1. HOW DOES YOUR PRODUCT USE OR
CHALLENGE CONVENTIONS AND HOW DOES
IT REPRESENT SOCIAL GROUPS OR ISSUES
CCR TASK 1
2. WHAT GENRE HAVE YOU
MADE, AND WHAT ARE GENRE
CONVENTIONS
• The genre for our opening title sequence
is a psychological thriller
• Genre conventions are the story
elements of a film. Examples of this
would be elements such as the
archetypes of characters and the key
events and settings that are commonly
found in a specific genre.
• These genre conventions define each
specific genre as well as defining and
confirming the viewers expectations of
the story that is being told within the
genre
• Things that could be included are time,
location, date, time period, characters,
costume, which all help establish the
genre
3. WHAT FILMS (OTHER PRODUCTS)
ARE YOU COMPARING TO
• The Voices
• Lake Elrod
• Stranger things
• Dark waters
To the left are my chosen films in which I am comparing
my opening title sequence to. I have chosen them as they
all share the same genre of psychological thriller, and they
all include comparable moments within their narrative that
can be related to my title sequence.
4. THE VOICES
• The full movie follows our female character played by
Maddie as she is trying to convince everyone she is
not responsible for the murder of her boyfriend played
by Albie
• As you get further into the movie the viewer learn that
it was indeed her who murdered her boyfriend, but
she is controlled by delusions like psychosis forcing
her to forget
• This is a similar situation to the one portrayed in the
film the voices where his schzoprenia medication
makes him forget about the people he killed. This fits
in superiorly within our genre conventions and our
portrayal of the female character played by Maddie
5. DARK WATERS
• The film dark waters is another example of a film with
a psychological thriller genre. There is a scene in which
the driver is driving down to the crime scene whilst
upbeat music is playing in the speakers in his car
• This is an idea we replicated for our own opening title
sequence
• The idea of having a large contrast between upbeat
music and the ominous soundtrack gives a
juxtaposition to the viewer regarding the events that
are going to take place during the film
6. STRANGER THINGS
• One example of a psychological thriller is stranger
things. We managed to incorporate the ominous
soundtrack aesthetic into our sequence which almost
sounds retro and melancholy
• The soundtrack builds tension for the viewer and
foreshadows that bad things will happen to the
audience
• This genre convention was incorporated into our
opening title sequence throughout the whole scene
from when we first see the characters emerge from the
car from a high camera angle further foreshadowing
bad events are to come
7. DISAPPEARANCE AT LAKE
ELROD
• The location of this film matches the location
and cinematography of our sequence. The
location of an isolated lake is a running theme
in psychological thrillers as it shows the
characters are alone and something bad will
happen to at least one of them
• We chose our lake location because of the cliffs
surrounding it making it seem like they were in
a bubble and were away from society. It made
the atmosphere feel solitary and the hut gave it
a spooky focus pull
• These isolated areas with large bodies of water
make the viewer think that strange occurrences
are going to happen and foreshadows it to the
audience
8. CHARACTER INTRODUCTION
• The first character we have is the girl played by Maddie Higgins. She is in
her late teens/early 20s
• The next character is the boy played by Albie manning who is also in
their late teens/early 20s
• Both the characters are adventurous and wear wetsuits to show that
they are doing outdoor activities. They also drive in in a car in the first
shot to show independence
9. TITLES AND
NARRATIVE
• The name of our opening title sequence is
‘Stoney lake’ we chose this name as we
wanted it to have relevance to the
cinematography of the sequence
• The titles were placed in the corners of the
shots, so they did not take away from the
atmosphere
• The narrative of the movie is a boy that
goes missing and his girlfriend is trying to
convince the police that it was not her and
genuinely believes that but as the film goes
on, we learn that she is delusional fitting
into the psychological thriller genre.
