Evaluation - Question 1

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

After doing research and work I have done in class, here are some conventions used in film openings:

• Company Logo
• An introduction to the main characters (Protagonist/Antagonist) 
• Opening titles/credits
• Enigma - Leaving a question unanswered for the audience
• Music - Used to create different moods depending on the genre
• An establishing shot, introducing the audience to the current location
• Give the audience time and date of the film (Using denotations)

Different conventions are used depending on the type of genre the film is. For example the conventions of a Comedy film opening would be different to the conventions of a Murder Mystery film opening. Here is a list of the conventions usually found in our type of genre (Murder Mystery):

• The editing is generally fast-paced, to keep the audience along with the action
• The opening leaves enigma
• The murders generally takes place at night
• The identity of the murderers are kept until later on in the film
• The detectives are intelligent, and always take charge

In terms of using, developing or challenging the genre conventions, we have mainly used them. Our reasoning for doing this was if we used the conventions from professional films, ours will look more realistic and believable. We also wanted to give the typical Murder/Mystery audience what they want and expect from this type of genre. We have integrated the titles/credits into the opening, we have done this for fluency and to cause minimum disruption. We also filmed our opening at night, which keeps to the conventions of most films of our genre. However we did challenge the conventions of the murder actually shown at night. The audience doesn't see the murder, only the targets and the hearing of the gunshots.  

Editing

Again, with the conventions of a Murder Mystery film, the editing is fast paced, generally with an atmospheric music to create suspense and enigma. For example the TV Drama Sherlock Holmes - BBC1 has fast paced editing and music during important chases/action.

This video applies for both Editing and Sound

In the above video, very fast cuts/editing have been used, as well as a background music to create enigma. However in our 2 Minute Opening, we challenged this convention and used slower editing. I believe that with slower editing and slower cuts/fades, it creates a lot more suspense and enigma.


Sound
In Sherlock Holmes, orchestral music is used to create suspense relating to the mood. We have also used music to try and create the same effect, using the convention.


Props
In our 2 Minute Film Opening, the prominent prop used was the sniper rifle. The idea of the sniper rifle came from the film 'Shooter'. The conventions in 'Shooter' show the person holding the sniper rifle, whilst an establishing shot is being used. We used this convention to make our video as realistic as possible.

Shooter

In our 2 Minute Film Opening

Characters
During our 2 Munite Opening, the main character that is seen is the Antagonisht - The sniper. This is using the conventions of real media products by introducting the main characters within the first 2 minutes.


Costume
As our genre is Murder/Mystery, we took the idea of clothing from the BBC 1 Drama - Sherlock Holmes. As seen, in the Drama, Sherlock is wearing a long, dark coat, making him secretive and mysterious. We also wanted to achieve this by giving the 2 mysterious people dark clothing.

Sherlock Holmes - BBC 1

Our 2 Minute Opening

However we also got clothing ideas from the film Inception (2010), and Action/Mystery. The clothing in Inception is smart dress, like you would see at a formal dinner. We developed this convention by making our actors slightly less formal.

Inception (2010)

Pink Panther (2006) is a Adventure/Comedy/Crime/Mystery. In Pink Panther, they are also smartly dressed, showing the convention is being used in many different films of this genre.

Pink Panther (2006)

Location
Still going along with the Sherlock Holmes idea, we set our location on a street and filmed it at night. The murder actually happens at night, using the conventions of a Murder/Mystery. It also help to add suspence and enigma.

Mise-en-Scene

Costume - Long shady/dark clothing, this keeps the characters identity and doesn't reveal much about the characters. This crates enigma.
Lighting - Low-key lighting is used, natural light whislt filming at night. Dark lighting reveals as little as possible.
Actors - The actors do not speak much so we didn't have any mishaps with wording. The only dialogue was the (Chief of Police) at the beginning to tell the viewer what has happened.
Make-up - No make-up was used in our 2 Minute Opening. This is to give a natural feel to the film opening. It would not make alot of difference because the majority was filmed at nigh.
Props - We used a immitation L96A1 Sniper Rifle as the main prop. This confirms that there will be a murder within the first 2 minutes.
Setting - The setting is a dark back ally with little lighting and a dark warehouse. This is to give the viewer a feeling of becoming tense.

In conclusion, we mainly used conventions of this genre, this was to make our 2 Minute Opening realistic and believable. However we did develop and challenge some conventions because we thought it went better with our ideas and to make it original. For example we challenged the convention of fast editing, we used slower editing because we thought it created more suspense. We also developed the convention of the formal dress in Inception, by making the clothing in our film a little less formal.