Question 1

2. Titles
• For the title of the film we used a style that is very outstanding as I believe that
when it is first seen in the opening sequence, it leaves a huge impact with alongside
the harrowing score in the background as the fire rises from the lower part of the
screen to encompass an amount of the frame which also links in really well with the
title of the film which is called 'Trailblazer' as the titular character leaves a fiery trail
in her travels.The inspiration behind our selection of font was 'Watchmen' as the
titles in the opening sequence of that is that it is very bright and bold which we
wanted to further develop in our own work by making it a big part of our opening
sequence as it instantly caught the eye of the viewer. Although the font is very
simple, it was hugely effective as it stood out with great effect due to how bold the
text and the font was which left a lasting effect on the viewer.The decision was to
use an Ariel font as it is very clear and bold which we wanted as it would be very
clear to the audience when they are viewing the opening sequence.The colour of
yellow was used to add colour to the opening sequence so that what we wanted the
audience know was clear to them.The title of the movie also foreshadowed our
introduction to the main character of the movie who isTrailblazer which we wanted
to show as it challenged our audience and their mind as they would have figured out
who theTrailblazer was if they paid full attention to the opening sequence. In
reflection to our research, I feel that as a group we really took great inspiration from
the opening sequence of 'Watchmen' and implemented this into our very own work
which was a much better idea in comparison to another one of our opening
sequences that we explored which was 'District 9' which was much more serious
and bland rather than the 'Watchmen' titles which had colour and vibrancy to it.

3. Setting
• The setting of the opening sequence is very urban during the outdoor scenes which was our goal as we
wanted everything to feel very modern and up to date.The indoor scenes were constructed to look like a
headquarters for the team which we used heavily in the later stages of the opening sequence.We used a
rural area for our setting like 'Inception' which was a movie that we took inspiration off as we felt that
the use of rural settings had great effect as it established a modern and grounded feel to an otherwise
extravagant movie.We wanted the settings to feel as natural as possible which we developed by
reflecting on our research as seeing that the movie 'Interstellar' had a very natural and very possible
setting when they are on earth in the NASA headquarters which is something that we wanted to develop
in our own headquarters that we shaped with the use of the green screen as it felt not only that it was
modern but also had the supernatural element to it also. In comparison to this, our initial goal was to
shoot in London which was a more common and overused location so by choosing to shoot in a
suburban area and to effectively create a headquarters with the green screen, I believe that a better
product was achieved. We developed and used these settings so that the movie had a more personal
and grounded feel to it.

4. Costumes
• The costumes that we selected were hugely specific for the character themselves as we created a
very sporty and athletic costume to the trailblazer, a rugged and plain look for the muscle of the
team and a smart and sophisticated look for the brains of the group.The boss had a very macho and
powerful attire which was heavily shown with the leather jacket which signified great power.The
colour of black was a very prominent feature in our opening sequence costume wise which we
developed from Inception as in the opening sequence, the characters are wearing black suits, which
establishes their mood and tone which is what we wanted to challenge and use in our opening
sequence by establishing an atmosphere just by using the colours that we selected. In reflection to
our research, we initially wanted to create over the top and bold costumes that would add to the
superhero element of our sequence but we then decided to change this and develop this idea into
more of a modern and realism heavy costume design which would add more effect to the audience
as they would be able to relate to these characters and their personalities which would be shown
within their costumes .We used very stylish and relatable costumes to further add to the target
audience that we were trying to reach which was the young adult and teenager audience.

5. Camera
• The camera work was very smooth and elegant which was the aim as we wanted to show a great
continuation in the opening sequence so that we could show the audience clearly the real time
events and the events that had taken place in the past.Alongside the camera, we used a tripod
for some scenes to make the shots more fluent and smooth but for some other scenes, we used
shaky cam to add realism and intensity to the scene. I once again developed the forms of a real
media product as for the camerawork, we reflected upon our research as took inspiration from
'District 9' which was a very realism heavy movie which was hugely down to its cinematography
so we challenged this by incorporating the natural aspects of the area with the cinematography
so that the continuation was steady and that the opening sequence felt much more grounded
and real which showed great development from us as we initially planned to shoot everything on
a tripod but then decided to challenge and experiment with hand held methods.

