The document discusses how the opening sequence of a media product uses conventions of real genres and forms. It establishes antagonists and protagonists through costuming and characterization. The genre of thriller/horror was chosen based on audience preferences. Tension and mystery are built through enigma codes and juxtaposition. The sequence aims to position the audience to dislike the antagonist and sympathize with the vulnerable child protagonist. Dark and enclosed settings are used to emphasize the protagonist's trapped state.
1. EVALUATION QUESTION ONE
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
2. EVALUATION QUESTION ONE- CHARACTERISATION
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real media products?
• In our opening sequence the antagonist is clear from the beginning- immediately you
see that he is portrayed as a dangerous man.
• While creating his look we decided to have the character shown as having a full
sleeve of tattoos on his arm, and wearing black leather gloves. This created a
mysterious look to him and also plays on the use of stereotypes such as a tattooed
‘thug’.
• Throughout the whole opening sequence his whole face is never actually revealed to the
audience, which leaves the viewers wanting to see the rest of the film to find out this mans
identity and motive for what he has done.
• Our opening sequence is mainly based around juxtaposition, so we thought that that antagonist
should have two looks- in some shots you see him in a baby blue shirt and tie looking formal,
which is contrasting to the black tee-shirt, tattoos on show look that he has in other shots. Having
him in two different perspectives allows the audience to see the mundane side of him and the
vicious side, which is what we were aiming to achieve.
3. EVALUATION QUESTION ONE- CHARACTERISATION
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real media products?
The antagonist
4. EVALUATION QUESTION ONE- CHARACTERISATION
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real media products?
• In our opening sequence the protagonist is made obvious straight away- she is
represented as a venerable child. The use of costume was very important in how she
was presented. We tried to stereotype her as a very young helpless child throughout.
• Her costume was very simplistic in the opening sequence- she wore a basic jacket
which was taken off by the ‘capturer’, white frilly socks, which connotes the innocence
and purity of the little girl. And a black school skirt with tights, if the audience clock
that it is a school skirt it adds to the effect of her being a very young girl.
• We decided to set the young girls age at 12 because it adds more of a eery aspect to
the sequence due to being so young. This way she gets much more sympathy from
the viewers, and it makes ‘silenced’ become much more controversial gaining publicity
and a wider audience.
5. EVALUATION QUESTION ONE- CHARACTERISATION
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real media products?
The protagonist.
6. EVALUATION QUESTION ONE- GENRE
The genre of our film is thriller/horror, after doing a class survey prior to panning our
opening sequence we found that horror/thriller were the preferred genres by far. Before
doing the survey we wanted to create a horror/thriller anyway and this just backed it up
very well with the desired genre of the class.
Horror
35%
Sci-fi
10%
Thriller
30%
Rom com
10%
Documentry
15%
7. EVALUATION QUESTION ONE- NARRATIVE
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real media products?
• We used enigma code throughout our opening sequence such as the juxtaposition
between the mundane sandwich making and the girl being tied to a chair being right
next to each other. Enigma code allowed us to build up tension therefore the audience
is left guessing. The use of the enigma code is very effective in an opening sequence
because you will want to watch the rest of the film to find out the answers to these
unknown questions. For example in this opening sequence… Will she get away? What
is he going to do to the girl etc.
• The visual oxymorons create real confusion with the audience due to not knowing,
Where this girl is from? Why is she tied up? Is she ok?
• The final section of the opening sequence is a montage of everything that has
happened to the girl, it’s a very quick montage which leaves a lasting memory on the
audience for the rest of the film.
8. EVALUATION QUESTION ONE- IDEOLOGY
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real media products?
• In our opening sequence the ideology we tried to create was for the audience to
take the side of the protagonist who is the young girl that had been captured. And
to dislike the antagonist of the male. After getting a few different people to come
and watch our final opening sequence we found that we had achieved the
ideology we wanted successfully.
• We asked a group what they thought would happen in the rest of the film. These
are some of the comments that we got from the group:
• ‘the guy kills the girl’
• ‘The protagonist gets raped and murdered by the antagonist’
• ‘The antagonist gets caught after he killed her’
• As you can see from some of the results most people thought that there is a clear
separation between the protagonist and antagonist which Is what we were
wanting, the ideology has been presented well.
9. EVALUATION QUESTION ONE- SETTINGS
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real media products?
• Our opening sequence is set In the ‘store cupboard’ at school, we chose to use
this area because it is a very dark enclosed place which emphasises how
‘trapped’ the young girl Is.
• The lack of natural light allowed us to create the exact lighting that we wanted,
we took full advantage of this by using a single light to create a ‘spot light’ effect.
• While we were working on the lighting we saw that the shadows that we were
making really added to the overall effect of the opening sequence.
• On the next slide you can see the store cupboard it has been filmed in, although
it was cleared out so that it was empty.
10. EVALUATION QUESTION ONE- SETTINGS
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real media products?