Evaluation Evaluation Activity 1

Karishma Thakeria

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of film openings) Throughout our production work, we were trying to create a verisimilitude of a thriller for our opening sequence. We had used several codes and conventions to depict the elements that are contained within thrillers and in our own production; these included the use of dark lighting to create the mysterious and sinister atmosphere and a variety of different camera shots to convey the emotions of the protagonist: confusion, mystery, apprehension and exhilaration. The colours that we had used for the characters included: blue and pink for the protagonist and the fully black for the antagonist. We chose to portray the antagonist in the colour black to show that he is a vindictive and dark character and represent his characteristics. The colours blue and pink represents the female protagonists vulnerability and innocence in the situation, having the colour blue shows her intelligence in the situation whilst having the colour pink shows her affection, calming and gives her a sense of reassurance.

9 Key Frames Title The title of the film is shown at the end of the opening sequence and helps the audience keep intrigued by watching the rest of the film. Having the main title at the end of the production allows the audience to think of what the synopsis of the story is about. The font used was called PortagolITC TT and is very bold and clear. We added sound to this title to make its introduction appealing and vibrant by using the colour red too. This feature is also used in thriller films as it helps to attract the audiences attention. Setting/Location The establishing shot that is used in our production makes our audience aware of the location and setting of our filming. Having an establishing shot helps to realise where the situation is going to occur. The shot is used in many films including The Dark Knight Rises where an establishing shot is used to identify the rural area and in this situation, the location of our filming.

Evaluation

Karishma Thakeria

Costumes For the antagonist, we chose to have his costume fully in black to show the mystery hidden within his character. Dark colours like dark blues, green, grey and black are often seen within thrillers as these colours helps to identify what genre is being shown. For the female protagonist, we chose to use light blue and pink to represent her innocence and vulnerability.

Props

The first two pictures on the top row are the props that were used for the antagonists character. The first picture shows the files that have been used by the antagonist previously and are used to indicate the victims that he has captured in the past. This allows the audience to become more knowledge on the character. For this shot, we used panning to follow all the files he had hung up; this shot is often used throughout thrillers to create a sense of tension between the audience and the characters and are used to depict information about the current scenario being shown. The second picture portray a knife which is the antagonists weapon, this shows that he is superior and has a lot of power, we chose to give a weapon to show the audience clearly that he is the villain in our production. Weapons are used in other thriller films like Captain Phillips to distinguish between the victim and the culprit.

Evaluation

Karishma Thakeria

The third picture of the cup is to establish what the female protagonist is doing in the scene. It makes the audience aware of her surroundings, a close up has been used to shows this. The first picture on the bottom row represents the mobile phone being placed in the foreground whilst the weapon is in the background; these two props juxtapose one another as the weapon would be associated with attack whereas the mobile is represented as a source of contact for the protagonist. The headphones (close up) show that the protagonist was distracted/listening to music whilst she was washing up. We had music to represent what she was listening to. The last picture demonstrates her brushing her teeth at a canted angle to represent imbalance and something is about to happen. Font Style The font that we used for our opening credits was called BlairMdITC TT. I chose to use this font as it looked bold and professional. The font colour chosen was white as it is easy to read on a dark background and also effective. A shadow was used on the font to make it look clearer. This type of bold font helps to identify the type of genre that is being shown, especially with the props in the background.

Story & How the Opening Sets it Up/Genre & How The Opening Scene Suggests it The story introduces itself by showing some background information of the antagonist and how he will appear in the film. This is best represented in the picture above showing the panning of his files, looking through different victims. Having an establishing shot to set the scene for the protagonist enables the audience to understand where the location of the filming is. How The Characters Are Introduced The antagonist is introduced by going into a shed to analyse character profiles of previous victims that he has affected. By doing so, he is making the audience aware of the type of character that he is: one that is vengeful. The female protagonist is shown in the kitchen washing up, a relatable activity that is easily recognisable. This shows her innocence and neutral character. Special Effects Some of the special effects that we used in our production were fades which showed a transition from one scene to another or one shot to another, in some ways it helped to create a sense of imbalance. We also used sound effects such as a heartbeat for the antagonist to add emphasis to the opening scene. Towards the end scenes, we used a sizzle when the protagonist saw the weapong

Evaluation

Karishma Thakeria

on the dressing table and we used sound effects for the ohone when she was dialing the emergency number. This helped to create verisimilitude within the situation that was occuring and helped it to come across as being realistic.