How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?
So I'll start by discussing genre conventions. I made a whole post about drama and it's conventions and sub-categories back in February as well as a post examining a couple dramedy film openings so I'll just summarize what I wrote. The main conventions include:
-ordinary people going through an intense journey
-major character development
-simple plots
-center around the idea that something is either being lost or has to be obtained/achieved
-everyday settings
The genre conventions I use:
My film fits most of these conventions. It follows the story of a young artist who wants recognition, specifically on social media, in order to feed her desire for validation. Throughout the film she would realize how this limits her and learn to truly do things for herself. She's an ordinary person who goes through major character development and the plot is fairly simple. I chose to embrace a simple plot because I want the film to focus on emotional themes and development of the main character. Similarly, I also included everyday settings.
The genre conventions I challenge:
Although my protagonist, Byrdie, is an ordinary person, she does not go through an extremely intense journey. She does learn a lot and evolve as a person but there's no insane antagonist making her life harder or tragedy disrupting her world. Similarly, she doesn't lose anything nor does she want to achieve something concrete. Of course, she wants attention and recognition but the film doesn't focus on her journey to achieve a specific goal, like say becoming the best student at an art school. I didn't include these conventions because the need for validation doesn't take most people through a crazy intense journey. It more so pokes at us every time we feel like we haven't earned it. I wanted my film to represent that, so it could be more relatable to audiences and hopefully connect to them. Also, most dramas centered around teens focus on whatever's happening with them at school but my film doesn't really focus on using that as a setting because A) it isn't very relevant to the plot and B) I felt that showing someone struggle with their craft was more universal than showing high-school scenarios.
Representation:
There's two groups I'm representing here: young people and artists. And the issue that I'm dealing with is social media. So let's start off by talking about how my film will represent teens and young adults. Young people are often represented as angsty, indifferent, depressed, or angry at the world around them but my film doesn't do that at all. From the very start of the film Byrdie is established as a relatively happy person. Not only will my opening show her passion but it will include bright lighting, upbeat music, colorful clothing, and witty dialogue to indicate her state-of-mind.
The other group I'm representing is artists. Most films show artists as crazy geniuses or people with an insatiable hunger for success (think Whiplash.) However, this isn't how I represent my main character. This isn't to say Byrdie isn't good at what she does or doesn't care about succeeding. She is good and she does care but, my film doesn't make her out to be a manic and tortured artist. It avoids the glorification of mental illnesses in artists and just shows a passionate girl doing what she loves the most. It also acknowledges an internal conflict of wanting to make art for yourself but also wanting others to appreciate it which is something I think is common for artists but isn't really discussed because caring about what others think of your art is viewed as desperate or weak...which it can be but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be acknowledged...Also she's a girl. I can only think of one film that shows a female artist and it's Frida. It's time for that to stop.
As far as representing social media my film shows how it can effect a person's confidence in themselves and frustrate them as well as its invasiveness. When asked about social media Byrdie's slight obsession with social media is revealed and later on when she can't access Instagram due to poor wifi she shows clear irritation. The odd part is that painting shouldn't have anything to do with technology. Yet, it does. In my film social media seeps so far into Byrdie's life that it begins to affect the way she views her work, which should have nothing to do with social media.
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