The document provides an analysis of the opening title sequence created by the student for their psychological thriller film "A Void". It summarizes the genre conventions used, compares it to similar films, introduces the three main characters representing different social classes, and discusses how it challenges stereotypes such as depicting a non-hysterical female protagonist and portraying a dysfunctional family dynamic. The student also analyzes how the sequence represents issues like the impact of technology on teenagers and changing mother-daughter relationships in modern society through its use of camera work, editing, mise-en-scene, and adherence to representation theorists.

1. Creative Critical Reflection
TASK 1
BY, ISIDE MONTALDO

2. Question for
task 1.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JO6nXOjk5
-0
 “How does your product use or challenge
conventions and how does it represent social
groups and issues.”

3. Genre + Genre
Conventions
 As a group, we created
the opening title
sequence for our movie:
A void which is a
psychological thriller.
Some of these genre
conventions include:
 Flashbacks
 Identity
 Existence and purpose
 Mind perception

4. Film Comparison
 There are a range of films that we found
similarities and helped us approach to our final
decision of our film A void. These are some of
the films we took ideas from to help us:
 “No time to die” directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga
(2021)
 “Flashback” directed by Christopher MacBride’s
(2020)
 “Fear of rain” directed by Castile Landon (2021)
 “The Americans” directed by Matthew Rhys
(2013)

5. No time to die
“No time to die”
Rack focus
Non-diegetic sounds also
pleonastic sounds which we
have in our opening title
sequence form the
pleonastic sounds of the
heartbeats in the flashback
scene.
Juxtaposition of cold and warm
lighting, this sis also shown in our
opening title sequence where we have
the contrast between real life and
jules’s flashback.
Mostly close
ups and mid
shots.
Long takes to show
continuity and a slow
editing pace to create
more tension throughout
the film.

6. Flashback
 A similar aspect we had
to the movie “Flashback”
is the flashback scene
that we created to trigger
the memory of her past
life and her present self.
We decided to stick to
the idea of creating
shorter flashback scenes
to create a more
intriguing impact to the
audience.
Mid shot of Jules zooming
into a closeup looking
distressed signifying
something bad is going to
happen.
Similarly, mid shot of the character
looking distressed and suggesting
the continuing scene is
juxtaposing the previous
Next shot we have the flashback
scene with a low key lighting
and a different setting which is a
lot darker suggesting a contrast
intriguing the audience
Likewise in this scene we have
low key lighting and a
distressed facial expression
juxtaposing both scenes. There
is also blood on his face
creating a shock to the
audience.

7. Fear of rain
 The movie fear of rain includes
the same genre as our film.
Psychological thriller, as it
includes themes of mind
perception and this causes the
main character to see vivid
hallucinations. Likewise, to our
film, Jules takes pills every
morning, in the opening title
sequence we are not sure why
she takes them however the
fact that there are none left
triggers her to have this
memory and falls into a
hallucination.
In this scene we can
clearly see the main
character running, this
makes us wonder what
she is running for.
Although, this is all in her
head due to the visual
hallucinations. This makes
the audience confused
and engaged to find out
more about the film. The
dark setting and
establishing shot shows
the dark forest
surrounding the girl
creating a build up in
tension especially for the
viewer.
Like wise in A void we can see the
low key lighting to create shadows
and atmosphere. This shows the
flashback/hallucination. We can see
a dark background and this causes
stress and builds up tension.
In the next shot we also witness
a closeup of Karen, showing her
distressed facial expression
signifying fear. This is the same
as the scene of Fear of rain
where the girl is running. The
low key lighting shows terror
and stress to see what happens
next.

8. Character
Introduction
 We have 3 main
characters that we are
presented to in the
opening title sequence.
The main character is
Jules, then the supporting
actors are Aveline, the
real mother and Lauren
the fake mother.
Jules is immediately presented as a
higher class status, from a upper
economical family. We tried to
present this idea and make the
room look very posh and
organized to show the contrast.
The nude colours and fairy lights
portray the organization and
structure of life that Jules
maintains.
Bethan is introduced as strict and cold. We can see
this from the proxemics of Jules and Beth when zero
physical contact was made to calm her own
daughter down. The low angle shot shows
dominance and how she is superior to Jules. This
also suggests the lack of mother and daughter
relationship they have. Therefore Bethan is
presented as a high class mother that doesnt feel
recollection with her own daughter.
On the other hand, the real
mother, Karen, we decided
to present her as a lower
class. However, we can see
how she is more loving and
caring, she is worried about
her daughter and we see a
lot more physical touch.

9. We decided to stick to a quite classical and traditional design as we didnt want to take away the focus from the action occurring in the scene. This
way the viewer would be focused on the narrative of the story instead of the titles. Therefore we stuck to a white font and for transitions didnt add
anything as we wanted the titles to flow in and out of the opening title sequence easily with no stops. Although this wasn’t the best option to not
add transitions, we decided that it was very time consuming and we didnt have enough time to add them in. We added all the titles in logical places
except the title of the film that pops up out of nowhere at the end of the sequence, this is reiterates that the film is a thriller and conjoint with the
narrative of the film to attract the audience and make the viewer seem more intrigued about the movie. We also added the titles according to the
narrative of the movie, therefore at first as the scenes are very relaxed and of Jules getting ready the titles just flew in and out however after the
flashback we drastically added the title of the film at the end to create an impact for the viewer.
Titles:

