The document analyzes and evaluates the film opening created by the student. It discusses several elements of the opening including the use of credits, introduction of characters, props, story/narrative set up, editing, camerawork, and title of the film. It provides examples from real films to demonstrate how the student's opening develops or challenges conventions of the crime/thriller genre. Overall, the document offers a thorough review and analysis of the techniques used in the student's opening title sequence.

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

2. CREDIT FONT AND STYLE
For all of the titles and credits we used a white coloured font. Not only did the
white stand out against all of the different backgrounds, making it easy to read
but it's connotations also contradicted the film narrative as white signifies
innocence whereas our film focuses on crime, specifically murder. Contrasts
like this are common in film openings with it being used in action thriller
'Taken'.
At the beginning of the film we decided to show the date and time. This is
commonly done in thrillers and action films and TV shows, such as 'The X
Files', to set the scene. We thought this would therefore reflect the genre of our
film well right from the start. The font used for the time and date is the same
font that we used for the title at the end of the opening. Therefore, this links the
beginning and end of the opening, bringing it full circle.
For all of the credits, including the cast, director, music, editor and camera work
we used the same style so that it looked more professional as it added
continuity. We used an easy to read standard font but to make it more
interesting and bring focus to the credits put the second half in block capitals.
This worked especially well with the cast names as it draws attention to their
surnames and actors are normally recognisable by surnames more than their
first. This style is sometimes used but not very often. It is more likely to be used
in films similar to the genre of ours such as action or thrillers. In the credits of
'Ed Wood', the same style is used with the names in capitals and their roles in
normal sentence type.
Source: Ed Woods opening credits
(http://www.marksimonson.com/notebook/view/typecasting
)
Source: Screenshots from Taken film opening
(http://jodiesharpe.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/taken-opening-
scene-analysis.html)

3. HOW CHARACTERS ARE
INTRODUCED (+ SETTINGS,
LOCATIONS AND COSTUMES)
Esme, the murderer/business woman is introduced very quickly into the opening. She is
shown walking down a street, heading towards somewhere. To represent the business
woman facade we dressed the character in dark clothes yet made sure she still looked
smart but slightly edgy. Sandra Bullock's character in 'The Proposal', is a professional
business women and wears dark, smart clothes to reflect this. However, we made sure that
our character had a slightly dangerous feel to her. The stereotype of business women is
that they are always busy so by having the character on the phone it emphasises that. We
wanted to location to also help to reflect the character. Therefore, we set her walking down
a street in a town/city location with others around to symbolise the busy city lifestyle often
shown in films as much as we could. Through all of this the character is therefore
introduced as almost innocent as the audience doesn't know about her criminal side yet.
Alice, the office worker/action woman is introduced to the audience straight away as her
action self. She is first seen as a silhouette because of the light and all of the black she is
wearing which suggests mystery and danger. The audience cannot see what she is doing,
adding more mystery. To reflect the action side of her we decided that the costume she
wore would be all black. This is commonly used in spy films to suggest the idea of sneaking
around. Locations for scenes like this are usually almost pitch black and in quite cold and
empty rooms. The wood and warmer lighting therefore contradicts this as it has a more
homely feel. The overall introduction of the character therefore contrasts expectations of
action films as the lead action person is a women, something not usually seen.
Craig, the computer specialist, is barely seen throughout the whole film opening. When he
is first seen, it is just his hands typing on a keyboard, giving an idea of what his character
does. However, when he is first seen properly only his eyes are shown. Close up shots are
commonly used to show characters like this in films. The use of the laptop as a prop also
signifies his personality. This is also commonly done in order to allow characters to
conform to the 'geek' stereotype. The character also wore dark clothes which helped to link
him with Alice.

4. PROPS
The main props we used throughout the opening was the gun, headsets and the
phone as the stopwatch. We felt that using the toy gun not only reflected the
narrative well but also reflected the character and the genre as it showed a
violent side to the character and an action genre. In action and crime thriller
genre films guns are commonly shown to reflect the action and nature of the
film. This is done in the film 'Bad Boys 2' where guns are commonly used
throughout making it action packed and quite aggressive. In spy thriller films,
such as 'Kingsman: The Secret Service', the main character communicates with
the computer specialist through use of an ear piece. Therefore, we decided to
have Alice and Craig to use a headset to show them communicating with one
another and link the characters together.
Source: Bad Boys 2 poster
(http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/Bad_Boys_II)
Source: Kingsman earpiece and communication
image
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QAVPDQJtj
U)

5. STORY AND HOW THE
OPENING SETS IT UP
The narrative of the film opening is about Alice going after Esme with
the help of Craig because Esme killed a relative of Alice's. The
element of a chase is key to the film as well as the action within the
crime and chase. Therefore, showing a map twice in the opening
symbolises the idea of having to go to another location in order to
find the character and get her revenge. This prop along with the gun
both equally help to create the narrative set the start of the action-
packed film. The map also signifies that character is going to travel
far and therefore hints heavily at the story line and genre.

6. GENRE AND HOW THE
OPENING SUGGESTS IT AND
EDITING
Within the film opening there is a collection of different clips which show
Alice getting ready for action. This was one of the most important parts of
our opening as if this didn't work the film would lose pace. The music was
very important in order to keep the opening fast paced. Therefore, instead
of having several clips play one after the other which would be long,
boring and lose pace we decided to use editing techniques such as split
screens and pictures in pictures. These techniques were available to us
on iMovie and helped to create an effective and engaging sequence in the
opening. We used another split screen later on as well to again add pace.
Split screens are often used in scenes like these in similar film genres so
therefore using them developed deeper into the genre and helped to
reflect the genre of crime thriller/action film well. The TV series '24' uses
split screens as well and is of a similar genre.
Source: 24 split screen
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:24_Split_Screen.jpg)

7. CAMERAWORK
The camerawork throughout the opening is very important in order to
create the correct feel for the film. The shots that I feel work well are the
point of view camera angles. These give the audience the same
perspective of the character and therefore involve them. These types of
camera shots are usually used to show others but in our opening we
used them to show the character getting ready so therefore our opening
some what challenges forms of our genre. The use of the shot also
focuses the audience's attention on what's happening as it also acts as a
close up shot, zooming in on the action and taking up all of the room in
the frame. This is especially true for the point of view below where all you
can see if the character putting the gloves on and some of the table in
the background.

8. TITLE OF THE FILM
The title of the film is shown at the end of the opening as it draws it to an end before starting the rest of
the film. The title of the film, as said earlier, uses the same style as the date and time does. We decided
to use a white font again as it contrasts again the black, mysterious background with its connotations
of innocence. Films that show the time and date in the opening tend to then close the opening with the
title in order to almost restart the rest of the film with a different date and time. However, this is not that
regular of film openings. The title is often displayed in the centre of the screen. This brings the
audience's attention to it as the eye is naturally drawn the the centre first. This title is similar to the film
'Prisoners where the text is in white and positioned in the middle with a black background. Both these
titles reflect the genre of the film.
Source: Prisoners title (http://annyas.com/screenshots/updates/prisoners-
2013-denis-villeneuve/)