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

An opening sequence contains conventions that are typical and found in many different opening sequences. Conventions common to opening sequences are; production and Distribution Company, establishing the mood, the introduction to characters, plot clues, titles, establishing shot, an equilibrium or disequilibrium and finally to get the audience asking questions. These conventions are used in strength of each other; one convention crafting another however, their primary use is to engage the audience. For instance, establishing shots are used to allow the audience to gain their bearings within the film; allowing them to ask questions about the environment and ultimately engaging their thoughts within the narrative of the film. 

Real media texts:

In American Beauty Sam Mendes uses an establishing shot that tracks down towards his street. Kevin Spacey’s voice then narrates introducing the audience to his street, whilst you hear the narration Mendes introduces the slow paced, low pitched soundtrack. By doing so he creates a mundane tone to match the mundane life of Kevin Spacey’s character we are about to be introduced to. By following these introductory steps Mendes is able to chronologically build on each convention and build up a tone/mood within the audience all before the introduction to the disequilibrium.

Conventions of an opening sequence conventions also can be specific to a genre. As we chose to make a thriller we had to follow the conventions that are usually found within a thriller. Convention specific to our genre are; location, low key lighting, ambient sound, soundtrack, extreme close up, loose frames and rule of thirds.

loose frame is a convention that is used that could be detonated to loneliness or isolation. It allows the audience to draw their attention to different aspects of the setting and engage themselves with a character. In this particular shot the audience notices the character but they also notice the characters environment, which is an introduction to the setting.

Another convention specific to our genre are close ups, they could either be of a characters profiles or of things related to the narrative. Close ups are used constantly throughout thrillers, a good example of a close up is in we need to talk about kevin. Lynne Ramsay uses symbolism throughout, in this particular case the close up was related to the plot. 

In our opening sequence we used a close up to represent death/ murder. We decided to get a close up of and hand with ink splattered over it, to represent the idea of blood being on the main protagonists hands. 

In some case directors have challenged or developed on a convention. Not all cases a director will chose to follow the convention by the book, they will develop or challenge them for a greater impact on the audience. In this particular example Lynne Ramsay chose to frame her main protagonist in the middle of the frame in front of these cans of soup, which represents a theme that runs throughout the film.

In our opening sequence we chose to frame the character in certain ways to loosen up the frame and allow for the audience to draw different responses from different things in the loose frame.