The document discusses how the film opening challenges and adheres to conventions of the horror genre. It establishes mystery and tension through minimal narrative, unsettling shots and clues left in scenes. It also uses setting, camera work, titles and costume design to both challenge and follow genre conventions. For example, it does not include overt violence or gore but uses dark clothing to set the tone. The goal is to create intrigue without revealing too much of the plot.

1. EVALUATION 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. INTRODUCTION
During the research stage I looked into various codes and
conventions of film openings especially those in the genre of horror
and thriller. From this preliminary research I derived ideas from
which I could use in my Film product such as the idea of creating a
sense of Enigma and ambiguity throughout the opening. I did this by
keeping narrative minimal and having mies en scene i.e. the photo on
the walls act as clues into the possible plot of the film The film
opening was left on a unsettled shot , creating the greatest sense of
enigma possible. The placement of the last shot which showed the
"killer" stalking a innocent looking young female was deliberately
placed as it grabs the attention of the audience and puts questions
into their minds about what happened to the to this female
character.

3. PRE PRODUCTION
Many film openings I analyzed present the audience with a sense
of mystery and disorientation[Gone Girl and Goodfellas], then
leave the audience a with a disorientating shot or a shock and
then cut to a to much more steady scene. Cliff hangers are one of
the most effective ways of keeping an audience member enticed to
a film. This was the case with the opening to The “Goodfellas”. As
the film starts the audience is presented with a sense of calamity,
where the main characters are just driving along, till a noise
appear out of nowhere from the back of the car. It is then eluded
that there is someone in the boot of the car, who then is violently
attacked by one of the characters as he opens the boot, but before
the audience can figure out what is going on, the shot cuts to the
title. This is the very same structure our opening follows as seen
when the protagonist lurk the streets at night accompanied by a
smooth calming soundtrack this serene ambiance is soon
shattered as the protagonist is seen lurking in the background
staring toward the audience. .The setting of our film consists of
dark ghostly urban areas, something which is common in many
films of the horror genre. In addition the film Gone Girl directed
by David Fincher also leaves the audience with sense of
unsettlement/shock, the audience are introduced to a scene first
thought to be the portrayal of the perfect married couple is the
broken up when the husband who says whilst running his fingers
through his wife's hair "I picture cracking her lovely skull,
unspooling her brain" this is followed by an alarming look towards
the camera from his wife and then a cut. The aim of our film was
to create similar sort of disorientation and enigma amongst the
audience and have them question and be on the edge of their
about what is going to happen next.

4. The setting and location of the Film opening also
reflects that of a typical Film in the same genre. The
use of the dark urban streets as the exterior and a
dark black room as the interior emphasizes
elements of eeriness and abnormality as seen many
in other films including the Silence of the Lambs
and Gone Girl. The urban setting drives the story
and helps add a an element of realness. Gone girl is
a key example of how this technique is done
successfully. Gone girl opens with a series of eerie
shots including a vast amount of shot types from
crane shots to tracking shots all of which come
together to set a creepy atmosphere and portray a
subliminal narrative. The use of shots to instill a
narrative is very effective and audience engaging
technique and was a technique I instilled the
production of my films. The way in which I
implemented this technique was through the use of
various shots which acted as clues and driving
points in the narrative examples include the shots
of the photos on the wall which clearly suggest that
the killer has some sought of obsession with a
particular type of women. In addition the shots of
the killer lurking through the streets in dark
ambiguous lighting and the shot of the train all
come together to portray the killer as mobile and on
a journey somewhere or to someone. This is then
reinforced in the last shot of the girl on a dark and
empty street with the killer lurking in the shadows
SETTI
NG

5. CAMERA WORK AND EDITING
A typical device used within Film openings is to build up
the tension this can be done through the use of different
editing speeds.
A slow peeling tension is built up throughout the opening
of Audrey. Typically, a film opening will begin with slow
shots that establish the story line, develop character and
introduce the themes within the film. By the time you have
reached the end of the film opening, there will be many
quick cuts that build up the tension. We extracted this
technique from the film Gone Girl. This technique is
particularly effective at building up tension as the audience
may not understand why certain shots have been included
and this could lead to confusion, they may also feel
overwhelmed by the amount of scenes and actions that are
being thrown at them in such a short space of time. So
instead, whilst I was editing, I incorporated about 5 or 6
slow shots that were related to the story line, each of these
shots was about 5 seconds long. Coupled with the music
that was reaching its crescendo, I was able to transform an
originally boring scene into a scene that becomes the
crucial point of tension within the film opening.
Furthermore we included a very common and generic shot
in our project, that being a tracking shot. A tracking shot
is very generic in horror films as it sets a creepy ambience,
creates motion bringing the audience closer to the
protagonist.

