Evaluating my opening sequence

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In our opening sequence, the type of social groups we have represented is a middle aged man who seems normal however; he has a certain something about his which seems eerie, and a young primary school boy who seems innocent. We know this by the way that the characters are presented.  The man is wearing casual clothing such as jeans and a shirt; however he has a sack on his back. The casual clothing is meant to represent the normality of this middle aged man to make the audience think that he isn’t the antagonist of this sequence. However, the sack on his back was a hint for the audience that something is also a bit dodgy about this man as well. The little boy is wearing his school uniform. This was to represent the innocence of this him. 

Evaluating my opening sequence

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

Within an opening sequence there are eight different conventions that would be used throughout. These conventions are titles, soundtrack, establish mood/theme, establishing shot, giving the audience clues, prompting the audience to ask questions, equilibrium or disequilibrium and a production/distribution logo. Titles are used to introduce the name of the film, the cast and the crew.  For example, in the opening sequence of ‘The Sixth Sense’ the producer has used capital letters to display the titles and used a very faint light blue colour.  The fact that the titles a light blue colour suggests to the audience that this film is going to be quite scary and eerie as the society normally associates a light blue being a cold colour. Hints and clues are used to intrigue the audience which would then make them want to watch the film. An example of a real media product using hints and clues is the opening sequence to the film ‘Brick’. There is a shot of a note from a character from the film saying ’12:30, Sarmentosa, Del Rio’. This is an example of a hint or clue as it is giving information to the audience about what could happen next. Once the audience has seen the hints and clues, it then leads them onto asking questions about the film. Such as, what happened? Why did it happen? Who is it? The producer does this because once the audience start to ask questions, it then means that they are wondering what is going to happen next which will then also make them want to watch the film.

The genre of our opening sequence/film is thriller. The conventions of a thriller movie are; Cinematography; Characters; Theme; Sound/Music; Mise en scene and editing. These conventions are used within a thriller movie as they all to help to create suspense. Each convention has its own job which then completes the film. The conventions we used within our opening sequence are a soundtrack; titles; production logo; distribution company logo and hints and clues. For example, we have used a distribution company logo at the beginning of our sequence.

This is the distribution logo that me and my group chose to use for our opening sequence.

This shows the titles that we have used for our opening sequence.

All real media products use distribution companies. Examples of some distribution companies are, 'Sony Pictures', 'MGM' and 'Paramount Pictures; Our opening sequence then goes onto a production logo that my and my group had made which was called ‘The White Light Production’ it also has a sound effect added to it which makes the noise of a light bulb flickering. We decided to use this as our production logo as the light bulb making that noise suggests to the audience that the film they are about to watch could be a thriller, due to thef act that the light bulb isnt working properly. We got the idea of using a light bulb flickering off the film called 'The Sixth Sense'.

An example of a real media product using a production logo is in the opening sequence of 'Wreck-It Ralph'. The production company that they use is 'Walt Disney Animation Studios' Another example were my group has used these conventions is the close up shots used throughout the sequence give the audience hints and cluese, i.e. the close up of his feet walking up to the gate and stopping.

Here is an example of a real media product using a production logo, 'Wreck it Ralph':

Here are some examples of where we have used a close up shot to give the audience clues and tips as to what is going to happen next;


An example of a real media product using this convention is within the opening sequence of 'Brick'. In this opening sequence they use many different close ups to give the audience hints and clues. Which is what  my group have also done.