2. In what ways does your media product use
develop and challenge conventions of real
media products?
Forms and
conventions found
in a film opening
sequence
Use,
Develop or
Challenge
Examples within our film Evidence Explanation
Setting- forest - to be
made aware of where
it is taking place.
Setting – office
Use We used a forest as a setting,
however we do not have an
establishing shot to show this
but it Is still made clear by the
first shot of a mid shot,
introducing the character at the
same time as location.
We followed conventions
by using the cliché of a
forest, which
stereotypically is
associated with
thriller/horror films. This
sequence
Genre- the category
in which the film
would fit under, mood
set
Use We chose a
psychological/thriller, which can
be made clear by the setting
and music. The first sound we
hear is a twinkling eerie sound
which straight away makes the
audience aware the film is of a
thriller/dark nature. This also
sounds quite innocent which
contradcits the plot of the film
We used conventions of a
stereotypical thriller setting
3. Forms and
conventions found
in a film opening
sequence
Use,
develop or
challenge
Examples within our film Screen grab Explanation
Characters – are the
main characters
introduced
Develop Only the main character and
her friend are introduced in
the opening sequence
The main character is
made aware to the
audience by being in
the first shot we see,
however we do not
properly introduce her
as we wanted to
create a sense of
enigma
Titles- typical running
order
use In our own film we followed
this title order ; name of the
studio, production company ,
starring, the films title,
composed by, editing and
finally directed by. This shows
we have followed the
conventions of a film opening.
The titles appear in
order of importance
to the audience as
well as following
conventions. The
directors have to
appear last from our
research
4. Developing and challenging the forms
and conventions
• In my opening sequence we had to change and develop
certain aspects due to the original ideas being either
unrealistic in terms of what we were able do with the
equipment and time.
• In regards to sound we gained inspiration from ‘Pride and
prejudice’ in the way that the diagetic sound corresponds
with what's on screen. In pride and prejudice the music
comes in as the sun comes over the trees. In our film the
music changes as a different action happens to create
build up. However initially we wanted to use a piece of
music that was already composed but we found a
problem with copyright.
5. Shots and Titles
• Some shots were specifically framed to allow for the titles
eg.
We had to make sure each shot was long
enough to read the title as well as allow
time for the transition of fading in and out.
Longer titles remain on screen for longer,
particularly the name of the film and the
directors name to made sure the viewer
takes these into account. When looking at
other films such as kill bill and alien the
name on the film remains on screen the
longest.
Initially we placed the name of the film at
the end of the sequence but it looked more
like a trailer than I film. We had to change
this so that the directors appear last.
Positioning the title parallel
came from inspiration from
once upon a time in the west
where the title fits with
something in the shot.
6. How does your media product
represent particular social groups
Within our film there is not a
distinct representation of a
‘social group’ but there is a
negative representation of the
main character due to her
insanity, as a result from drugs
which you would no expect of
someone of her age. However
this is contrasted by her friend in
school who recognized her
problems
We are made aware of the age of the characters
through the use of Mise en scene and setting in the
flash back scene, with it being shot in a school,
making it more realistic as the viewers can see
7. What type of media institution might
distribute your media product and why?
• Distribution is the process of moving a product from its manufacturing
source to its audience.
• As our distributor we used ‘momentum films’ this is because they had
previous history in working with hammer production and therefore
was suitable for our genre.
• We looked into what other films both Momentum and Hammer had
produced, these were predominantly thriller or horror, for example
‘Woman in Black’.
• I believe our film could be shown at a multiplex, ie. Odeon/Vue but it
could have particular links to promoting awareness about drug use
and the negative sides of it on a large scale.
8. Who would be the audience for your
Film?
• We chose to give our film a BBFC film rating of ‘15’ , this
means that no-one under 15 is allowed to see a 15 film at
the cinema or buy/rent a ‘15’ rated DVD. 15 rated works
are not suitable for children under 15 years of age making
our target audience 15+.
• According to the British board of film classification a film
with this rating could include; strong language, violence,
references to sex, discriminatory behaviour and drug
taking all of which could come up in our film as a whole
not just the opening sequence.
9. Evidence for target audience
I surveyed 25 people between the ages of 15-30 who would most likely to
be the target audience of our film asking what type of film they watch
most frequently, with horror/ thriller having the highest score followed by
rom-com.
10. How would you attract/address your
audience
• Attracting the audience could relate to the social group
seen on screen, so because the main character is 17, we
would expect the audience to be around that age and
older.
• This would also relate to genre expectations as shown in
the previous graph, for example a pre-teen audience may
be more likely to watch a romantic-comedy whereas here
we find our target audience links to the genre.
11. What have you learnt about
technologies from constructing your
film opening • Final cut express
We imported shots
from the camera to
imovie and then
transferred it to
final cut express.
Used a Y frame to move
text around at an angle,
and the safe margins to
ensure no lettering is cut off
screen.
We dragged each
induvidual shot to the time
line and were able to use
the cut tool to edit out
parts that were no longer
needed eg. If the shot was
too long
12. What have you learnt about
technologies from constructing your
film opening • Garage Band
Composed a piece
using the loops that
already exsist on
garage band
We layered sounds on top of one another
for each time a new shot appears, timing it
perfectly with final cut express.
We were able to adjust the
volume of particular sounds
so that the dialogue was not
over powered. We were
also able to elongate the
bars to increase the time
sound was played
13. Lessons learnt from the start to end of
production
• Creating meaning using specific elements eg; how the
setting can infulence the genre of a film
• Learnt how to use the camera and how (from my
reasearch) different shots can be used for different
effects. Eg a long shot of the main character standing
alone informs the audience that she is the protagonist.
• Non linear editing was used to show a flashback and this
was made clear through the use of titling
• The main lesson learnt was in the physical editing using
the computer software as previously discussed.
