments. Often in science fiction short films, snow and icy conditions are used in order to present a setting that represents the rough lives of the main characters, but in my film I used this setting to forward the plot through showing what the protagonists could do, which would become important later on.
In my poster ancillary text, I have opted to use the conventions found within a large amount of posters of displaying the main character in the center and an object of plot importance in the background behind them, with surrounding scenery and borders covered with a similar theme to the main setting of the film. In this case, I have used trees and grass around the edge to create a boarder, to which the character is in the middle. The battery, an important plot point in the film, is shown as very large and behind the main character, with a glow around it to draw the viewer's attention to it as the main focus of the film. This is conventional, and through researching the products i learned that these positions are common not only on short film posters or even posters of the genre, but that they expand to other genres too, such as action and adventure films.
Additionally to this, all object on the poster have been replaced by their outlines filled with a coloured space-styled background. This is due to other inspirations of minimalist posters of sci-fi films and shows, which often use a single colour or multiple colours to represent a specific scene from the film or just to represent it as a whole. This minimalistic styling was incorporated into the poster due to it being quite conventional of a large amount of sci-fi films, especially in more recent posters. Another conventional part of minimalistic posters is the use of negative space, and using the environment to highlight details within what's shown to create a new image, in a matter similar to a bricolage. In my poster, I used this negative space in the poster to show the antagonist, the small ball-like robot. This is similar to the Return of the Jedi poster that I used for referencing, as the negative space in this show's the antagonist through using tree branches to denote detail. The basic shape of the antagonist is made out of the negative space on the poster, with the eye being the protagonist in the center.
In my magazine review, I have used a number of conventions for other film magazines, but the main example I looked at for conventions was Empire. As Empire is a popular film review magazine it seemed perfect for finding conventions relating to double page spreads and film reviews. When compared, both magazines contain similar conventions relating to layout, colour and style. My magazine makes use of a simplistic layout that is relatively uncluttered, leaving plenty of space for text. There is a review column towards the bottom, which gives a short overview of the film's details, such as plot, director and title, along with release date.
The short film follows the typical narrative structure that can be seen within most films, best broken down into Tzvetan Todorov's (1977) 5 narrative structure stages; the initial stable equilibrium, a disequilibrium is then created, this equilibrium is now acknowledged, action is taken to re-create the equilibrium, and then the creation of a new equilibrium. In this basic form, the narrative of my product can be broken down into the same five basic sections; the robots need power, the antagonist is seen observing them and then disrupting the equilibrium by planning to steal the battery, they are attacked and their power is stolen, forcing them to recognise that a disruption has taken place, action is taken to restore the equilibrium by attacking the antagonist, and then a new equilibrium is restored, having one less robot but having gained the battery. Following this basic format for a story is conventional of more genres, and while it is quickly becoming more commonplace to re-order the order of the plot within the sci-fi genre, it is still considered conventional to have this layout.
In comparing my work to Tzvetan Todorov's (1977) 5 narrative structure stages, the narrative fits in well, making good use of the conventions of regular narrative structures. this was a better convention to adhere to due to it's structure rules helping to shape the story, helping it to be more understandable and accessible by a greater audience. That being said, my product still challenges the theory through it's lack of vocals, as only incomprehensible robotic mumbles are used instead of voice acting, meaning that the entire narrative must be conveyed through a visual means. This breaks the convention of explaining everything to the audience, while still allowing the story to make sense and giving the audience a sense of understanding of the narrative.
This story was chosen over a more abstract choice due to it being largely more conventional to stick to a regular, more understandable story. Using the story concept I came up with, I wanted to attempt to head in a different direction to previous years. One of the biggest faults that I have had previously with production has been the organisation of actors and roles, but when designing this product I wanted to aim to reduce the input of other people in the film as much as possible. In doing this, I was granted a greater creative freedom throughout the creation process.
Characters are a very clear convention of most films and TV programs, and within a short film there tends to be a clear trend of having 2-3 main characters. This allows for enough time for each of these three to receive appropriate character development and for their individual traits to show through. often, these character's development is limited due to the runtime of the film, and therefore often they don't have back story or go in-depth about specifics of the character. Having a smaller cast of characters allows them to still get the development that they need for the audience to relate to them while still only having a small runtime.
To show this, the Big Bank short film promotion for Payday 2 would be a good example. It contains 3 main characters/character groups, those being the customer, the bank worker and the bank robbers. this fits the conventional character amounts for short films, and allows for enough character development to be displayed for them to play their roles to an effective standard. My character group was slightly larger then this on the whole, but generally only has 3 active characters. This is due to the Orange robot being destroyed, allowing for the Ball robot to take his place.
Within the short film, Levi Strauss' theory of binary opposites was demonstrated in the main group of robots being the protagonists, with the Ball and his backup as the antagonists. The main reason for this is due to the Ball being effectively useless without the others to back him up, whereas each of the protagonists has their own advantages. This is further shown through the protagonists each having their own dominant character trait; Orange is curios, which is shown through them being the one to break into the cavern and messing around with the IPod, Green is impetuous and impulsive, as shown by him constantly acting without thinking about the consequences of his actions, and Blue is thoughtful and the leader, as shown by him always being at the forefront (while present), and waiting for his opportunity to jump on the Ball. This is contrasted by the binary opposite; the antagonists. They are very alike and work in almost a hive mind; they don't think for themselves as much as they just act together in a mechanical and have more of a sudden, jerking motion to them when they move.
Overall, my film meets a large amount of the conventions set out by other short films, as well as conforming to a number of theories that are help common in the practise of film making. In meeting these conventions, I have made my work appear more professional through abiding by the rules set out by popular and well known films, as well as broken some to ensure that my short film is still something fresh and interesting to the viewer.
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