The document discusses conventions for opening sequences in children's films. It summarizes the conventions, which include introducing characters, establishing the location, using theme music/soundtracks, title/credit sequences, and introducing the film genre and storyline. It then analyzes the opening sequence of the author's own children's film based on these conventions. The summary analyzes how it introduces characters and location, uses music to set tone and genre, and introduces the fantasy/adventure genre and storyline through visuals and music. It also discusses areas for improvement, like clearer character introductions and more engaging credits for children.

1. Evaluation – Children’s Film Unit
Samuel Brown

2. Conventions
The usual conventions of an opening sequence include:
• Introduction of characters; This will show the characters
and give a general idea of what their personalities are like.
• Establishment of Location; This will show the location of
the characters and so will give the viewers an idea of what
type of genre the film is e.g. If the location is a forest it is
more likely to be an adventure program.

3. Conventions
• Theme Tune/Soundtrack; The program will likely have a sound
track, the types of songs used help to set the mood of the
scene. The music can also help to set the genre.
• Title Sequence; This will tell you the title of the production, and
any sub-title. Will usually be accompanied by an animation.
• Credits/Media Company; This will tell you the name of the
media production company, actors and of all the important
people involved in the production e.g. Director, Editor, Director
of Music and Director of Photography. It will also tell you the
names of the people who published the production.

4. Conventions
• Introduction of Film Genre; This will be done by all of the
parts of the introduction combined. I.e. The audience will
know what genre it is by the tone, the music, the location
and the types of characters.
• Introduction of Film Storyline; This will show the audience
what the storyline of the film is. It is this part of the content
of the film which will keep the audience watching the
program.

5. Conventions
My Children’s film uses all of these conventions in some way:
• It has an introduction of the characters by showing who
they are. But I know that the characters could have been
introduced better, all that I did to introduce them is to
show what they look like but I didn’t show what each of the
characters are called. So the audience will know the names
of the characters from the credits but they won’t know
which one of the characters is which.

6. Conventions
• The establishment of location in my children’s film is made
obvious by a pan shot at the beginning of the film showing
that the main character is in a forest. I chose a forest as the
location of my children’s film because it is an adventure
genre film and I feel that a forest makes it obvious that the
film is an adventure genre film. I know this because a forest
is usually perceived as an area where no-one would live
and so it would be out of the way and perhaps hard to get
to which makes it more likely to be an adventure film.

7. Conventions
• The theme tune/soundtrack of my children’s film sets the
tone of the film. So if the audience is supposed to perceive
the scene as being happy then there will be a happy and
bouncy song playing. But if it is supposed to be a chase
scene then there will be faster paced music playing. Even
with these rules set in place I had to think about who the
audience was; which was children. So for example with the
chase music I didn’t want to make the music seem to scary
since it is for children so it had to be a happy and up-beat
piece of music.

8. Conventions
• The title sequence/credits of my film were made to be
suitable for children. But they were not all made to be
aimed at children, for example the credits of the film which
say the name of the actors, director, director of
photography and director of music. Were all just plain
white on a black background, which I don’t think that
children would find very interesting. The only part of the
title sequence/credits that could be said was more aimed
at children was the sub-title this is because I used a funky
font and used pink as the colour which was used to make
the writing visible against the background of the forest, but
also because it related to children more.

9. Conventions
• I know that the genre of the film was introduced
reasonably well. The genre of the film is fantasy/adventure.
I know that this is shown by the music; The music that I
used is very upbeat and magical this shows that the genre
of the film is fantasy. Some of the characters that are
introduced are not human and so this also helps to show
that the genre is more fantasy based. The film is shown to
be an action film because of the location; the location is a
forest which shows that the characters may have had to
have travelled a long way and so are on an adventure.

10. Conventions
• The film’s storyline is mostly introduced by what the actors
do in the film. The main character towards the beginning of
the film is walking through a forest before they find a mask
which shows them their past. The character then finds an
item which the main evil characters of the film want. The
storyline is aimed at children with the use of mystical
characters and their music. For example the first evil
character that is used in the film has their own theme song
and moves in a creepy way. I know that the story could
have been introduced and made clearer with the use of
narration or some form of dialogue.

