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

-The Narrative 

           (Left shows shots from 'Dearest Ada')                    (Right shows shots from 'The Notebook')

 "The Notebook" is a 2004 American romantic drama film directed by Nick Cassavetes and based on the 1996 novel of the same name by Nicholas Sparks. "The Notebook" is quite similar to our film in several ways. For example, it fits perfectly into the romantic drama genre of films as it centers around the relationship of a young couple through the story which an elderly man tells a patient at a nursing home. The film is also similar to ours in the way that it focuses around the relationship of elderly people which we think is a subject which is underrepresented in films.

The plot of "The Notebook" starts of with an eldery man narrating a romantic story which he tells from his notebook to a fellow patient at the nursing home which he lives in to a fellow patient. The story he tells is a romantic tale about the relationship of  a young couple called Noah and Allie. After starting their relationship Allie has to move away with her parents, subsequently separating Noah and Allie from one another. Shortly after this Noah joins the army to fight in World War II, at the same time Allie meets Lon Hammond Jr., a young lawyer who comes from old southern money. Allie and Lon soon get married, much to her parents delight as they did not approve of her previous relationship with Noah as they looked down on him for being poor. During Lon and Allie's relationship Noah spots them kissing as he walks past a restaurant in Charleston. After seeing Lon and Allie together Noah convinces himself that the only way that him and Allie will be together again is if he restores the abandoned house they used to stay in in the way that she had previously described.

At this point in the film it is revealed that the elderly man who is reading the story is in fact Noah but in the present day, and the woman who he is reading the story to is Allie who is suffering from an unfortunate case of dementia. At this point Allie does not remember Noah or any of the events which she is being told.

The film then reverts back to the 1940's where Allie meets Noah at the restored house at which point they decide do rekindle their relationship. The next morning Allie's mother visits the house and reveals to them that she had been intercepting the letters which were being sent from Noah to her daughter. Allie tells Lon about her relationship with Noah and her and Lon end their relationship so that Allie and Noah can be together.

Back in the present day Allie realises  that the story is about her and that the person telling her the story is Noah. They then die together in their sleep.   

 

 I think that in many ways the narrative of "The Notebook" is very similar to the one in our film. The main reason being that it shows representations of the romantic relationship of an elderly couple which is quite an under-represented topic within films. Recent films which have explored this specific subject matter include "Amour" (Dir. Michael Haneke, 2012), "45 Years" (Dir. Andrew Haig, 2015) and "Up" (Dir. Pete Docter, 2009). I think that it is very important to explore under-represented topics because the film industry has such a big influence within peoples lives, so much so that it can change or influence audiences ideologies and opinions.

Another way in which the narrative for "The Notebook" is similar to our film is the way in which it is structured. The story of "The Notebook" is told completely through flashbacks which centre around Noah and Allie's relationship in the past. Similarly, our films narrative is also told through a series of flashbacks which reflect the relationship of the protagonists.        

-Blue Valentine

 "Blue Valentine" is a 2010 american romantic drama film written and directed by Derek Cianfrance. It centres around the relationship between Dean and Cindy, a couple living in Brooklyn, New York. The film explores several flashbacks and present timelines to show how Dean and Cindy became involved. Dean Pereira and Cindy Heller Pereira are a young, working class married couple - Dean currently working as a painter, and Cindy working as a nurse in a medical clinic - with a young daughter named Frankie. Despite their relatively tender ages, they are both ravaged by the life they've eked out together and by the experiences they've had leading into their marriage. Dean, a high school drop out, comes from a broken home, where he never really had a mother figure. He never saw himself getting married or having a family despite falling in love at first sight with Cindy. He doesn't have any professional ambition beyond his current work - which he enjoys since he feels he can knock off a beer at 8 o'clock in the morning without it affecting his work - although Cindy believes he has so much more potential in life. Cindy also comes from a dysfunctional family, with her own mother and father not setting an example of a harmonious married or family life. One of her previous serious relationships was with Bobby Ontario, that relationship which has a profound affect on many aspects of her marriage to Dean. Dean and Cindy head off on an overnight getaway together without Frankie, the getaway which may provide a clearer picture if their marriage can survive its many issues.