6. INTRODUCING THE STORY
Finally another way in which I stuck to the
usual codes and conventions of my genre,
was to not make clear the whole story of the
film as seen in other similar films but to
have a underlying narrative. I did this by
implementing certain driving points which
give an idea of the film without revealing
too much e.g. the shot of the protagonist
following the girl, along with photographs
on the wall of Audrey Hepburn. although I
chose to display murderer , I did not to
reveal the identity of him as that would be a
spoiler to the plot and by keeping this
enigma alive about who unknown killer is
the audience will be active in looking for
clues throughout the film in order to gain
leads into the true identity of who the killer
introduced in the opening is. This is a
remarkable technique into keeping the
audience enticed and glued to the screen
throughout the film. This technique was
successfully implemented in the opening in
the film "The Conjuring" which used news
articles to introduced to the audience a
back story.

7. COSTUME DESIGN
One way I challenged generic conventions of
the horror genre was to not include high
value SFX and gore. I did this so the audience
is not over whelmed by violence and do not
come to the conclusion that the film would
follow the generic recycled conventions of
horror films. However this was indefinitely a
horror thriller so the inclusion of dark
clothing on the protagonist was necessary as
costume is arguably the most important
convention of any film in such a genre. This is
supported by my research material as it
clearly shows the costume of characters in
films of all genres acting as a catalyst to the
ambiance of the film, this applicable to all
genres examples include James Bond series
(where formal clothing is a key convention)
and cape fear (where the protagonist is seen
stalking the family whilst in dark
clothing).Further more the use of casual
clothing on the females in our opening
reflects the same costume convention in the
film gone girl where the protagonist i shown
in causal clothing.

8. COSTUME DESIGN
To a certain extent we have adhered to the usual
criminal representation of young adults and teens
to instill a relatable fear among the audience. We
composed the initial costume of the murderer to
reflect that of the common image brought
forward by today's media on young people.
Following this impression of aggressiveness and
criminality, our protagonist is seen wearing dark
baggy clothes and “Timberland Boots" which
reflect the aggressive thug-like representation of
young people in today’s society.
However this image of the Murderer is not
representative of the whole film, as we have
chosen to change his costume throughout the
film in order to break this stereotype and also to
bring forward to the audience a non-generic and
non-predictable plot. To do this our killer will be
seen in various non suspicious clothing from suits
to a police costume.

9. TITLES
The order in which the titles where placed followed the usual
convention of most films and mirrored the order of creditees from such
films as Gone Girl Paid in full and many more. During our pre
production phase we analyzed the time at which certain titles appeared
and recorded the observation on timelines(see the next 3 slides) we did
this for various films. From this we learned the repetitive
chronological order of the titles and the usual times at which each
credit would appear at. Take the director name which would appear
almost always towards the latter end of the opening. Furthermore my
analyzing of real film openings showed a rolling convention in the
placing of these titles, they all complied following the rule of thirds.
Something I strongly adhered to and implemented in my own project.
By adhering to this cemented rule we did not create cause for the
audience to be distracted from the actual content of the opening and
for the titles to overlay the footage.

13. STYLE OF FONT
Only a few titles where included as it would
have been off putting for the audience to be
bombarded with titles.
The style and font of the titles used in my
film product are not very conventional to the
horror genre they do not stick to the
stereotype of being overly animated and
bloody. The font and style of the titles are
stylistic and 1960s like, reflecting the plot of
the film which revolves around Audrey
Hepburn who was a major star of the
1960s.By including this stylistic and simple
font and style with a simple transition it
calms the audience and does not overwhelm
the audience. Films such as SAW are guilty of
this overwhelming by including gory font
styles however we stayed away far away from
this.