10. What have we challenged?
We challenged the
stereotype of
women being
hysterical in media.
We adhered to the
archetype of a
typical teenage girl
by using fairy lights,
white bed sheets,
pink pyjamas.
We also challenged
the concept of a
stereotypical
family, and how
there’s always the
loving mother and
family.
We also included
different gender
stereotypes such as,
girls and how they are
associated to the
colour pink

11. Stereotypes in film:
A main issue we
challenged was the fact
that in film usually it is
stereotypically seen for
woman to be hysterical
and be seen as the victim.
Although, Jules was
distressed and in terrors,
we can see how she tries
to remain as calm as she
can and tried to hide the
emotions she was feeling.
This is because we
portrayed Jules as a
counter type to what
stereotypical women in
films would be doing in
the same situation.
To add on to this another issue
we challenged was the
archetype of a steroeptypicak
teenage girl. We can see how
Jules wears pink pyjamas and
has fairy lights on her wall. As
well as all this we can also
encounter the fact that her
room is extremely organized
showing the typical and usual
assumption that girls are more
organized than boys. As well as
this the fact that her room is
nude colours and she has a lot
of pink items adhere to this
stereotype.

12. Issues in our
opening title
sequence
Modern World
society, parents
dont share the
same bond as
before.
Impact of
technology’s
with teenagers
in the modern
world.
Social economic
backgrounds,
from high class
and lower class
backgrounds
Power in
routine and
how every day
lives have
become a
routine for most
teenagers, eg,
everyday is the
same.

13. Impact of technology in
teenagers:
 A impact that we included in our opening title
sequence is the impact of technology in modern day
society, as we can see the first thing Jules does when
she wakes up is check her phone, we decided to
present this as this accords to the stereotype of a
teenage girl. This shows the impact of technology in
modern day society and how having a device changes
the routine of a teenager.

14. Impact of technology:
Camera: We used a
mid shot to show
how Jules’s first
instinct is to grab
her phone after she
wakes up.
Sound: As throughout our
opening title sequence we used
no sound. We included
ambience sounds and sound
effects of birds chirping to show
its the morning. Our original idea
was to add a so nag as soon as
Jules grabs her phone, but due
to the time we didnt have
enough time to add and find a
song.
Editing: We used a
long shot to show the
continuity, and how
Jules is going
through her morning
routine after using
her phone.
Mise en scene: We can
tell its the morning as
we used high key
lighting and the shot of
her unmade bed to
suggest Jules has just
woken up and it is early
in the morning.

15. Social class:
 In our opening title sequence we have different economic social classes shown. As we
can see the fake mother, Beth, is portrayed as high class, we can tell by her clothes
and in general Jules’s room. However we have the contrast of the real mother in the
flashback and we can see through the low key lighting that it is more of a rough
apartment and due to the facial expression we can see that she is stressing about
something which causes the viewer to contrast both scenarios. We wanted as a group
to portray both social classes so that there would be a contrast in lifestyle. We can see
at the beginning the calm and comfortable lifestyle that jule’s follows in contrast to
the stressful childhood she had.

16. Social Class：
Camera: by having a
high angle shot and a
ow angle shot we can
see the difference
between the 2
mothers and how
one is superior to the
other.
Sound: As we didn’t include a
song we had dialogue, and by
showing how worried the real
mother is in the flashback,
telling Jules, “we have to go,
we have to go” and then it
switches to “We have to go
were gonna be late to school”
which the real mother
mentions.
Editing: We added the
transition from front to
back to contrast the two
scenes from before the
flashback and then the
flashback. This shows the
different classes and how
it juxtaposes both. Mise en scene: By the
costume and just the
background in general we
can see that Bethan is
dressed nicely with a shirt
and is living in a wide
house however in the
flashback we see the Karen
is in a dark apartment and
by what she is wearing.

17. Mother and daughter bond in modern society:
In our opening title sequence we
wanted to present the issue with
mother and daughter bond and
how nowadays some family’s dont
share the same relationship. We
presented this through proxemics
and showing how when Jules was
having a minor panic attack her
“mother didnt use physical contact
to comfort her instead was stood
far away. This shows the
relationship between them and
how distant they are from
eachother. We also showed this by
having a high angle shot on the
fake mother to show how she is
superior and has more power over
her own daughter

18. Theorists of representation:
 In our opening title sequence we included a couple theorists of
representation. One of them was Roland Barths enigma codes theory.
Barths suggested that something has to happen to keep the audience
intrigued. In our case we had the flashback that created a major plot
twist to the story as after that our opening title sequence ended
creating a attractive method to keep the audience intrigued and want
to keep watching the movie. We also show the difference between
location and this created a different atmosphere.
 Another theorist we included is Levi Strauss, he believed in binary
opposition in media. We included this in our opening title sequence
by the sense of having two completely opposite personalities in the
same characters. For example, Bethan is seen as the cold mum and is
seen as more strict on the other hand, Karen is presented as warmer
and she shows emotions.

19. Stereotypes within
the product:
 In our opening title
sequence we adhered to
many stereotypes.
 These are some of the
different stereotypes:
We have Jules a
teenager very classical
and we can tell she
comes from a high
status, more of a
traditional character.
Very stereotypical girly
girl we can see this by
the room she is in and
the nude colours and
fairy lights.
We then have Karen she is
the real mother of Jules
we can see she is
presented as a warm
mother and a
stereotypical lower status
mother that does
everything for their child
and wants the best for
her.
Lastly we presented Bethan as a
stereotypical higher status
mother that is very formal and
has a distant relationship to her
daughter. We did this to
contrast both mums and
although one of them is higher
status than the other the
difference between sharing
emotions and mother daughter
bond.