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

My media product was created to challenge the forms of real media products as my product was a dark interpretation of a superhero film although this has been done before with Watchmen and Chronicle which are the two main films I focused on when creating my film with the dark tone taken from Watchmen and the question of what someone would really do if they had powers taken from Chronicle. This is because in normal superhero films such as Batman and Superman use their powers for good and keeping civilians safe, Superman is a Boy Scout hero, which is a generic superhero personality. Batman however takes a darker approach to the superhero genre but he still uses his power for good and doesn’t kill. My product aimed to break these stereotypes and media conventions this is shown when the one of the heroes played by Meghan Kills Kira. There is also the fact f when I tried to break these stereotypes that my characters fell into another stereotype of the Anti-hero as these are heroes who do kill but do it for “justice” which is determined by them, this includes the Punisher and other hero as these heroes are not bad but good but they do it in a bad way. Although in the film I do embrace some generic media conventions such as having a mad scientist who give the teenagers powers a this is seen in a lot of superhero film such as Spiderman although he does not directly gain his powers from the mad scientist it is the scientist who experimented on the spider that bite him. My film develops characters over time like Chronicle whose characters develop over time. These character developments and generally used and seen in superhero films for example when Kira goes crazy from the overwhelming power getting to her this happens in chronicle as well to the main character. This is common convention seen in superhero films with characters not being able to cope with the power they gain. The same happens in Spiderman 3 once Spiderman gain the venom symbiote with drastic character changes. The same can be said for Patryk he decides to use is power for good which is what most superhero’s chose to do once they gain there new powers this is another convention I chose to adhere to. My film does try to challenge the technical aspect of superhero films though through the use of special effects, costume and editing as my film unlike most superhero films does not rely on my females costumes being minimalistic to appeal to the male audience and I chose to go for subtle costumes by just having my characters dawn masks instead of full body costumes as I tried to create a realistic interpretation of a superhero film. This is not normal done in superhero films as characters generally dawn a full body super suit but for my film I decided my characters would only wear masks in real life. The special effects I used do conform to the convention of superhero films as they are used to create the superpower of my characters that consist of super speed and teleportation these are powers commonly seen in superhero films such as the flash or quicksilver with super speed and Nightcrawler with teleportation all these heroes are commonly known and are in large budget superhero films. The editing for my film does also conform to the conventions with the slow pace editing at the beginning building suspense for the following film this is similar to the opening of Spiderman which is where I got the inspiration from with the scientist in his lab creating the formula that will create the heroes. The camera angle and shots used in my project also conform to generic media conventions stereotypically seen in superhero films although I have a few shots that are stereotypically seen in other genres as well. The opening camera angle is a low down shot that tracks the main villain this is commonly seen in superhero films such as Spiderman where the main scientist is creating the formula that ends up creating Spiderman I tried to achieve the same effect with my own spin. The camera angles used to create the opening scene are purposefully slow and controlled to highlight what the villain is doing but also to show that he is methodical and not panicked/in a rush, demonstrating how cold and calculating he is. The next main shot is the confrontation between Ryan and Kira this camera angle is a low and high shot this is to show power between two characters to the audience without establishing or writing it into the narrative. This shot is commonly used in action films during scenes of intimidation or intense discussion. These shots can be seen in superhero films such as Batman and his interrogation with the Joker the camera angle changes back and forth depending on the character that has the most power. This can also be seen in the next scene in my product between Levi and Ryan who have an intense discussion and the camera angle is slightly tilted in the favor of the character that poses the most threat at the time. The next shot is the stand off shot in the field this shot is commonly used in western films as it a transition from one opponent to the other in their stand off stances this is used to create tension between these characters and display this tension to the audience. This can also be used in superhero films with Captain America civil war for example with Captain America and Iron man standing off in the middle of the airport this creates tension for the following fight scene to come.