Final opening sequence: Iris

Evaluation activity 5 - How did you attract/address your audience?

How did you attract/address your audience? on PhotoPeach

Evaluation activity 4 - Who would be the audience for your media product?

Evaluation Activity 2 - How does your product represent particular social groups?

Created with Padlet

Evaluation activity 3 - What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Distribution companies for our Thriller sequence on PhotoPeach

Evaluation activity 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Conventions of our opening sequence

-       Long low pitch droned notes

-       Creepy high pitch wind sound effect (sound effects)

-       Jump cuts

-       Some handheld shaky camera shots + establishing shots

-       Costume, hair and makeup

-       Close-ups on the face of a character to show emotion

-       Distorted titles

Why are these conventions used?

-       Maintains and withholds the tension and keeps the usually minor key signature

-       Adds to the overall texture of the sound and adds tension if it is dissonant when combined with the music

-       Jumps in the editing to slightly disorientate the audience and make them feel uneasy

-       Smooth establishing shots used to show where the film is taking place and shaky camera shots to show the instability of the character

-       Tattered and ripped clothing with blood and mud on it to show that she has come from a bad place and has been mistreated. The makeup includes of scars and bruises to make the actor look like the have been physically abused. The actors hair is backcombed to make it look really scruffy to show she has been outside for a long time with no place to clean up.

-       Close-ups on the face to show and heavily emphasize the emotion (examples Silence of the lambs when she looks at the board and Memento)

-       Distorted titles help to set the mood by making the audience feel UN-easy (examples se7en and psycho)

Firstly the conventions of an opening sequence are the titles that introduce the cast. The font used in titles are very important because it can portray the theme, feeling and genre. Also the layout of the titles have to be placed properly or it may give off a different mood. For example in 'the shining' the titles are blue and quite plain which gives off an odd mood as it contradicts the music as the music is very tense and deep. Also in 'SE7EN' the title's font is  like someone as wrote it in a text book, its quite scrappy and messy which conveys the feeling of a horror. Also the colour is a sharp white which is placed on a black background. This gives it a sharp and scary feeling. These titles are also slightly distorted so this gives and UN-easy feeling to the audience. The production logo and distributor company must be stated so that people are informed as to who has produced the film and then who has distributed it. The use of a logo gives the company its unique recognizable and visual style, so that people will instantly recognize the company.
                                                 Iris titles:

Seven titles:                                                                                             The Shining titles:

Where an opening is set is the basis of how the viewer makes his/her first impression of a movie. For example when the viewer see that the opening is set in a dark forest than he/her will instantly get the idea of the mood/genre. Furthermore the establishing shots gives the opening sequence a lot of character for example in 'the shining' the opening goes straight into a car that is driving through a forest on a small road. And in 'SE7EN' we are placed straight in the hands of the murderer however we are not shown his surrounds or his face so that we are kept on edge. In our opening sequence we keep a sense of mystery because we only show the main character in the Forest. We don't show what is after or before this so the audience does not know what the main character is doing there. So we leave a sense of vagueness and mystery like Seven and the Shining.

 Iris:

 The Shining:                                                                                          Seven:

Also in an opening sequence it is important to introduce the main character(s). For example in the 'Shining' we are introduced to the family who go to visit and stay at the hotel and in 'SE7EN' we are introduced to the murderer as we see him during his works.

Another important convention and arguably the most important is the music. The music aspect is the biggest generator of mood and feeling. In se7en, during the opening the music is composed of electronic/distorted sounds which gives it a very disturbing feeling. And in the 'Shining' the music is composed of slow tempo, a thin texture and in a minor key which gives off a very dark atmosphere.

On top of the music there are usually random high pitched instrumental parts, sound effects or unnatural sounds sometimes generated by computers. These add to the texture and they give the audience a sense of uneasiness  especially if the sounds and high pitch parts create dissonance through different intervals such as minor 2nds or tritones which sound very tense.

Evaluation Activity 7 - Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?