EVALUATION QUESTION 1 – IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA

PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORM CONVENTIONS OF

REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?

Created by Gemma Smith

Before creating our opening title sequence I looked into Pete Fraser’s feedback on Opening Title Sequences and found that this helped us a lot when it came to knowing what not to include in our opening title sequence and what to include to get the most marks. According to Pete Frasers opening title sequences should address five main aspects, these are genre, enigma, character, atmosphere and setting. Overall, I think that our opening title sequence includes aspects of character and atmosphere the most. I feel this because we have made an opening title sequence where the main character is a teenage girl, by doing this already makes our target audience feel as if they can relate to the main character. Secondly we have targeted atmosphere very well by the back-story behind our main character, Harlow, which creates an eerie atmosphere.By choosing these two main areas to make sure we include in our opening title sequence will make sure that we grab our target audience, 12A, as well as making sure that they enjoy our opening title sequence and make them want to watch on.By creating an engaging opening title sequence again relates to convention of opening sequences as main aspect behind an opening title sequence is to give an insight to the audience a section of the storyline and want to draw them in so that they want to carry on watching.

Pete Fraser’s Feedback on Opening Title Sequences

Our media product uses forms and conventions of real media products as we have looked into thriller opening title sequences and our own titles have been placed in the order of a typical thriller film.When researching into other opening title sequences we found that we liked the ‘Man of Steel’ opening title sequence which also consisted of a news report in which we have also created in our opening title sequence.We have made sure that when adding the titles on to our opening title sequence we added them in the correct place so that they don’t cover any main parts of the clip which needed to be seen. We wanted the titles to be easily read yet subtle so that they fit well with the specific clip being shown at each specific time. When choosing the font to use in our opening title sequence we needed to make sure that it fitted with the correct genre of our OTS. We tested out many different fonts and then finally chose this font because we felt that it was easy for our audience to read and we put it in the colour white on a black background so that it stood out.

Title font and position

Credits

Our opening title sequence is again conventional in terms of credits, as shown with any opening title sequence the average amount of credits shown is around 20, we have shown this in our opening title sequence as we have roughly the same amount. We had to look into other opening title sequences to find out this information. Our media project follows the conventions of the ordering of credits by placing the production company and the studio at the beginning, as well as this the actors and actresses. Then followed by production and ending with the name of our opening title sequence. Within the project we wanted to go with the conventions as much as possible but keep some aspects unique, for example the name of the film is usually placed after the cast, however it is shown at the end which breaks the conventions. I believe this creates enigma and tension by the audience wanting to know the name of our opening title sequence. We felt that we wanted to create our own production and distribution company as there were no specific production and distribution companies in which stood out to us in producing and distributing our media project.

Location of Filming and Lighting

Our opening title sequence mostly takes place in and around London as well as a house and an alleyway, by filming part of our opening title sequence in a house is a convention of a thriller film by representing a dark atmosphere as if anything to happen at anytime to our main character.The filming throughout our opening title sequence is mostly natural lighting, which usually contradicts thriller openings as they are stereotypically very dark with a slight artificial light source.We chose to shoot in London on a dark day as this also helped portray the aspects of Thriller in our opening title sequence, as if the weather would have been sunny then this wouldn’t have set the mood of our media project very well. Typically most thriller films have very dark lighting, the thriller in our opening title sequence is very subtle however we portray aspects through the mystery and thriller of finding out Harlow’s past.

Mise en SceneMise en scene in our media project was conventional due to the clothing in which Harlow wears throughout our media project by our character dressing in ‘normal’ clothes suggests that she is trying to fit in, even with her abnormal powers. A prop in which is used a lot in our opening title sequence is Harlows phone, which is conventional to most teenagers. Harlow is shown at various points in the opening title sequence to be walking around on her phone, we wanted to make our main character come across as normal as possible however, this isn’t the case and she wants to get to the bottom of her abnormality. SoundThe sound in our opening title sequence isn’t very conventional to typical thriller films due to the fast pace music which does build tension however typically thriller opening titles usually have slow pace music which builds tension. We felt that this type of upbeat fast pace music worked best with our opening titles as we did try a slow pace soundtrack and it didn’t sound as good with the news broadcast. In our opening title sequence we use forms of real media products as we created our own news broadcast in which is played over the top of our clips with a soundtrack quieter in the background, we felt that the news broadcast helped give our audience a better understanding of our media product.

Camera ShotsCertain camera shots were conventional because thriller films usually involve around shots to show power. Such as a high angle shot suggests a powerful character where as a low angle shots suggests vulnerability and weakness. We used a slight high angle shot of our main character Harlow to show that she is a powerful character in our media project, in the aspect that she has special powers.

In our media project we used long shots to show the location in which Harlow is, this is so the audience see how her special powers can appear at any time when she is public as well as at her own house.