10. TITLES AND
NARRATIVE
• The font we used for most of our opening title
sequence credits was the font kefa
• The font we used for our opening title sequence
title was Livingstone
• Both fonts had a slight italic and they had flicks
on certain letters giving it an old school look
which worked well with the cinematography of
establishing the location of the scene
• We placed the credits in the corners of the shot
and never in the center, we also chose to have a
small font size
• We made this call as we did not want the credits
to be a focus pull for the audience taking them
away from the establishing of the location
11. WHAT HAVE WE CHALLENGED
• As a group we did not challenge many conventions and we stuck to
stereotypical conventions throughout. The conventions we stuck to was
the location of the lake and the driving force that gives the film its
narrative the disappearance of Albie.
• However, there was one convention we did challenge which was the idea
of killing off what seems to be one of the main characters or one of the
most important in the opening title sequence.
• This makes the film seem more dangerous for the viewer and shows
them that no one is safe in the film and that whatever events happen are
just starting.
13. TEENAGE REPRESENTATION
• The two main characters in our opening title sequence which the viewer
gets to meet and know first are the male and female characters played
by Maddie and Albie are both teenagers. This is a common age for main
center characters to be in psychological thriller films. As teenagers are
known for being more scandalous
• This is a male teen stereotype we adhere to as Albie is impulsive in
going on the abandoned lake which develops into disaster
14. HOW WE REPRESENTED TEENAGERS
• Editing
• Through editing we used fast paced editing (fast cuts) showing us the different
scenery of the abandoned lake. This gives the observer effect which is when it is
made to seem like the characters are being watched to the viewer. This enforces
the characters are making risks and are doing something they shouldn't
• Sound
• At the beginning of the opening title sequence, we inserted a clip of upbeat pop
music to make it seem like they were normal teenagers going for a day out, we
then juxtaposed this using the ominous sound track later showing the viewer the
characters are in danger
15. COUPLES' REPRESENTATION
• Me and the rest of my group discussed what we wanted the relationship
to be between our two protagonists and we came to the conclusion that
we wanted them to be a romantic couple.
• Having to characters be a romantic couple in a movie is a popular and
common choice as it helps the viewers get emotionally invested in them
and can add a whole new plot and story line to the film.
• A romantic relation ship is easier for audiences to become invested in
compared to family relation ship. The idea of Albie disappearing also
gives the audience an instant suspect being his girlfriend played by
Maddie giving them a centre point for the narrative of the film giving
them something to think about.
16. HOW WE REPRESENTED
COUPLES
• Camera
• in all the shots in which Maddie and Albie were
interacting they were positioned framed in the same shot
giving the impr4ession to the viewer that they were
dating
• One one of the shots in which they are discussing if they
should go out onto the lake or not, they are pictured side
by side to one another and are positioned in the same
shot for the entirety of the scene
• Mise-en-scene
• In the wider image of the scene, we got Maddie and Albie
to hold hands in multiple different shots including the
shot in which they are walking down the beach together.
To the audience this confirms and establishes that the
two are in a romantic relationship and not just friends.
17. THEORIES OF REPRESENTATION
• Gender performativity is one theoretical way of explaining our representations
• It was a term first used by Judith Butler who was a feminist philosopher.. She
argued that being born male or female does not determine behavior, instead
people learn to behave in certain ways to fit into society and that the idea of
gender is a social construct
• In the case of our opening title sequence, you have one boy and one girl which
makes it easy to compare it to this theory
18. THEORIES OF REPRESENTATION
• Another theory of representation that is incorporated into our opening
title sequence is the male gaze by Laura Mulvey.
• We adhere to this through our character Maddie who is a young blond
woman in her early 20s/late teens who has her own focus scene where
she takes off her hoodie.
• This would therefore appeal to a teenage male target audience
19. HAVE YOU
ADHEARED OR
SUBVERTED ANY
STEREYOTYPES,
COUNTERTYPES
OR ARCHETYPES
IN YOUR SOCIAL
GROUPS
• We have adhered to stereotypes in our social
groups
• Firstly, with the girl character she was wearing a
hoodie suggesting she is cold and does not like the
outside as much as the boy, she also goes to the car
to get her phone suggesting that she is always on
social media
• Secondly the boy is fast to put on his life jacket and
get into the water suggesting he is adventurous and
so called ’boystruss’ he says to the girl “you coming
in then” reinforcing the idea he is glad and eager to
be outside by the lake
• Therefore, we have adhered to the stereotypes of
male and female teens