The main way in which this film's narrative is very similar to our film is because throughout the entire story flashbacks are shown of their past relationship as well as moments from the present which are used to contrast how they were in the past and to show how much their relationship has changed since they got married. Our film is structures in a similar way as it cuts from past to present in order to show the past relationship of the protagonists.

-Up

 

"Up " is a 2009 American 3D computer animated romantic comedy-drama adventure film produced by pixar and distributed by Walt Disney. Directed by Pete Docter, an elderly widower named Carl Fredrickson and an earnest young wilderness explorer named Russell. By tying thousands of balloons to his house, 78 year old Carl sets out to fulfil his dream to see the wilds of South America, and to complete a promise made to his late wife Ellie.

We were very inspired by this film, particularly by the opening sequence. The opening sequence of "Up" shows Carl and Ellie meeting when they are very young at which point they talk about wanting to travel to South America. The film then shows a series of memories showing Carl and Ellie as they grow up together. We are shown their wedding day, their first house, their picnics and many other romantic memories which is all shown along with a score from Michael Giacchino. The opening sequence ends with the death of Carl's wife, Ellie. This leaves Carl alone in life and sends him into a depressive and lonely mood.

We were particularly inspired by this sequence as it follows a very similar narrative to our film. As they both show the romantic relationship of an elderly couple through the years including moments when they are very young and very old through key moments in their lives. They also both show the struggles that a widower must face when having to deal with the loss of a loved one

-Location & Mise-en-scene

Pictured above are some screenshots from both "Dearest Ada" and "Wish You Were Here" which show the locations which are used throughout the films. I have chosen to compare the location of "Dearest Ada" to that of "Wish You Were Here" as they are both very similar. The filming of "Wish You Were Here" took place in the West Sussex towns of Worthing and Bognor Regis whereas "Dearest Ada" was filmed in Ramsgate and Deal. Despite being filmed in different places the locations look very similar as they both show the coast of South East England. Another similar factor within the shots shown above is the bicycle which is a key prop within both films and features in all of the shots which are shown above. 

Initially we decided that we were going to film in either Ramsgate, Margate or Deal. After doing draft shots of all three locations we decided that Deal was the nicest looking location from the shots that we got. However, Deal as a location didn't work as well with our narrative so we decided to film in Ramsgate instead. Ramsgate was also much easier to get to as my partner on this project lives in Ramsgate as well as both of the actors in our film.   

Pictured below are examples of women's fashion in the 1960's. As our film is set in the 1960's we tried to replicate the way people in the 60's dressed. Our researched has showed that people tended to dress in a much smarter and more formal way compared how people would usually dress today. It is clear from the pictures below, in particular the one on the right as it shows that denim was very in fashion at the time, especially denim dresses which is what we decided for our female protagonist to wear in our final film. Bright colours were also very 'in fashion' at the time which is why we chose to get Ada to wear a camel coloured coat which was also inspired by Carey Mulligan's outfit in 'An Education' which is set in 1961. The actor who played Ada already had fairly short hair and wore glassed which were very retro-looking and fitted in with the time period very well. The actor who played Ada in her later years also had a had a similar hairstyle and wore glasses which made it very convenient for continuity as it is very believable that both of the actors could be the same person but just at different periods in their lives.    

Pictured below are two examples of men's fashion in the 1960's. It is clear from these pictures, just like the previous set of pictures, that people in the 1960's generally dressed much smarter than people today do, often wearing shirts, suits, jumpers and dress shoes. We did not want Arthur, the male protagonist,  look overdressed but we did want him to look smart so that he would fit in with the era. We decided to get him to wear a jumper, a shirt and a smart pair of dress shoes, similar in a way to what some of the men are wearing in the picture below on the right.  

-Title and font comparison

In the picture above on the left are examples of the ending credit title sequence which are on the left, and on the right is an example of the actual title of our film which also appears at the end of the film. For the title of our film we used a font which looked like it could be someone's handwriting which represents the letter which Arthur sends Ada in our film. After doing a lot of research on ending title sequences we decided to keep ours very simple and to just have it in black and white with a very basic font as it was common place in most films of the romantic drama genre. We found examples of much more creative ending credit title sequences being used in other films however these were films that were very different to our usually fitting into genres such as Action, Animated and Fantasy.