Evaluation - Question One

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

 Above is a contact sheet that Simran has created on Photoshop featuring stills from our horror film opening sequence.

1. The first frame denotes the location/setting in our film. It is a slow panning shot, acting as an establishing shot. From this shot it becomes clear to viewers that the film is set in an abandoned forest, a conventional setting of the horror film. Shots like this are typical in film openings as they grab viewers attention and help to create a mood for the overall film. In this case the slow paced shot creates and eerie mood.

2. I am introduced as the character in our second shot. Like most conventional film opening the main character in the film are introduced in the opening sequence. A low angle shot introduces me as I walk towards and past the camera into the forest.

3. The title font is shown in the third frame. It is quite bold and eye catching. My group chose to use a simplistic font as in horror titles the font aren't usually very over styled. We gave our white titles font a glow and shadow making it seem ghostly connoting that our films narrative explores people dying. In horror films its conventional for title fonts to reflect the storyling. For example in 'The Cabin In The Woods' the titles font looks like dripping blood, connoting that the film has a dangerous/violent storyline.

4. The fourth image in the contact sheet highlights how our opening sequence suggests the genre of our film. This is another connventional feature of film openings. We have made it clear that our genre is horror by using an isolated forest, creating a tense mood. Also, the character is young and blind to the dangers around her which is another stereotypical feature of horror films. Furthermore, this camera angle suggests that someone is watching Amy from afar, connoting that she could be in great danger in the next few scenes of the film.

5.Costume and props are denoted in this image. The character is denoted in the frame wearing leggings, a hooded body warmer, a black jumper and a plain white tshirt. Her whole outfit follows the stereotypical representation of teenagers, as she is wearing informal clothing. Also, her hoodie is a piece of iconography associated with teenagers.

6. Camera work and editing is denoted in the next frame. My group have used a match on action editing technique in this part of the film. It's quite conventional for these techniques to be used in all genre films.

7. My group has used special effects in this frame. We put a tinted filter onto this frame, to make it seem like the character is being looked at from another characters perspective. This is also connoted by the framing of this shot as the character is being observed through tree branches, connoting that someone is secretely watching her. We also used a hand held filming effect in this part of the film to make it look like a point of view shot.

8. The story builds up as the opening sequence progresses. The character is last seen on screen looking shocked and frightened, leaving viewers wondering what will happen next. This sets the story of the film up and suggests that someone of great danger is in the character's town. To keep our titles conventional we decided to keep them slow paced and not to have too much action in them, as this would go against typical film titles. Similar to films like 'Scream', the character's story is building up to the main story in the film and we have tried to draw inspiration from Saw where one of the various characters in the film is killed off in the opening.

9. The last image on our contact sheet is of the main title in our opening. We decided to have the main title at the end of our opening sequence as it has a dramatic entrance and leaves a cliff hanger as to how the story will further unfold in the film. It's also conventional for the title to be after the opening sequence in horror films, as seen in the video below from Scream 4. My group chose the title 'The Perpetrator' because it means 'someone who commits a crime or evil'. The title reflects the horror genre. It also relates to the story line in our film where a serial killer is on the loose.

Overall, my groups opening sequence and titles are meant to be conventional of the horror genre.