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

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

1.

As this is the opening frame, we decided that we wanted it to be subtle, dark and eerie, so that it follows the typical conventions of a thriller/action film. The close up is a typical shot of an action film so that audience feels involved in the action and it also emphasises the intensity of the action. Emotional or sensitive dialogue is often shot in a tight close-up to emphasize the importance of what's being said, and this is what we did here. This shot also introduces the character and the story to the audience straight away, giving them a clear idea of the genre The way the characters are introduced is really important because it establishes their role in the film. As Pierce is the first person the audience sees, it is clear that he is important to the story. The fact that the opening shot has blood running down his face tells the audience a lot about his character, but not very much about his story. From this shot I think that they will assume that Piecer is in trouble because of what he is done, and from that you can infer a lot about a person. However, nowhere in the opening do we mention how and why they got there. This is so that the audience will be enticed into watching the whole film as hopefully they will find it intriguing enough to continue watching. We didn't want to give much away about the storyline for this reason. 

2.

This is one of my favourite shots from our opening because I think that we came up with two really interesting angles (see images 2 and 3). The two shot from a high angle but filmed from the right was difficult as we had to make sure we stuck by the 180 degree rule, however it proved really effective as we realised that we haven't seen this shot in any of the film openings that we studied earlier as well as portraying the situation the two guys are in very well. This is because Mitch is in the foreground, but we can still see Pierce curled over in the background, however he looks significantly smaller than Mitch to represent their status and roles in the film. It also means that when Mitch moves his head to look at Pierce when the voice over talks about the state Pierce is in and how worried Mitch is, it really emphasises this movement because the camera is so close. The audience can also see the sheer effort Mitch has to put in to every movement, and will sympathise with this, making them like and feel for the character. These attachments to characters are good because it means that later on the plot can toy with these emotions, and make the audience have a strong reaction to the plot, which will - hopefully - make them remember and enjoy the film even more so.

3. 

The second two shot of the men from behind the lamp is also significant because it shows how that one lamp is their only light source and makes them look smaller and more helpless. This is a more typical shot for an action/thriller film as a similar shot can been seen in Sixth Sense, and I learnt from studying other films that if their genre is a horror/thriller, in the opening they tend to focus on one significant object right at the beginning, which is what we have done here. The fact this that this is one of the opening shots and we only see Mitch and Pierce shows that they are the main characters and that the storyline is based around them. As well, Mitch is doing a voiceover at this point, to emphasise that he is the main character and that he has go them into this situation, but still doesn't give anything away about the reason they got there, which we thought the audience would find interesting, exciting and enticing.

We got the idea for this shot from the opening of Sixth Sense, as they focus on a lightbulb immediately at the beginning, which can been seen above. This shot slowly moves onto focussing on the leading lady behind it, just as we have done.

4. 

5. 
Images 4 and 5 are the most interesting shots that we filmed because of the angles we filmed them from. They were quite risky as the car had to drive over the camera, so we had to be careful regarding health and safety for the driver, camera men and the camera itself. This is an unusual angle because most directors would think that it was too dangerous because their equipment is too expensive, and most importantly, too big to fit under a car. Luckily for us we were using hand held cameras and came up with the idea whilst we filming on location. We thought this was a good idea as a typical convention of an action film is risk, and this is what the audience expects to see from this genre film.
The close ups emphasise the importance of the car, but because we did this in an unconventional way, it make the film more interesting to watch. When showing our film opening to our target audience, we also found that it provoked quite a strong reaction which was great because this was our overall aim for our opening. The close up also implies that the car has a part to play in the reason the men were tied up in the opening scene, however the audience don't know enough to assume this yet - our aim was to try and keep them on their toes.

6. 
The location of our opening was very important as we were very focussed on keeping the opening as realistic as possible so the film is as relatable as possible. However we also needed to find somewhere quiet and where we could drive around freely but safely. We came up with the idea of going to a local supermarket car park during school hours, so it would be at its quietest. Because it's a normal everyday setting, we thought it would be easy to relate to, especially for the age of Mitch and Pierce as there's not much you can do or places you can go at 17, especially if you're going to cause trouble, which is what the opening hints at. As the car park is a public place, the audience knows that the characters won't get up to anything too outrageous, however there is that element of doubt which keeps the audience interested as if something were to happen, it would be hard for them to get away and not get caught. A car park was also the perfect setting because it contrasted with the location of the first scene, which was unknown and unfamiliar to our audience. This location didn't make them question where they were but made them focus on what the characters were doing instead.

