1. Question 1
IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA
PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE
FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL
MEDIA PRODUCTS?

2. NARRATIVE STRUCTURE
Like typical horror movies, we started our film off with a neutral mood as if everything was fine and
nothing was going to happen. But of course, there’s always a twist in horror movies. Our sequence
started off with a calm setting with the girl sitting down on the bench with a little of confusion to why
she is there but then she starts walking like nothing is wrong. All of a sudden the killer pops out of
no where and takes the girl by surprise while she is running into the woods. Like other horror
films, the storyline would end with the villain being caught out by the detectives.
Enigma Codes: Within our opening sequence we have many enigma codes. The enigma codes that
we have in our opening sequence are, when the girl wakes up on the bench ( the audience may
question why she woke up on the bench) , when the killer pops out on the girl ( why was the killer
after her?), when the detective receive the phone call and leave their office ( where are they going?
We can question to what is going on) and when the killer at the end pulls the knife out the draw
and the title pops up. We can question what the killer is going to do next.
Also within our opening sequence we used cross cutting. We used cross cutting to show time passing
by such as the scene where the killer is on Facebook. We also used cross cutting to cut out the
boring parts of the sequence that were not relevant for the audience to see. Also, when we were
editing our sequence, we had to cut down the film a lot because the length of the opening would
have been too long. We also sped up some bits of the film such as the Facebook part to show the
killer is a rushing character.

3. FORM AND STYLE
The form of our opening sequence relates to other opening sequences because it has many factors
that have been included in many other opening sequences. Our opening sequence has the
following:
 Introduction of the main characters
 Has titles running through the opening sequence informing the audience who the producers and
editors are ( like from the movie “Ghost Ship”)
 Use of sound bridging
 Introduction of the main theme and ideology
 Starts off with blood and violence ( which is similar to other horror films to engage the audience )
Not only did we use the use of form but we also used style in our opening sequence. We created a
soundtrack that ran through out the whole sequence to create tension between the audience and
the sequence. We used one line of dialogue so the audience was not too aware of what was going
on which wanted the audience to seek further onto what’s going on in the opening. We wanted the
audience to feel weary about what was going on in the film and to not give away too much
information. We used natural lighting as we thought it looked best when it was during the night
scenes as it gave it that sense of realism. The pace of the opening started off slow so the audience
was allowed to get a bearing of where the girl was and then it sped up to the killing scene. I thought
this gave it a more sense of tense action.

4. GENRE
Because our opening sequence was a hybrid of genre’s between horror/mystery and crime there were
many conventions that were included in our sequence. For example, the girl alone showed the
typical events that take place in other horror movies. The characters such as the killer was masked
with a balaclava to give it that atmosphere of mystery and crime and the way the killer behaved
was aggressive as an a oppose to the girl who get’s murdered as she is innocent and had no
aggression at all.
My group also thought at the typical iconography that had to be included in the opening sequence. We
thought that it would be ideal to make the killing happen at night as this would be the “typical”
setting to have the killing. We also thought that a weapon had to be included in the killing to create
the shock within the audience. With the girl alone in the middle of where she did not know, we
thought this was great because it made the audience think that the girl is confused, lost and
unknown to what has happened.

5. THEME
Because our opening sequence was a horror opening sequence, we wanted our audience to
have the general feelings and emotions every other person would go through when
they’re watching an opening to a horror film. Here are the following themes that we
wanted the audience to experience while watching our opening sequence:
 Death
 Fear
 Danger
 Tension
 Violence
 Interrogation