6. Editing
• The editing was crucial as we had to make the sequence near the 2 minute mark so we had to
work around this and shorted certain scenes to better accommodate the vision that we wanted
to create. We used the adobe premiere pro software to make our editing much more professional
and efficient as the tools on the software really enabled us to add the effects to the green screen.
We challenged ourselves greatly within the editing process as we as a group reflected upon our
research and decided that 'Inception' had very smooth and crisp shots which is what we wanted
to use and develop in our own work to make sure that the audience had a perfect viewing
experience where they did not lose focus due to how well our editing went as we made sure that
enough important content was included so that the audience was well engaged with the product.
We challenged a huge form of media which was the assembly of our green screen effect as since
we were making a science fiction movie, we wanted to include all the tropes of this genre so we
couldn’t leave out the green screen which we hugely wanted to use since our research first
started.

7. Font and style
• The font and style that we used in our opening sequence we felt was very comic book type as we
drew inspiration from theWatchmen opening sequence and the use of font and style in that
which we then implemented into our very own sequence, which was a bright bold font that stood
out and informed the viewer. Our style was very comic book inspired style as our yellow font was
seen prominently in the film Watchmen and more recently in Guardians OfThe Galaxy.We
challenged the normal prototype of font and styles within media by taking inspiration from a
movie that we reflected greatly on in our research stage which was 'Watchmen' as the opening
sequence for the movie is very quirky and over the top and this is something we wanted to
develop in our very own opening sequence so we used a similar font and style to add that
uniqueness and difference to our own opening sequence that you wouldn’t normally see in typical
science fiction movies.We developed our opening sequence from an originally completely serious
tone to a more teen and modern tone but also kept the serious elements there which showed
great development from myself and my group from regular media products.

8. Narrative
• The story of our opening sequence is about a team of gifted individuals who are looking to exact
revenge on the villain of the movie who killed the main protagonist's mother. In order to change
the past and alter the future the group must travel back in time to saveTrailblazer's mother
before the villain who we later find out to beThe Boss, who has betrayed the group and puts
them at risk of never entering back into their very own universe. In reflection to my research, as
a group we wanted to challenge media forms by creating an opening sequence that was
innovative for independent filmmakers as we used a green screen to add more effect to the
opening sequence. Our development was very huge as we took inspiration from two media
products and their forms which were 'Inception' and 'The Avengers' as we wanted our narrative
to be a serious one but also one that would appeal to younger audiences which is why from our
research, we took elements from Inception such as the serious and psychological tone which
would appeal to the older audience but fromThe Avengers we took the light hearted and fun
tone which would appeal to the younger audience. I believe that this showed our development
within the narrative aspect of our process of creating this opening sequence

9. Genre
• The genre is hugely sci-fi which we felt would be the best genre as we could incorporate many
uses of technologies such as the green screen to add realism to the sequence. We blended
aspects of the superhero genre and the psychological sci-fi genre to create a perfect mash ofThe
Avengers/Inception type of opening sequence.We felt that this type of movie would be the best
suited for our target audience which was teenagers as we felt that the mash of these genres
would create a great mix. In reflection to my research, we showed great development as we
initially started with the option of three genres which were Sci-fi, crime and horror which are
huge forms of media and developed our ideas so that we were able to challenge conventions of
a typical science fiction movie by creating an independent and small time opening sequence
that had different forms of media products from all aspects of media itself.

10. Characters
• In the opening sequence we have five characters which are the main character ofTrailblazer,
who is a very fast and speedy individual who seeks revenge on the killer of her mother.The boss
who is the mentor and overall leader of the team who we find out through the opening sequence
that he was the person who murderedTrailblazer's mother and eventually betrayed the team
itself.The Meat who is the muscle of the group who does not speak much due to his angry
demeanour.The Brain who is the smartest and most tactical of the group but also the most
talkative due to his wit and the Mother who isTrailblazer's mother that was murdered years
before for something unknown.We as a group challenged the forms and conventions of a media
product as since our research stage, we wanted to create characters that were relatable to our
audience which is why we have appeal to a older audience with characters such asThe Boss and
Meat but we also appealed to the younger audience with characters such asTrailblazer and
Mind.This compares contrastingly to our research where we solely wanted to create serious
characters but we had to bear in mind that we had to appeal to different and varied audiences.

11. Special effects
• Special effects were incorporated into the sequence in post production where we refined the
green screen shots and added the portal that is created during the sequence. We also added the
titles and the title of the movie in the sequence thanks to the special effects that we were able to
construct on the adobe premiere pro software. In reflection to our research, from the start we
wanted to incorporate special effects into our media product as when we decided to go ahead
with the science fiction genre that we wanted to follow, we had to make sure that the opening
sequence felt properly like a science fiction movie.This showed how we developed and
challenged forms and conventions of a media product as we took inspiration from another media
priduct which was 'The Avengers' as special effects hugely enhance the affect of that movie.