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

Daoud Qureshi

Title of the film opening

The title of the film opening could suggest that the film opening will be based around action, this is shown by the colour scheme of the title as it has a slight blueish tone, the use of the title name “Dog Tag” connotes that this film will be about something to do with the army, this is due to when a person thinks about a dog tag they automatically can connect this thought to one of being in an army.

The film title breaks the typical convention of movie titles, this is shown in the way that most action film’s do not usually use a name of a prop for films title, the title is usually a few words thrown together or a description of a person, or a persons name.

The title of the opening has the texture of a dog tag, this can suggest that the title is not something which is just used in the title but in literal sense used in the film as a prop or something which is shown once or twice.

Setting/ location The location of the film opening is set in London, England. The location is not commonly used in most British film industry films but it is used for other industries such as Hollywood.

This shot follows the typical convention of an action film since in most if not all action movies the scenes will start of with a similar looking establishing shot in either a higher privileged area or a location set with bad guys on every corner.

Based on this film opening it can be shown as developing this point since in most films when a scene of an area is shown it is most usually of one specific landmark but in our shot however we incorporated a shot which can have a view of a wider section of the city which gives a wider selection of scenery and background.

costume

The costume used for the protagonist shows one of being in a casual comfortable wear which relates to the convention that protagonists usually don’t wear dark clothes but are more light to show that they are good not evil. The use of a shirt can suggest that even though that the character is ex-military the shirt can be shown as a sign of being smartly dressed and well presented such as the way people in the military are required to do so.

The costume which the antagonist wears is shown in dark colours which connotes to the audience that they are most likely evil and are not there to support the protagonist but most likely to disrupt his efforts. The use of wearing suits for the two characters can suggest that these characters are hitmen or possibly government officials.

props The only prop really used in this film opening is the dog tag, this dog tag is used to connote to the audience that the film is being set around the storyline of an ex military man.

The use of this prop supports the convention of using props to suggest a certain genre of film for opening scenes.

Instead of following most film opening scenes by using scenes with lots of fight scenes with a slap dash of guns everywhere, we decided instead to use a dog tag as the sole prop to convey the genre as being action.

cameraworkWhile filming and doing camerawork we filmed two shots which are not typical shots used in action films

These shots were used to create a build up and tension and the last scene where the protagonist has fallen down on his side is meant to be a scene used to draw the audience in to make them want to keep watching.

The camera techniques done in my group were breaking conventions by developing on them since the camera did not always just follow the actions from one angle we used multiple techniques to build up an effect which made sure that when people watched the opening scene they came back to watch more.

storylineThe story line shown in this movie is about the protagonist being chased down by the government for seeing something he shouldn’t of which led him to be court marshalled and now the government or another group of people are after the information he knows.

This specific storyline is an original idea since we took an inspiration from various films such as shooter which is about the government chasing after a person.

Character introduction protagonists In the introduction part of the film opening, my group wanted to portray the protagonist as being alone and separate from other people. This is shown by the way in which he is seated on a bench which has been designed to hold more than a single person but this bench has a sole occupant.

The introduction of the character features a voice over of the main character who is the protagonist going over his story briefly of how he was wrongly accused of something due to him witnessing something he shouldn’t of which led him to be court martialled.

The costume used in this scene can be used to express the protagonist as a whole because even though he has been thrown out of the military he is still dressing smart and the way in which he is clenching his fists with the dog ta inside can be a direct indication that something is going to happen, and soon.

Character intro antagonists

The introduction of the antagonists is something not commonly shown in action genres, this Is due to the fact that in most common action films the main antagonists are not usually shown for a few scenes into the film but instead in our opening scene, we decided to show the antagonists but instead we had a build up in the music to show that something was about to happen in the scne to show that the antagonists would be revealed soon.

The antagonists shown in our extract were introduced as being well dressed and well presented instead of the usual scruffy and wearing ripped clothes and being in darker tones, however in our film opening we decided to have our antagonists as being well dressed.

Special effects The only special effect used in our film opening was when the scene is made to look as though it has the effect of being taken by a CCTV camera.

The use of this special effect is something which is rarely used in most opening scenes, this therefore is something which develops the convention of special effects, this is due to the way in which this is a different form of viewing the film by using a angle to give the effect of being a CCTV recorded shot.

Our film opening for me does look like an actual media product, this is shown by the way in which the project features the distribution company which in our case is universal studios while also having a company indent which is used for people to have something that if they see will remember the company. Another thing which can be used to suggest that our project looks like an actual film opening is the use of the border on the top and bottom of the picture, this is used in all films as this is something which is commonly used. The main convention which we explored in the opening sequence is the use of having both a protagonist and antagonist shown within the first few parts of the scene. The convention which I felt was broken is the way in which the project did not feature any shooting scenes but we did have a short fight scene which give the film that extra push to being seen as an actual film.

The genre chosen was clearly shown by the opening sequence this was shown by the way in which the characters were introduced with a short chase scene which featured a fight scene, but the thing which I felt mainly expressed this film as being part of the action genre was the voice over which gave hint that since the main character was once a part of the military, the protagonist will have had special training which will mean he is more suited to fight against individuals who are set against him. Also the way in which he had witnessed something gave the audience a little bit of a hint that something was going to happen and soon which will change the way in which the character was able to live his life and it will be set in turmoil and he will overcome his oppressors.