7. 
Costumes - we didn't plan our costumes as we wanted the characters to feel natural, so we let them turn up clothes they would normally wear. This means it doesn't look like we're forcing them to be teenagers, they are just being themselves. We recorded what they wore after our first afternoon of filming incase we needed to re film any of it, which we did in the end so it came in really useful.


8. 
Camerawork and framing were our key consideration whilst filming. We tried to fit Mitch and Pierce in the shots equally as they have equal importance to story. However the voiceover makes it clear that Mitch is in charge. This can also be seen in this shot as Mitch is the one driving so that shows he is also in charge.

9. 

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Titles are important to an opening as the font, style and special effects help introduce the genre, inform the audience, outline the filmmaker's intentions and set up the expectations of those watching. For our film opening, we put the titles right at end of the two minutes so the audience has had time to be introduced to characters, and then once the story line is less tense we ran the titles. We didn't use the titles to create tension because we thought that the opening scene had enough tension already, and we wanted to keep it as realistic as possible. This meant that having titles running across the screen would have ruined the atmosphere and taken out the realism side of the piece. 

A good example of why Titles in a film are so important is the film The Girl With The Dragon Tattoos which opens with a booming title sequence, in which hideous forms – some technological, others biological – ooze in and out of black oil and fire. This is effective because it tells the audience the genre of the film and what the style of the film is going to be, without giving anything away.
 Unlike our titles, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo builds up lots of tension through the special effects used. Another British film that is successful in doing this is James Bond's Skyfall. The titles are particularly important as they give away small details about the upcoming film - almost like a trailer - to give the audience hints and so they think about what is going to happen. They do this through the music, vibrant colours and dancing silhouettes to make the audience excited about what they are about to watch. If you can do that, then the opening sequence is successful. 

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo Opening Sequence

  When I researched other conventions that fit the thriller/action genre is that the film should be major Hollywood studio produced and distributed. Obviously, we can't fulfil this requirement as we don't have the budget or connections to get our film produced and distributed by a Hollywood company, so to a certain extent our opening isn't following typical conventions. See question 3 for more. 

Some other typical conventions of an action film are that the certificate is that the certificate is a 12/15 certificate, maximising youth audiences, which is why our film is a certificate 15. 
Another consideration we had was when we looked back at the questionnaire we gave to our target audience earlier on in the process and remembered that we discovered even if our target audience aren't car enthusiasts they'd still want to watch an action film with cars in, hence the reason we have so much coverage of the car in our opening. 

Fast paced editing is important for an action genre as it represents the storyline being fast paced. It also keeps the action more interesting and tense. However, in our opening we didn't have much action, so instead of focussing on fast paced editing, we focused on the continuity of the piece. This is when the continuity task came in useful as we transferred the skills we used from editing our first exercise to our main opening. In the continuity task we used the 180 degree rule and match on action. Editing this was hard because we had to get the angles right, as well as making sure the piece was continuous by editing the clips so they don't overlap from different angles, and so that the dialogue was logical.

Dramatic non-diegetic sound is another convention typically used. Throughout our opening we used a voiceover to explain what was going on. We found that this was a really good way to express the characters feelings without the piece coming across as cheesy or unprofessional. This was our main use of non-diagetic sound, as we found that when we recorded some dialogue on location, other factors made it difficult for the dialogue to be of a good quality as there were other factors we didn't consider such as the wind drowning out almost every word that was said, and the sound of the car engine being too loud. Despite this, we found that the voiceover worked well, just as it did in Goodfellas, where we go the idea to do a voiceover in the first place. Goodfellas has been described as one of the best film openings, and despite it being too long for us to replicate, we took the techniques that we liked, such as the voiceover, and applied it to our own original opening. Voiceovers work well as they help the audience to relate to the character and makes it easier to understand, as when the character talks directly to the audience it tells them what is going on in the storyline. This keeps the audience up to date and in touch with the characters emotions throughout the film.

A key convention of an action film is having a dominant representation of gender i.e male/female action hero. This can been in Goodfellas, as they have an all male cast in the opening, understandably so as it represents the male dominance in gangs in New York at the time it was set. But this is also in the British hit Skyfall where the action hero is James Bond. Typically, an action film is aimed at males, so having a male dominant cast makes the film more relatable to our target audience. In our opening, the only characters the audience sees are Mitch and Pierce. We chose to have a male dominant cast because our story line is based around cars and violence, which once again is stereotypically more appealing to a male audience.

Skyfall's opening title sequence, showing James Bond being pulled
 under water to represent his fall from power.