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

Title of the film

The title of my film is shown on the third frame after my production and studio companies. My title is on just a plain black background to fit with the idea of my film being about an ordinary family, and how what happens in my film could happen to any family. 

   The title itself is 'Vie Avec Violet', this means life with Violet, which pretty much is a brief summary of what is to happen in my film. This is common amongst films, giving away part of the stroy in the title, such as;

As my opening is filmed in the documentary style, the serious titles reflect this type of genre, as you don't see documentaries with huge bubble fonts.

Costumes and Props

In my opening, the props I've used are just those that were about in the house I filmed in. As I was using young actors, Ithought it would be best if I just let them act as natural as possible using their own toys, the toys show the children's youth and innocence. The placement of the baby photo of the main character, Violet, shows how young the girl is and adds to the emotion the audience feels towards her.
   The costumes used fit the convention of children, the school unifrom suggests a unity amongst the siblings, which is shown by the way they interact with each other. The uniform also suggests that Violet is the same as the other children she attends school with, but really she is different due to her brain tumor. The coats that the children wear outside also reflects the vunerability of these young children from more than just the weather, for Violet she is vunerable as her tumour grows, and for her little brother Alex, he is vunerable as he will soon be facing the loss of a loved one.

Setting and Location

My opening is set in the house of the family, this is due to it being filmed in a documentary style, so it would be odd to film a families life somewhere else. By using a family house, I have tried to imply just how normal this family would appear to be on the outside and how the tragedy that has fallen upon their household could happen to any other.

    The location I have used is the house of the actors in my film. I decided that their house would be best as I was using young actors, I wanted them to feel as comfortable and natural in my film as possible. Also having them use their own house gave me the advantage of just asking them to go about their daily routine and me just filming them, like in ordinary documentaries.

Camerawork and Editing

As I went for the documentary style, my filming was fairly simple to do as it was similar to that of making a home movie. I didn't need to worry about any of the actors looking at the camera and in parts of the opening it works well when this is done, such as at the end with the mother. 

  The main part of the editing was over laying the sound and putting in the subtitles. I feel that the sound of the interviewer isn't very realistic and sounds a bit fake now looking at it. Also with the subtitles I think that the red used when the mum is speaking isn't very clear and is difficult to read.