Production Evaluation

In what way does your opening sequence
use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real opening sequences?
Meeting The Brief:
An opening sequence comes either just after or during the title sequence. Friday the 13th for example shows the title
name and opening credits whilst scenes are taking place which shows us a flashback to what happened. Whereas a film
franchise like Star Wars has the opening credits and title which lead onto the opening scene and do not overlap.
The purpose of an opening sequence in general is to introduce the audience to the plot, story and characters and may
consist of live action, animation, music, still images, and/or graphics. This is done through the use of various
techniques, whether this is a flashback, a quick set of snapshots of an event or a simple narrative introduction to the
character in their day to day life. This allows us to understand who/what the character/plot is and how we learn about
it in the opening scene/scenes.
My Title sequence successfully meets the idea of an opening sequence as it introduces the opening credits, the title
sequence and then the opening scene in a linear narrative. This allows us the audience to clearly see who is in the
production and then the story begins to develop, this in turn helps those watching the opening sequence to
understand what the characters are doing and what they are like. Additionally, if we look at the brief we see that I have
met the criteria that it lays out by using planning documentation, paying attention to detail, by being a team player,
taking into account various lighting conditions, logging footage and finally, not accepting anything other than perfection
from my shooting.
By following the techniques of existing opening sequences and observing my own brief criteria I have created a clip that
does behave like an opening sequence, it also shows comprehensive understanding of the task and challenge laid
before me.

Title And Opening Credits:
My title and opening credits do follow a slight horror convention by sharing the same font, this allows them to
link together well and almost every film does this, whether it be a horror movie, sci-fi movie or a comedy
movie. The title font however does not specifically follow that of the horror genre, if you were to simply glance
at the font on a poster you would not suspect it to be a horror, however, there are horror movies with a similar
style and font e.g. ’REC’ which is a camera based horror film.
The title and opening credits I have chosen provide a strong colour against the black background and illustrate
a light in the darkness, this can portray hope (white writing) and fear (black background). Additionally, the title
and opening sequence credits reflect the font used on the recording camera. This also relates to the horror
genre as it reflects the characters feelings of hope and fear throughout the film/movie. The title and credits
being in the middle of the frame allows for a solid, natural focus point for the audience. This draws them in and
builds suspense. In conclusion the use of colour and layout for my title and opening credits follows the horror
conventions and allows the audience to be drawn into the opening of the film.

Mise en scene:
My location choice took a long time to finalise as many other places came and went during the ideas process of
my film/movie. However, the woods seemed a strong setting for a horror movie with a camping theme. Thus I
chose McIlroy Park due to its dark and eerie nature. The trees are tall and jagged and the area is dense shutting
out any surrounding area and making it dark. The woods is a common, conventional setting in horror as it is
usually isolated and vast, this means the characters don’t know would could be hiding inside.
This in turn led to some lighting issues as the woods is dense with trees and bushes. However, this issue was
overcome by the fact that we used the flash from the camera itself and various hand held torches to give it a
more realistic, first person feel. This dark feel followed the stereotypes of the genre as it gave little light and
meant that the audience had to keep guessing what they could see and let their imaginations run wild.
The costumes and props are also very stereotypical of the genre as they represent the teenagers very well. The
hoodies, tight jeans and trainers area all common things for a teenager to wear and show they are normal. This
allowed me to make the audience feel as if that could be them in that situation as they are normal characters.
The introduction led on from my opening title as it stated the film name “The Recording” then flipped straight
to the first person view of recording camera. This shows the link between the title and the theme of the start of
the film and thus allows the audience to make a connection. The cinematography of this is very similar to both
movies and games, one such movie is “REC” and one such game is “Dead Island”

Cinematography:
In my opening sequence I used many mid level/POV shots to make the audience feel closer to the action and to
give them a more accurate feel of the characters. These types of shots also allowed me to play around with
lighting in different situations, for example lighting is poor anytime the creature would appear to create
suspense and let the audience imagine the creature.
Additionally, the camera movement is jagged and fast making the footage unclear, this reinforces the amateur
nature of the footage and illustrates the fact that it is being filmed through a recording camera by the
character. This also means once again that the shots are unclear and you only glimpse the creature adding to
the fear factor. Also we see that this swift camera action replicates the movement of the characters themselves
when they run or turn around quickly.
By doing this I followed conventions, many horror films/movies don’t show the monster or creature until very
late in the film because it adds to the influence it has. The presence of the creature is enough to make the
audience scared and seeing little bits of it make it more frightening. A prime example of this is in “Alien” the
creature is not spotted until very near the end as it slowly picks off characters. This heavily influenced the idea
around my creature and how it acted. In this sense the conventions were followed and can be seen in many
other films/movies.

