Question 1 - Final Draft

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

We consider our film 'Genie' to be part of the children's fantasy genre relating to film's like "Wizards of Waverly Place" and "The wizard of Oz" as well as cartoon Disney film's such as 'Peter Pan.' Many of the films which we consider comparisons to our own are infact Disney movies, the majority of them being animated as opposed to real life. This is because of the fantasy element and the target audience of children, storylines like ours are usually expressed through cartoon or animated films. However we developed the themes and fictional storylines from animated Disney films, such as "Cinderella" and "Sleeping Beauty," and brought them into a real situation that our target audience could relate to. This was done by substituting the conventional, fantasy settings such as deserts and mystical lands that are displayed in 'Peter Pan, for a more realistic setting of a school. This idea is quite similar to the one adopted in the magical film "Enchanted" where a combination of animation and real picture is used to depict fantasy into the 'real world'. This allowed us to create a new interpretation for the target audience who are able to relate directly to the film and as they are familiar with the school setting and a new experience is developed. By setting it in a school we are helping the audience to feel as though they can empathise with the characters and the situations they face, therefore keeping our target audience intriuged and entertained.
Our female protagonist 'Genie' was inspired by the all time Disney classic, 'Aladdin' and we used the idea of having a genie from this particular film. However although we retrieved the initial idea from the Disney movie, we decided to challenge the original male genie and convert him into a female. By doing this we were able to create a relationship between the genie and 'Luke' which enabled us to construct a new purpose for the genie character compared to 'Aladdin' where the two characters form a friendship.
From watching other media texts during the research stage of our coursework, for inspiration on how to dress and direct our genie, I found that many genie characters wear 'genie' trousers, indian shoes, bright colours and they usually have a headband or veil clearly illustrating them as a genie. This is apparent in our own film as she has a blue headband going across her head which is the same bright blue as her top and shoes, similar to other genie's in films and programmes. She's also a very friendly and upbeat character which can be compared to other genie's who are also usually very enthusiastic about meeting new people (such as the genie in Aladdin) and it's rare to come across a genie character who is rude and unfriendly.
By including a character who holds magical powers/ability we followed typical codes and conventions of children's fantasy as there is usually at least one character who possesses these qualities, for instance Matilda from 'Matilda' and Tinkerbell from 'Peter Pan.' Our character 'Genie' is most likely to be compared to 'Tinkerbell' or the genie from 'Aladdin' due to the powers she possesses. Female characters who are considered 'magical' are usually depicted as old or evil. The fairy godmother from 'Cinderella' and the fairy's from 'Sleeping Beauty' represent the idea of female's that hold magical powers are old. On the other hand, characters such as the evil stepmother from 'Snow White' depict the idea of these characters being evil. Our film however challenges both of these proposals as our character is neither old or evil. By having this character we were able to establish the magical, fantasy element within our story, similar to all other Disney movies.
We also used high key lighting, relating to our cinematography, which is usually used in children's fantasy along with saturated colours, to attract children and create a picture that will keep them entertained. 'Wizards of Waverly Place, The movie' also use this idea giving the film a bright, attractive look to appeal to children's eyes. 'The wizard of Oz' uses 'unseen magic' within the film therefore they never really use effects to portray acts of magic, which is an idea we applied to our film. Since we didn't have access to high end editing software or have the finance to use special effects and the like we needed to create the magic of 'Genie's' character in a creative way. We initially decided to make her unseen to anyone except 'Luke', similar to the character Fred in 'Drop dead Fred' who is invisible to everyone's eye except Elizabeth's, however due to changes in the pitch we resorted to another idea. We decided to make her magic unseen similar to 'Matilda' which didn't require effects but still gave the impression she was a magical character. For example, in the first scene she appears next to 'Luke' immediately after he has just seen her on the stairs, this creates surprise and suggests she has powers to transport herself from one location to another therefore portraying her magical character without the need for effects. In the same scene she makes a box of smarties appear and this is done in a similar way, relying on sound, camera and editing to create the illusion of her making something appear from nowhere.
The makeover scene in our film is adopted in many children's films such as 'Cinderella' and 'Aladdin,' and is used within our film to help develop our characters relationship. We chose to use the typical 'gold lamp' within our film as the genie's form of arrival but challenged the original idea of the lamp needing to be rubbed in order to release the genie. By using the initial prop of a gold lamp it creates familiarity for our target audience as they will recognize the implications that the lamp brings. As it's been used in 'Aladdin' it has become almost like an icon/convention for genie's so children will indentify the link between lamps and genies.
Our music is very similar to the arabian, mysterious sound used in 'Aladdin' as this music is normally associated with genie's and create a magical, fairy-like atmosphere which relates to the fantasy elements of these films. We also use 'Aladdin' as an allusion within our film, making reference to it in scene 1 when a poster reads 'Aladdin rehearsals.' By doing this we immediately compare our film to the Disney movie because this is how the lamp is implemented into the film, therefore it suggests the same themes are relevant to our film that are apparent within 'Aladdin.'
Although we use the idea of a genie typically appearing from a gold lamp, we chose to challenge the original concept of '3 wishes' and creating an ultimate wish which may be granted by the genie. By doing this it allowed us to have time to create a relationship between 'Genie' and 'Luke' as he only had one wish which he had to make perfectly. By developing the '3 wishes' approach we resorted against the typical codes and conventions and were able to introduce our own use of genie wishes. We created an importance of the wish and were able to make it the climax of our film - this is what the audience were waiting to hear. (What he would wish for). As we used the idea of a 'love triangle' on a children's level, such as 'Casper,' we made the audience assume he would wish for 'Olivia' but then completely disregarded this when he makes his final wish - following the pleasures of predictability.
Even though we used the typical convention of a happy ending we developed the idea of freeing the genie further to create the ending that we did. Our film challenges the codes and conventions of the genre is the way that it ends. As opposed to 'Luke' simply making his wish and having the genie leave, we decided to twist the story completely and have him fall for 'Genie' and lose his interest in 'Olivia.' This meant we kept our genie character which doesn't always happen within children's fantasy as usually the wishes are granted and the genie leaves. In 'Aladdin' he wishes for the genie's freedom as they've formed a good friendship within their experiences together. We implemented this idea within our ending but as opposed to a friendship we formed a relationship. When 'Luke' wishes for 'Genie' to no longer be a genie he ulimately takes away the fantasy of her character and makes her human, freeing her from her genie nature but in order for them two to be together. This is a different approach to 'Aladdin' who free's the genie to allow him to live his life without being a servant to anyone. We were able to develop the freedom of the genie due to the fact that we challenged the original male character with a female one.