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

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

• 1.
  In what waysdoes your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
• 2.
  In order toappropriately represent the forms and conventions of a thriller film, it was necessary for me to carry out various types of research prior to producing my opening sequence. Being a visual media product, I prioritised my research of the thriller genre’s overall house style. In doing so, I analysed media products such as real opening sequences and trailers. Within these products, I analysed content such as; titles, composition and the editing techniques used. From carrying out this research, I educated myself massively in the common characteristics of a thriller’s representation in terms of appearance. My research allowed me to incorporate this content into my own opening sequence, some of which was things like colour grading, title animations, soundtracks, transitional editing and finding a colour theme. From my analysis, I was able to create a house style for my opening sequence, which allowed me to represent the thriller genre both appropriately and effectively.
• 3.
  Part of thisresearch consisted of analysing the Film Noir style which derived from the 1940’s. In developing my opening sequence, the most important aspect of my Film Noir research was its visuals. This included prominent features such as; reflections, stark black and white contrasting and low key lighting. REFLECTION During the planning process of the opening sequence, my group and I were adamant in making use of mirrors to symbolise reflection. We maintained this idea into both filming and editing, at which point the reflection aspect was used multiple times through out the opening sequence from start to finish. The character’s reflection represents a process of self-evaluation, shown through her blank expression(s). In terms of editing, the reflection technique gave clarity to the visuals that the character hallucinates. This was ensured by jump cutting from a distant environment back to the same mirror clip played prior to this. Consequently, the Film Noir analysis’ contributed to giving my opening sequence’s storyline clarity. STARK BLACK AND WHITE CONTRAST The high contrasting between black and white seen in Film Noir style films was helpful in developing a colour scheme for the opening sequence. I found that the black especially was effective in offering a dark, mysterious element to the films. The colour connotations associated with black proved to be appropriate for my thriller orientated opening sequence, so I incorporated the black and white contrasting colour scheme into my titles. LOW KEY LIGHTING Within Film Noir, low key lighting is a critical feature in terms of visuals. I wanted to transfer this feature into my opening sequence to secure the genre of thriller, as I found that having little lighting within a scene was effective in connoting mystery and fear. However, environmentally it wasn’t possible to reduce the amount of light in some scenes whilst filming. To remedy this, during the editing process I altered the levels, brightness as well as shadows and highlights. By doing so, I was able to create darker looking scenes artificially.
• 4.
  TITLES When researching aboutthe titles in an opening sequence, I found that I was largely influenced by David Fincher’s “Se7en”. Its abrupt, jittering visuals inspired the style that I used for the titles within my own opening sequence. These animations were ideal for the sense of instability and disturbance that I wanted my opening sequence to carry. These moods were essential in building up to the hallucinogenic event that the character experiences. An essential part of producing titles was having to choose a font to use. To carry this out, I made a small collection of fonts that had potential for the opening sequence. I then narrowed these down by determining which fonts consisted of the characteristics I was looking for. These characteristics were; inconsistency and distortion. I minimised my search down to two appropriate fonts, which were “I Tell You All My Secrets” and “Why Do We Blink So Frequently?”.
• 5.
  SOUND An important aspectof the thriller genre is a build up in tension, which can be achieved through the use of sound. Whilst planning the opening sequence together with my group, we established that our character will have no dialogue and that the sound in the opening sequence will primarily be a non-diegetic atmospheric soundtrack. When creating tension using a soundtrack, it’s important to consider elements such as BPM (beats per minute), rhythm, instrument families used and the duration of each section within the track. To ensure that our soundtrack would be effective in creating tension, we took the opportunity to have a composer external to school compose our track. This involved having communication with the composer regarding the sound elements already mentioned i.e. BPM, rhythm, instruments and duration. The sound research showed me how effective music can be when creating a particular atmosphere. By being given this opportunity with the external composer, we were able to shoot and edit the film in correlation with the custom soundtrack. The track’s initial plan gave us a general guide of how the opening sequence would be ordered. This developed our time management primarily during the production process, as we knew what was necessary to film and how long it needed to be.
• 6.
  TRANSITIONAL EDITING When editingmy opening sequence, some scenes required special transitions between shots that would accurately display the storyline. For example, in order to represent a sudden change in environment, I had to incorporate a “fade to black” transition between the shots. This fade transition made it appear as though time had passed between the shots, opposed to an abrupt cut. Whilst developing these transitions during the editing process, I had to carry out research that informed me on the different types of cuts that film editors use. As well as this, I did a lot of experimentation within Premiere Pro CC in order to find the most suitable, effective transition(s).
• 7.
  DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ATRAILER AND OPENING SEQUENCE By analysing both trailers and opening sequences of movies, I was able to distinguish the difference between an opening sequence and a trailer. The trailer of a film is shown an the beginning of a film, with its purpose being to give credit to the key actors, production team and director. Aside from the titles, the content within the opening sequence may contribute to building up the upcoming storyline of the film. Where as a trailer is typically released prior to a film’s cinema release and carries the purpose of offering an audience an insight to the film itself. Also, a trailer acts as a form of advertisement – enticing viewers to watch the entire film by withholding information from them. VS. OPENING SEQUENCE TRAILER