Codes and Conventions

Codes and conventions of a movie
When making a movie there are many codes and conventions that have to be taken into account, this is done to try and make them more successful and sell more. The codes and convention co inside with the target audience and should be used to try and attract the audience selected by the manufacturers, therefore it can be easily broken down into three groups: technical, symbolic and text. I will know talk about the codes and conventions of the film that I am creating.

Technical
the technical side to the codes and conventions of a movie are for example the different types of camera shots and also the camera techniques. Also the editing of a movie also takes a huge role in it because many of the shots taken will not even be used in the final production, therefore it is very important to try and take many shots from different angles. For my movie I am going to use a normal ‘Sony’ Video Camera, bits I will film on a tripod and other sections I will just use my hands, this is because the tripod will make it a lot more stable but also the bits when people are walking want to be a bit jerky to make the audience feel the atmosphere, I will use a rage of shots ranging from extreme close ups to actions shots, and then also reverse shots when the characters are talking. I will add sound effect to increase tension and also to make the movie more interesting to watch.

Symbolic
Important symbolic features are the costumes the characters are wearing, the colours of the shots and also the location that it has been filmed. The costumes for the characters are very important for the plot and some character are sometimes dressed as stereotypes so that the audience members can recognise immediately who their character is by typical view of people. The colours of the shot can help to explain the location and also the tone of the movie, for example is it was a bright set with lots of trees and vines people would immediately view it as a hot forest of some kind. The location is also key to the colours because if it’s again the colours of a jungle and there is lots of people walking round with trolleys and shopping bags it wouldn’t really make sense. In my performance I am going to film it in my 6th form common room, I will do this because it is a very bright room and also it has lots of space for the performers to move.

Text
The text of a movie would be the subtitles and also the music that would be played in the background, I have found a track on the school computers called “Girl in the fire” I think this will be the only track I will use, I will then think about having text because it is very important to explain what is going on in such a small movie. Such small movies like these need to show all information as easily as possible because you don’t want the audience to get confused, that’s why stereotypes and text are used.