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

TitleThis is the title to our opening sequence, which we decided to keep plain and simple so it was more professional and easy for the audience to read. We put our title at the end of our opening sequence as this is conventional of a thriller genre. When our title appears the music dims drawing all attention on to the title which is also conventional of the genre of thriller. The title name is a convention of the thriller genre as ‘The Taking’ connotes some kind of plot and mystery which is shown in thriller genres. We also took the thriller film ‘Taken’ which relates to our opening sequence into consideration when choosing the name of our title. Therefore this is a typical title of a thriller film. Black background

connotes darkness and mysterious mood which is portrayed in a thriller genre.

The white background stands out and is clear against the black background.

A typical title of a thriller film.

PropsThe props we used were unusual and eerie which portrays the paedophiles messed up psychopathic mood.

An undressed manikin connoted nudity. The figure of a naked women who’s lady parts are clear and on show to portrays the paedophile as sexual and dirty minded.

This prop is a clay piece of a girls face with well defined hair. We used this because in our footage the character of the paedophile strokes this and then footage is shown of the girl doing the same actions.

Camera work and editing

In our opening title sequence we used a slow pasted edit throughout. I have taken screen grabs of our opening sequence from YouTube to give examples of our slow paste edited scenes. In picture 4, a slow paste edit was added as the girls hair swishing whilst she shakes her head, the previous scene was of the man opening the box. The hair represents what he was found. We also used hard cuts when changing from the man to the girl, we done this to create the idea that it was the paedophiles thoughts, thinking about the girl, which also helped to create enigma. Hard cuts are a convention of the thriller genre as they are used to build tension and cut scenes and are regularly used in thriller films.

In picture 2 and 5 a close up is shown of the girl in our opening title sequence this connotes the girl as naive and shows that she is vulnerable because a high angle shot has also been taken of her. This is a typical edit which is used in thriller films to portray the vulnerability of the victim.

The mans face is never shown only his body, this led's to audience not being able to work out who he is, leading to the fact that he comes across professional through the use of costume of his suit and tie, then when he opens up his brief case is open his story is revealed that he is stalking the young girl.

1 2 3

4

5

Style font

The style font we used was the same through out our opening title sequence. We decided to use this one as it is clear and easy to read. The other fonts we looked at also seemed to look comical, as we are representing the thriller genre we believed this font style would be best.

Lighting

When we filmed our opening title sequence, we wanted the room to be dark but also wanted the character and location to be seen. As dark rooms and locations are a convention of the thriller genre. My group and I set up lights, a day do light was set up behind the character which I adjusted by dimming then increasing the whilst another member of the group was filming. Our opening sequence was still dark but it has no grain so its clear to the audience.

When we filmed outside, we only used available lighting. As it was day time the footage is clear, although when we filmed close up of the girls face we used a reflector the reflect light on to her face to make it more bright and clear.

Characters Our idea of a paedophile stalking and planning to kidnap a young girl represents the thriller genre, relating

to the films taken, man on fire and Lolita. These films influenced us and helped us come up with ideas.

The young girl in our opening title sequence is the victim of the psychopathic paedophile, this character is a convention of the thriller genre. She is vulnerable and adolescent because she is unaware that she is being watched as she is just

getting on with her normal every day life.

Of course, every thriller has a villain. We used a early fifty year old man to play our antagonist. At first its not clear he is the antagonist because only his body parts are shown, its when he opens his brief case full of images of the young girl and when he writes his plan to kid nap the audience then realise. The antagonist is a convention of the thriller genre.

Sound

A love song is played to give the illusion that the man is in love, which is also represented as the man is getting undressed seductively. Then the close up of the girls hair creates a feel that she is the female who he is in love with. Its when the camera takes a medium close up of the girl which relives the girl is young, the audience then realise that the convention is not romance and that it is a convention of the thriller genre because the man is stalking the young girl.

A voice over of children talking and screaming is also played, to portray the male characters mind, reminiscing about the young girl from when we has been watching her playing.

A sudden heart beat fades in and out at the end of the title sequence creating tension which is a convention of thriller.