Q1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Conventions of an Opening Sequence

Distribution Logo

At the beginning of each movie there must be a distribution logo, this shows which company will sell the movie. As seen, there are many different types of distribution companies. Some companies may distribute a certain type of film genre e.g Comedy, Thriller e.t.c. The company 'New Market' distributed the film Memento. And 'Hollywood Pictures' distributed Sixth Sense. We too have a distributor for our film which is 'Lions Gate'



Introduction of Characters

Most people who watch movies watch them because of the actors/actresses cast in that film. This then makes it essential for the characters to be shown early on in the film to keep the audience interested in the film. Introducing the characters early on makes it easy for the audience to form a relationship with them early therefore being more sympathetic towards them if anything happened which wheels them in even more.




Sixth Sense




Silence of the Lambs

Opening sequence

Establishing Shot

Showing the audience what the relationship between the character and the setting is. This gives the audience a clue to what the genre might be like. For e.g if it is set in an isolated place like the first shot from Sixth Sense and from Silence of the Lambs we could guess that it would be a thriller or a scary movie. In our opening sequence the establishing shot it used when the female character is entering her house to show that she lives there but also because to show that it is a place where she is meant to feel safe.




Sixth Sense



Silence of the Lambs




Opening Sequence

With holding Information

If the directors decided to give away the information about the movie at the beginning then the audience would loose all interest and the mystery would be gone so the best way to keep the audience guessing is by hiding some things and only revealing them bit by bit. We did this in our opening sequence when we do not show the face of our female character for about 7 seconds this makes the audience question why we did this. Sixth sense does this with the light bulb at the beginning when the audience does not know what is going on plus in Silence of the Lambs because it starts off with the woman running and you don't know why she is running or who she is running from.



Opening sequence



Silence of the Lambs




Inception

Titles

In every opening sequence there is titles the titles tell the audience who made the film,the set,the costume , the music and so much more. Titles are also used as a way to calm the audience down in order for the film to begin.



Sound

Sound is normally used for setting the mood of the movie, most thrillers do not tend to use ambient sound for there opening sequence because it seems too relaxed whereas if you use a sound track you are able to make the audience feel a certain way e.g scared,happy or angry.




Silence of the Lambs



Opening Sequence



Inception

Conventions of a Thriller

Extreme Close-Ups

Most of the time extreme close ups are used to show detail in a movie and that is what they do in thrillers. Most of the time they do close ups on a characters body part to show what they are really thinking, this is mostly done with the eyes or an object that will link to another shot helping the audience piece together the film like we did in our opening sequence.



Opening Sequence



Sixth Sense



Silence of the Lambs

Low Key Lighting

This is a big part in the making of thrillers because darkness represents being evil,senile and most people associate darkness with bad things happening. So if a thriller has low key lighting it sets the mood of the movie and hides the elements of a thriller slowly revealing them.



Sixth Sense





Opening Sequence




Silence of the Lambs

Long Shots and Loose Frames

I have put these two together because most of the time one is used it is also used with the other. With loose frames they are used to show the vulnerability of the character this then leaves it up to the audience put the clues together as to why they are vulnerable. The long shots on the other hand show the mise en scene of the characters which could give away a lot. In our opening the female character is wearing a white shirt which shows purity but she then confuses the audience by putting a leather jacket on top which shows rebellious behavior hinting to the audience that she might be an antagonist.




Setting

Most thrillers show the setting early on because the setting of the movie can hint to the audience what type of movie it is going to be. E.g if it set in a warehouse it might be a scary movie compared to if it is set in the city where is might be a comedy.






Opening Sequence




Silence of the Lambs



Sixth Sense

Opening Sequence

We went against the conventions of thriller movies and opening sequences by using flashbacks in our sequence it helped us tell the story better and this is different for thrillers because most the opening sequences are set in the present. This also adds an eerie feel because it is showing how the past is coming back to haunt the female character. The two videos below show two examples where we used flashbacks in our media opening sequence. We put them in black and white on purpose in order to show the they are flashbacks.