Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real

media products?

What are formal conventions?

My group has decided that the genre of film would be a thriller/horror. To get some good ideas, we took inspiration from watching the opening sequences for films such as Shutter Island and Se7en so that we had a better understanding of what we had to do and include in order to make a really good horror opening sequence..

Conventions – are the generally accepted ways of doing something. There are general conventions in any medium, such as the use of interviewee quotes in a print article, but conventions are also genre specific. Conventions are a series of rues that are commonly used when making a film that links in with the genre of it.

Examples of this include sound scape and Mise-en-scene and for our thriller we included props such as fake blood and included dramatic and intense sound effects and music to make the genre clear to the viewer. It is extremely important to use these conventions because it would appeal more to their target audience and therefore people will know what to expect before they even start watching.

What is a title sequence?

Title sequence – a title sequence (which is also known as an opening sequence or intro) is the method by which films and/or television programs present their title, key production and characters, including visuals and sound as well.

It typically includes or begins the with the text of the opening credits, and helps establish the setting and tone of the program. It may consist of live action, animation, still images, or just music. A title sequence should also include idents, title credits of the actors and people who took part in the making of the film, a slight hint at the genre (which can be identified through sound and setting). This creates an atmosphere and tone to the the audience how they should react to what is happening, some or all characters may be introduce but not everything is given away at once, leaving the audience wanting to know more.

The purpose of a title sequence is to give the audience an insight into what the film is going to be about, making in it easy to identify the genre, along with a glimpse of what the story might be about. However, the point of a title sequence is to not give too much away too early on because they want to keep the viewer engaged and interested in what is happening.

Conventions of a title sequence – the title credits

Psycho is one of the films that our group was influenced by greatly. This is because we found that the animated title credits fitted the genre of the film well, and gave a clear indication to the viewer that this was a horror film straight away so the audience knows what to expect.

The image on the left is the title credits that we made for our film ‘Sinister Escape’ and the order in which they go in. Below is the image of the title of our opening sequence ‘Sinister Escape’. We wanted to make it stand out as much as possible and make it obvious that the genre is horror.

Conventions of the genre – the Macro and Micro conventions of film openings in your genre

The film psycho was key in the making of of opening title sequence and encouraged our group to choose the genre of thriller/horror because we wanted it to get everyone’s attention through the use of sound effects, music, props, and mise-en-scene; as this is what Psycho included to make it a successful horror title sequence.

Macro conventions – in the title sequence for psycho, none of the characters are shown or heard, however they are addressed in the credits, which are quite simplistic as it is just white font on a black background. In a film like this, we would expect to see at least ne of the main characters who play a role in the film, whether it be the villain or the victim.

Micro conventions – in the psycho tile sequence, the majority of it consists of titles using animated and motion all the way thorough until the end when they include a long shot of he city, then onto a close up shot moving into somebody’s window, setting the mysterious atmosphere from here. The use of dramatic music is used in psycho creating tension and suspense which gives the target audience what they expect from a horror movie, especially as the sequence is black and white which could suggest danger and makes the whole sequence more sinister, rather than it being bright and colourful which would not match the genre at all.

Conclusion

One convention that we used for our title sequence was that we followed the generic convention as we wanted to make it look the best that it could be. Going against the generic convention and not properly following it is a rare thing to do and is not helpful when making a film as it causes problems and confusion.

We decided that we would use mise-en-scene quite a lot throughout because we really wanted to set the scene for something sinister and that suggests potential danger. We went by choosing lighting as a way of getting the genre across to people by selecting filters that were dark and was a clear representation of our theme. We also used colour for our title because the red font onto black background symbolizes blood and death. This is important to follow as it gives the audience an idea of the tone and the kind of atmosphere that is being shown to make it stand out from other films.

We used soundscape too because we knew it was important to get the right sound and music that fitted well with the theme that we had, so we chose something slow and very dramatic because we wanted to create as much suspense as we could to highlight the dark storyline. We found it easy to follow the conventions because we knew it would help us to make a really good film and have a successful outcome if we followed it correctly.