Friday 16 April 2010

Evaluation Task: 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of film openings)

Title
The font of our titles were kept simple to maintain the audiences attention. After much research we found that other film opening sequences from the same genre as our title sequence, also presented simple font for theyre titles as it is not only clear for the audience to read but also doesnt give away too much of the story-line, maintaining the theme of suspence surrounding films from the thriller genre.
For example, the titles within the opening of Texas Chainsaw massacre can be compared to the titles within Death On Tuesday:



Setting
Our film opening was filmed entirely within our school television studio. The point of this was so that we could use the blue screen to create a key light effect making our characters appear as nothing more than sillhouettes. This again was to create an atmosphere of suspence and mystery, conventional aspects to an action-thriller.
Our establishing shot is of a city, the reason we chose to base our establishing shot around this image was because many acton thriller movies make the city a dominant location for action to take place in. For example; Sin city. The opening of this sequence also presents an establishing shot of the city in a animated manner. This is where we gained inspiration for the location of our establishing shot from. We also decided to make the establishing shot animated as it proves effective with the sillhouette effect created amongst the characters as well as it being efficient time-wise.











Costumes
Protagonists in our movie wernt set to wear any particular costume. However, it was thought appropriate that as our chracters were going to be merely sillhouettes that the outline of their figures presented the audience with some indication of who they are, yet still maintaining the element of mystery behind our chosen genre. For example, it is typical for someone of a high status to me well dressed. Taking this into account we chose to present our male protagonist in a suit to show his authority. We ensured that the movements involved with this character during the opening sequence indicated that we was wearing a suit.
For the female chracters, it was essential their clothing was fitted to present to the feminism behind their sillhouettes to the audience. This also creates a feeling of lust and sexual temptation behind the females, effectively raising suspicion about their characters.

This idea was also presented in sin city:







Editing
Action-thrillers conventionally contain editing techniques that arouse suspicion and amazement amongst the audience to keep them engrossed in the movie. Film makers spend a great deal of time and money during editing of films and although the after effect creates this conventional aspect of the film genre, it is also very time consuming. Taking this into consideration, we kept our editing simple yet higly effective, like those of the techniques shown suring the opening of Sin city. Below is a screen shot contrasting the technique used during Sin city and that used during death on tuesday, and effectively shows some level of similarity.









Setting the scene

Lighting and sound were key elements that contributed to creating a successful action-thirller title sequence. As our film held a dominant theme of passion and murder, this had to be interpretted into the opening sequence without giving away too much of the story-line. The music holds the voice of a female (the protagonist) and helps set the story and hint that love and passion are key themes. However the drums along with base in the theme tune, suggest the murderous, mystery and action elements of the movie. Drums can in many instances connote the sound of a heart beat, with this in mind, the drums within Deat on tuesday's soundtrack can help highlight the feeling of suspence and mystery within the film. It could also signify a build up to the story that is about to unfold as the story progresses, hence, upholding the feeling of suspence.

Lighting was an important issue when filming our title sequence as too much lighting in the television studio wouldve and did effect the appearance of the sillhouttes when proceeding to produce the key light effect. First off we used the lights supplied within the room yet found they created too many shadows, effecting our overall product. In the end we chose to settle with using natural lighting as this created a more realistic effect when it came to producing the sillhouettes.


Iconography
As it was essential not to give too much of the story-line away, levels of iconography were kept to a minimum within our title sequene. However, our male protagonist was pictured smoking a cigar sitting on a chair. Cigars are often associated with 'Gansta's' and 'The maffia' (people involved with crime). The effect of this is that the association between the nature of those sterotypically known to smoke cigars and our male protagonist can be made quickly to subtly hint the audience, what this character is about - without giving too much away.

The chair can represent authority. He sits high (like a throne) showing his level of importance within his role and the film.







Genre
A famous well known action-thriller is die-hard. This film has a variety of high and lowe key lighting to create the feeling of mytery within the film. It creates elements of mystery as well as maintaining being relatable to the target audience. This idea was kept into consideration whilst producing Death on tuesday as we wanted to create the feeling of mystery as well as maintaining our audiences attention. Keeping our charcaters relatable helps do this.

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Texas Chainsaw Massacre Title Sequence

Analysis Of Texas Chainsaw Massacre Title Sequence

The opening of this film starts with the presence of eerie music which immediently builds suspence and gives the audience the impression that something not particually normal is either happening, happened or about to take place. The music involved in this scene works effectively as it not only creates a certain amount of tension amongst the viewers to prepare them for the events that are due to follow, but also compliments the low key lighting to ultimately generate a dark mysterious setting typical of a horror genre. The low key lighting is created by the use of candles, which also act as the key light. The candles during the title sequence create a gothic feel as they are mostly identified in churches and hold religious significance.

This title sequence is dependent on the use of photographs, a very simple yet effective decision as it makes the audience feels as if they are people told a story from a family photo album, making them more interested to proceed to find out about the storyline. The use of close-up shots on the photographs and news paper cut outs also helped to create a feeling of involvement towards the audience as if they are being shown the items personally. However, the camerawork was presented as very fast paced. The effect of this is that it dosen't reveal too much of the storyline and helps to also build tension and suspence, keeping the audience gripped and staying true to the horror genre.Other aspects that contributed to making this title sequence successful were the use of iconic and conventional horror figures. For example, blood.Blood is commonly connected with movies from the horror genre as there is usually always elements of death present within them. The other conventional aspects involved during this title sequence were the use of knives and chains. As the film title includes the word 'Chainsaw' this could also be a play-on aspect. The title of the film also suggests mass murder within the word 'Massacre' and therefore, the presence of knives are chains could help portray this idea and theme of muder further.Close-up shots of dead animals and newspaper cutouts involving the words 'Killing' and 'Murder' also help do this.

At the end of the title sequence, a photograph of a baby with a deformity, a cleft lip (which was also shown at the beginning of the title sequence) is being burnt. The connotation of this action is that it suggests the innocent baby in the photograph is nomore, and could infact imply that the baby is now of another form and plays some involvement into the murders that have been taking place as the photograph was shown at the both the beginning and end of the sequence.

Hustle Opening Sequence

Analysis Of Hustle

Hustle comtains elements used witih the iPod advert which eventually is the product we plan to produce with our short film coursework.
The opening credits of this television drams has acted as inpiration for our film and also provided us with a few ideas of which we would creatively change, and incorporate into our own work.