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

Throughout our media production we have been researching and using media products, we have also tried to challenge them too. Before we began production, once we had decided on a genre we researched into several gangster/crime films and trailers so we could fully understand the conventions, forms and expectations of this genre.

This was a great starting point because it gave us aims and plans to follow. We realised that crime and gangster films are based around a male dominated world and industry. We also discovered that these films appeal to a much higher percentage of men than women. We decided to follow and challenge these ideas. We wanted to follow the stereotypical themes of violence and action to maintain the high percentage of the male audience. We also wanted to capture the attention of the female audience by having the leading protagonist a female who out-smarts, out-thinks and out-moves the males which unbalances this male dominated world. We also included some romance too to appeal to a feminine audience. Gangster films are also most often based in America or Italy we wanted ours to stand out as one of the minority gangster British films. This is illustrated by the red London skyline we have on our film poster.

This film would also appeal greatly to feminists who fight for equality between the sexes, they would love how the young girl seeks to get even with her father and does not conform to the expectations that are pro-male.

We also followed the conventions of this genre. We filmed in urban settings, which is typical and stereotypical this is illustrated on our film poster with the London skyline. We also filmed in rural settings for a contrast and to give the feeling of isolation. We used quick action shots depicting violence and showed images of a gun which is a very powerful enigma code for this type of film. We also used Pier's father to play the 'Don' this is a well known character and is common in these films one of the most famous examples is Marlon Brando's role as Vito Corleone in 'The Godfather'.

We also used conventional costumes such as a trilby hat, and a suit is worn by the 'Don'.

We would have liked to have made our media product even more authentic, but unfortunately we were limited to the props, and equipment available to us. The genre lends itself to special effects but we improvised quite successfully.

To conclude we have both adhered to the traditional genre, and also diverted from it to extend our audience.