1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms of convention of real media products? i.e. Of film openings?

Evaluation Post 1

TITLE FONT AND STYLE:

In order for my title to look more professional and more easy to read, we decided that the type of fonts and colour used for our titles should be consistent throughout the opening film. We didn’t want our titles to look confusing for the audiences. The titles were moderately spread out throughout the opening so it flows with the footages; it doesn't look like a story but more of an opening. Although the titles have great importance, we made them simple so it doesn’t be the centre of the show. However, most thrillers use big and bold fonts to show that the movie is very frightening. whereas we challenged that by using simple fonts to create suspense; we made all titles in the same colour which was red and this signifies rage, blood and vengeance. These are key generics within my movie.

Genre and how the opening shot shows this:

The opening went straight into a major scene which starts off dark. This is a key generic and I used this opening shot as a foreshadowing of upcoming events. The church scene is one of the main locations used and the use of non diegetic sound: Church bells livens the atmosphere and this is an effect I used to make my audience feel a “chilling sensation down their spines”. As the scene jumps into action; this makes my opening look less like a story. The first scene is an enigma coding which shows someone has been killed or has died. This scene shows the grave of the protagonists whom was murdered by a gang of people . Throughout the video, it shows how the protagonist was killed. The reason is not given as that would have been revealed later on within the movie. The scene starts off slowly and I did this to create a calm atmosphere for the audience but as the scene instantly changes with the flashing effect and the hand coming out of the ground. This would make my audience jump and increase their heart rate as that would be unexpected and this is a key generic that was important to include; this was the main thing that I have challenged.

Props:

We used varieties of props. However, the most significant prop is the rope that is used to hang the protagonist. This prop is the main focus within the movie; a rope may look like it is a useless type of method to kill someone. However, the audience don’t know the potential dangers of a rope and they don’t know the reason why the antagonist used the rope. The ideology behind the rope is to use this type of method to kill someone in a humiliating way but also to get away with the murder as it looks like the protagonist killed himself. This creates dramatic irony where the audience know the truth but the actors within the movie do not . This creates a sense of frustration between the audiences as they know they can’t do anything to warn the actors within the movie but this is a method to engage the audiences which is key for any movies as it makes it more interesting; this has been challenged as the use of this prop creates many other problems within the movie and it turns a harmless object into a method of killing someone.

Camera works and Editing:

We used varieties of camera movement; mainly pan and track. Pan was used in one scene were the antagonists kicks the protagonist down to the floor. This camera movement made the scene flow and the shot looked more smooth. For this particular shot we mainly used the tripod so it was more steady and it was at the same level throughout. For the tracking scene, we used that camera movement for the last scene were we shows the protagonist laying down from head to toe. It made the shot look smooth; when recording, we used our steady hands as we couldn’t use the tripod for this low level shot.

Costumes and how the Characters are introduced:

Within in the film opening, there are only four characters. All were wearing full tracksuits or hoodies. These type of clothing were used as they relate to the young audiences because these are the modern type of clothing that has become a trend within that generation. However, the protagonist is the odd one out; he is wearing a lighter coloured hoodies which suggests that he is not the bad one out of the four characters. This is also supported by how the character is introduced; is being strangled and held down from behind by one of the gang members. The character is presented to look frightened and frustrated; we challenged the normal perceptions of protagonists by making the character look more stressed. The other three characters are wearing darker clothing. This gives them a bad approach and makes them look like ‘baddies’. We intended to make them look intimidating as this will make the protagonist and audience feel scared and intimidated. This is features of the generics that we stuck by. The audience can already pick out who the baddies are and who is the good one. The other two characters are standing up with a straight posture which shows the superiorities of these baddies.

Settings and Location:

Although we have two main locations. The most used location is within the forest; when the character is surrounded and there is no escape, this creates a sense of fear and suspense; the audience would feel like they are trapped and this a key generic convention of thriller that we intended to include. The setting of the location is dark and that darkness supports the characterization of the antagonists; they are evil and have no moral. This is a key place for a murder scene. Also people tend to go to quiet places to ‘commit suicide’ and that what other characters in the movie would think. However, the audiences know that the protagonist was murdered. So this location really creates tension.The second location is the church/cemetery. This locations are key generics of thriller and they create a sense of suspense and fear. As these locations are quite sinister and they would make the audiences feel uncomfortable and scared. This was our intention and it really shows that someone has died and the audience would realise that the protagonist has come back alive from the dead to avenge himself.

Story and how the opening is set up:

This key scene shows the character being tortured and later on killed. It is very significant because the audience knows that protagonists is not a bad person and that he is innocent. The audience know from the build up of the opening that later on in the movie, something bad will happen like the character coming back from the dead to avenge himself. However, we have not given a reason why he was killed as that would be revealed in the movie and it makes the audience want to know why he was killed. This scene also includes generics of thriller as no audience would want to be in that position but they know that things like do happen in real life which also would make them have more fear.

Special Effects:

For the opening we have used varieties of special effects. These include fading in and out of scenes, freezing frames and adding colour to make the film opening look more like a action film as well. We also used mainly fast forward and slow motion. This was used to build up the film opening and to create more suspense. Everything was fast paced to make it really feel like a thriller movie. The most important effect used was the flashing to portray a camera taking pictures. This effect engages the viewers by them looking at the film opening; it makes them feel like they are the ones who are taking the pictures and the actors don’t know about it. So someone is watching them in their act and he/she has caught them. Later on in the movie audiences think that the person will use the pictures for blackmail or revenge. As this will be through the audiences perspective, this shows that this is their mentality and it engages them to consider the choice that the person makes within the movie.

The title of the film:

The film is called ‘The Damned Soul’. This was decided as the initial story of the movie is about a innocent person who is killed and he comes back to life to avenge himself. As this characters soul is damned because it comes back to life we came up with the conclusion that the movie should be called ‘The Damned Soul’ and this plays a great significant. The title itself includes key generic conventions of thriller. The title layout is quite different but we did this to make the title stand out. However, the fonts are the same because we wanted that same constancy throughout the film opening to make it look more professional.