Media

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e
of film openings)

2. Font and style
For our font colour and style it is pretty
much the same throughout the
opening, the colour of the font is white
so it stands out on the black and white
background (footage). We did this to
make out opening look as professional
as possible. It is a vintage bold font
which is what you'd expect in a
fantasy/horror. The font helped us
create the mysterious/suspenseful
atmosphere that goes along with our
film.

3. Genre and how the opening shot shows this
This is our opening shot for of our film opening.
As it is horror/fantasy, we decided to introduce a
suspenseful mystery as soon as possible, hence
why we opened with a letter from the victim's
mother. In this scene, we see the pendant on top
of letters left to the daughter, the audience finds
out that this victim is left with the necklace
signifying its importance throughout the
opening. The killer and the victim are not
established yet which leaves the audience
wondering who they are. We tried to make our
opening close to a horror/fantasy by showing
abstract (objects) in the first scene rather than
the characters.

4. Props
The most important prop in our film opening is the
pendant/locket which the protagonist holds at the
beginning of the film opening. The use of this prop
allows us to add a convention of fantasy to our horror
film opening. As this is a locket with a charm of
protection which is common in the horror genre as it
creates mystery, it is also something abstract and
supernatural, which horror films would use to create a
tense atmosphere. Also, later on we see props like white
roses, and even an old book which the negative character
is holding, while reading slowly almost as if enchanting a
spell. This again, reinforces the conventions of horror as
it includes an idea of supernatural powers such as
witchcraft.

5. Camerawork and editing
For this scene, we used a tilt and pan movement. We
decided to use pan and tilt at the same time because it
gave the scene a much smoother flow, rather than
filming it in two separate shots. When filming we
used a tripod to make sure that the footage was filmed
at an equal level throughout, and to make sure it didn't
shake or move whilst this scene was being filmed. To
show suspense throughout our opening, we sped up
some shots and longed out others that allowed us to
create a mysterious like state. Also this was done to
make certain shots seem like they are in slow motion,
to show importance of that specific scene.

6. Costumes and how characters are introduced
The victim is introduced sitting by the window which shows her purity and innocence as she seems occupied with
viewing the scenery outside. This is a mid shot which shows most of her costume. She wears a light pink and white
long dress which makes the audience know shes the good character. Shes introduced as a young likeable girl. The
murderer is introduced with a mid shot of her back, not showing her face keeping the anticipation and the mystery.
She is wearing black attire which includes a black vintage dress with shows she's the bad character, and the black and
white colour adds to the dark atmosphere.

7. Setting location
We used one location the Swan hotel, we used the sitting room, staircase and the corridor, the main location was
the sitting room where the victim gets killed, the room holds most significance. The location is Victorian looking,
and has quite a gloomy atmosphere which is what we were looking for as it is a murder scene, and by putting the
shots into black and white it adds a olden more vintage feel to the opening.

8. The title of the film
We have chosen the title 'Lost Shadows' as
straight away the audience feel the mystery
behind the title. The word shadows adds a
mystery feel of horror not really knowing
who the murderer truly is. The title is
shown at the beginning of the opening to
set the dark mood. The title appears with
the with the two growing plants at the side
which adds a vintage feel to it.