11. Conventions/Genre
The genre of my opening sequence is fantasy/adventure. This
is shown in all aspects of the film bahr the title and credit
sequences.
The music was made to be mystical and happy which makes
the genre of the film more obviously fantasy as well as
aiming the sound towards children.
The location is made to be obviously adventurous by using a
forest, this shows the audience that the character may have
had to have travelled a long way.
The general tone of the film is aimed towards adventure due
to the chase scene which takes up the majority of the time
of the opening sequence.

12. Social Groups
The social groups that my film is aimed at is families, but
mainly children between the ages of 6-12. Also it will be
mostly aimed at males because I know that males would be
more interested in fantasy/adventure films.
The interests of the people who will be watching the film
could be:
• Since it is a fantasy genre film they could be interested in
myths, legends and all around weird and wonderful
creatures.
• Since it is an adventure film they could be interested in far
away places and travelling.

13. Social Groups
My film uses the stereotype used in many films of there being
a main villain who has a side-kick. The side-kick is less
important and makes lots of mistakes. For example in the
film he trips over during the running scene.
My film challenges the stereotype of there being a group of
people who are the main characters, and instead just has
the one main hero.

14. Film Distributors
An example of a children’s film distributor is ‘20th Century
Fox', 'Disney’ and ‘DreamWorks Entertainment’.
Because of my films genre and the social group that it is
aimed at I would say that it would likely be distributed by
‘DreamWorks Entertainment’. This is because my film
seems to relate to other films that they have distributed.
For example a film they have distributed is ‘Shrek’ and it is
a fantasy adventure film just like mine.

15. Audience
The audience that my film is aimed at is families, but mainly
children between the ages of 6-12. This is the audience that
I first had in mind when I started the film and so I
succeeded in creating a film for the audience that I wanted.
I know that I have reached the audience that I was aiming for.
I know this because I used conventions that other
fantasy/adventure films use. And so if the audience enjoys
the other fantasy/adventure films then they should enjoy
this one.

16. Audience
The BBFC classification of my film is PG. This is because there
is minor violence in the film which means that it can’t be U.
This classification means that the film can be viewed by my
target audience. That would mean that if it was ever
distributed it would be more likely to have interest by
distributors.
That means that the film would get more sales if it had a retail
release.
I could have done things a bit differently to reach my target
audience better. For example I could have made the credits
and titles more interesting for children instead of using
plain colours and fonts.

17. Audience
Areas from my production that attract the audience include:
• The music which is very child friendly, by being happy and
up-beat. For example the first song in the film.
• The characters which are used a lot in different children’s
films. I.e. There is a main good character, a main evil
character and the main evil characters lackey.
• The genre which is fantasy/adventure. This is popular in a
lot of children’s films and so the audience might think that
they will enjoy the film just from the genre.

18. Technologies
During the construction of my product I have learnt how to
better use:
• Final Cut Pro; the editing software that I used to put
together my production. The creation of my production
helped me to learn how to use basic features such as
cutting and moving video and audio. How to add effects to
the different video sequences. How to render different
sections of the video. How to export a film using Final Cut
Pro.

19. Technologies
• Handheld Video Camera/Digital Camera: I learnt more of
the functions on the handheld camera that we used to film
the production as well as the camera used to take pictures
of the script, risk assessment and storyboard for the blog.
• Tripod: I learnt how to attach the video camera to the
tripod. This helps to make the shots more steady than using
hand held shots. Unless you want hand-held shots to give
the effect of it being a first person view.

20. What I Have Learnt
I have learnt how to film and edit video using Final Cut
Express. From my preliminary task I learnt how to choose a
good location to shoot a production. In the preliminary task
I know that the location for my production wasn’t correct
and so I used a better location for the actual production.
In the preliminary production I wasn’t too sure how to use
the editing software and so some of the editing time was
spent trying to work the software. So doing a preliminary
task helped me to optimise my editing task for the final
product.

21. What I Have Learnt
I know that the successful points of the production include:
• The music; which was aimed specifically at the target
audience.
• The characters which try to be similar to characters shown
in other children’s films of the same genre to allow the
audience to identify them easier.
• The location which helps to relate the genre to the
production.
• The story of the production which allows the audience to
see some of the events that happened in the preliminary
task.