Costumes and Props:
How did your costumes and props represent your characters? How do they reflect your genre? Do these
costumes and props feature heavily in other opening sequences of the same genre? Did you challenge or follow
conventions?
As briefly mentioned in a few of the above slides, the costumes and props are very stereotypical of the horror
movie genre and teenagers in general. The genre is reflected in the fact that the characters are wearing dark
clothing, this reflects the environment they are in. Additionally, the stereotypical teenage clothing illustrates to
the audience that the characters are normal people and the audience can relate to them. This gives an element
of fear to the audience that they don’t even realise.
These types of costumes are common stereotypes within many horror films, simple plainly coloured clothing is
used to make the focus on the more sinister characters in unique costumes rather than that of the common
characters. Also within my ‘Character Casting’ and ‘Teenage Stereotypes’ PowerPoints I pointed out the
sexualisation of female characters in horror. However, I did not use a female character in my scenes as a scantly
clad teenage girl wouldn't have fitted in with the image of my story.
This, in turn, shows how I followed the horror genre conventions as the characters were wearing common
teenager clothing and also common of the horror genre itself.

People/Characters:
There was admittedly not a vast mix of people in my opening scene, this was due to limited casting options and
the characters chosen were simply the best fits for the roles. Usually within a horror movie there are a few
males, a few females and one ethnic minority. In this regard therefore my characters would not have been
conventional, however, they are conventional in other ways.
An example of this is the fact there is a smart character, a weak/scared character and an aggressive/angry
character. These types of characters are very common in horror as they respond in the best way for the story to
develop hence why I chose these personality types.
The ages and genders of all the characters is the same, this helped reinforce the fact that they were all friends
from roughly the same local area. This meant that the characters were closer than if they were strangers and
this emotional link can be used to develop the plot.
Finally, if we look at Prop’s character functions wee see that we can apply some of the characteristics to the
characters in my narrative. The cameraman could be seen as the hero as he is the one documenting the story
and it is centred around him. Obviously the creature would be the villain as it tries to kill the hero. The
princess/prize is an interesting one, both the characters friends and survival are the prize and those in need of
rescuing.

Representations:
Genre is represented in my opening sequence through the dark night time theme and the use of stormy
weather. This reinforces the danger and frightening nature of the movie and illustrates what is to come. The
techniques I have used to reflect the genre are the fact that I have an eerie opening title and credits. This Is
common in horror, the use of a brightly coloured font on a dark background foreshadows hope vs darkness.
Finally the representations of Mise En Scene, Lighting etc. have been stated in other slides.

Narrative structure:
The narrative structure I have follow is simple yet affective within the horror genre. My opening sequence uses
a Stone’s Structure which is very similar to a Linear Narrative. I used this too show how the story develops,
however, my story does skip forward a few hours and flash forwards occur. This creates tension and shows the
audience what is too come. This type of narrative structure is common in horror as it allows the story to
develop along with the characters. However some horror movies have a little flashback at the start to introduce
the characters and give background to the plot.
A few binary oppositions exist as they would in any movie/film. Light and Dark is a a common one in most
horror movies, the Light being the torches and the characters hope of survival whereas the Dark is the
creature, fear and the woods. Another binary opposition would have been the use of happiness and fear. At the
very start of my opening scene we see the quick flashes of the characters looking happy and enjoying
themselves, however, as the story develops they become more fearful of the situation at hand. Finally, these
are common conventions and the Light and Dark binary opposition is used in many genres but especially
horror.

Concluding Paragraph:
In Conclusion, I believe that I have followed the conventions and stereotypes of horror. These conventions exist
for a reason and although common place help make the genre as successful as it is. I have also followed these
conventions to allow my opening scene to behave like that of a professional production and to be viewed in the
same way. This therefore will satisfy my target audience as there will be a level of professionalism that they
expect whilst also giving them the fear factor they expect from a horror movie. Finally, I believe my simple plot
twists allow the audience to maintain interest in the story and characters meaning they wish to continue
watching the film/movie thus making it a success.

Production Evaluation

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