Question 1

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

My film opening uses and challenges common forms in conventional media. Using high and low budget films from multiple genres, I will now note the commonly recurring aspects/conventions, before describing them in relation to my film opening, Anidone.

In the film “Casino”,  idents foreshadow the credits - the idents are in the same font/style. The opening shot is a tracking shot at medium/long shot distance following the protagonist. The protagonist enters a car and the car explodes, the flames and now flying protagonist become the first background shot for the titles. A minor issue can be noted in the continuity editing as the protagonist suddenly changes posture, and has clearly being swapped for a dummy. Most of the titles and idents are all shown at the centre of the screen, however some titles are placed to one side. A montage of shots fade into one another, each with credits displayed over the top. Cued by the diegetic sound of an explosion, the non diegetic soundtrack now leaps into motion; this is the final chorus of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion.

Idents in the opening sequence of  “Back to the Future” are the unchanged version of that company's ident at the time, these are displayed in silence. The first is Universal, an American film studio owned by Comcast through the Universal Filmed Entertainment Group division of its subsidiary NBCUniversal. The title moves onto the screen in two parts (Back, and To The Future), from the right side of the screen. The title is central to the screen, a recurring aspect in film. They then fade off, all before any footage is shown.

In “Moonrise Kingdom” the title appears on the upper third of the frame, after a zoom out shot of a house, unlike Back to the Future the title is shown after an opening. Although the opening sequence involves multiple characters the focus remains on the protagonist. The soundtrack, The Young Person's Guide to the orchestra, begins diegetic, modulates into non diegetic sound and then returns to diegetic sound.

Idents, from the opening sequence of “Catch me if you can” are in the same animated style as the rest of the sequence (as can be seen below). The title enters during the opening sequence, which is entirely animation. The title itself forms on screen, lines swiftly extend from the top and bottom of the screen to form letters. The title forms in the centre of the screen and departs in two phases; a small plane animation sweeping the word “me”to to left, and a larger plane sweeping up the screen revealing another animation. The opening sequence focuses on the protagonist, with each shot (primarily long-shots) involving a whimsical stamp figure being chased across the screen (introducing the antagonist), in this the opening reveals narrative. It is accompanied by a Jazzy soundtrack (John Williams).

Idents in the opening sequence of “Kidulthood” play, unchanged in sequence, and fade into one another. The title is center of the screen and also fades of, leading into a fast paced group of shots. The non diegetic soundtrack fades in during the title. The soundtrack has dubstep elements, and compliments the rapid shots (medium shot of a hectic playground). The diegetic sound of dialogue begins focusing on a character in the playground. During the opening scene there is variation in the shot types; an extreme close-up shots to long shots, some shots handheld.

In opening sequences, idents commonly appear in the style of the other titles - this is a convention in film.  We have left our idents unchanged, a aspose to in the same style as our titles (which appear to grow from tree branches). In this way we have not conformed to the conventions shown in title sequences such as Catch me if you can and Casino. It is not a blanket rule however, as a large proportion of films show the signature idents of production companies. Below is a short video I have made in relation to this question explaining our tile in comparison to the conventions of other film titles.

POV shots are not a common aspect film openings. We challenged this convention, and used point of view to identify the protagonist. A common aspect of film openings is to use a variety of shot types (extreme close up shot of the protagonist’s hand, long, low angle shot, etc), with a wide variety including POV we have developed this convention. Here are some examples showing our variety of shot types;

Extreme close up 

POV

Low angle

Medium close up

Tracking shot

High angle

Rack focus

Long shot

Wide shot

With our use of sound (non diegetic and diegetic) we conformed to convention in film. As is the norm our soundtrack began during the idents, and we have used foley to suggest create the sounds associated with the environment. We have also incorporated a voice over.

Unlike convention we have not followed Todorov's structure; as our film does not begin with an equilibrium, (the protagonist begins facing a storm).

A brief summary of my opening compared to the general conventions in film can be noted in the table below.

Conventions in Media	Central titles	Idents in style of titles	Protagonist shown in opening	Soundtrack heard in first shot	Variety of shot types	Follows Todorov’s structure
Anidone (My film)	*		*	*	*
Cassino	*	*	*
Back to the future	*		*		*	*
Moonrise Kingdom		*	*		*	*
Catch me if you can		*	*	*		*
Kidulthood	*			*	*	*

I will now discuss how my film opening uses, develop or challenge forms and conventions of film openings in the fantasy genre. Here are the key conventions in the fantasy genre, below which I have analysed how each point relates to my film opening;

• Young target audience, e.g. the original Star Wars films were aimed at children aged 12- 14.

Firstly, the recurring aspect of fantasy film to be aimed at a younger audience. We targeted our film at ages 12- 24, as it involves similar aspects such as that attract audiences to The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings etc.

• Convergence and Synergy e.g. computer games, merchandising, soundtrack etc, released with Harry Potter

We have a released a soundtrack but as this is only an opening have not needed to release fuher products.

• Emotive, ‘romanticised’ narratives

As we have only produced an opening there is little suggestion of a narrative.

• Blues and orange colour scheme, see screenshots below from The Hobbit;

The colour scheme of our fantasy film heavily reflects genre conventions; we opted for deep blue and orange colouring to create the cinematic effect of a fantasy film.

• Bold, characteristic soundtrack from the beginning, eg. the soundtrack from Star Wars

Alike many other fantasy films, we tried to create an impactful soundtrack; accented tremolo chords throughout the string section, coinciding with the brutal storm.

• Use of CGI/ special effects, eg. use of a green screen in The Hobbit

We used CGI in multiple ways. Firstly to create a storm, originally we had attempted to film in extreme weather conditions, however this put our equipment at risk, and the footage was not as impressive or atmospheric as we would have hoped.

• High budget, extravagant props, especially notable in the Harry Potter films.

We did not incorporate extravagant props because we simply did not have the budget.

• Simplistic, linear narrative (e.g. a Hobbit travels across middle earth encountering danger). Ambitious, escapist characters, often undertaking a quest/challenge.

A narrative similar to this is suggested by our narrator.

• Ideologically traditional e.g. Male protagonist in Harry Potter, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit.

Anidone challenges the convention of fantasy film openings, as we have female protagonist. We chose to flip this convention for multiple reasons; to attract a wider audience, to counter stereotypes, and and to stand out from other fantasy films.

• Positive narrative outcomes, fantasy films generally end with a happy ending.

As ours was only a film opening we neither conformed to nor challenged this convention.

• Use of narrative enigma and retardation, e.g. Dynamic characters in the Harry Potter films fade in and out of an antagonist role.

As our audience feedback pointed out, our opening did include a certain amount of narrative enigma, or as he said, it was "wierd". Narrative enigma is suggested by the narrator, as a plot is sugested but not explained.

• Iconography includes magic, mystical creatures e.g. Dragons, and a “phoenix” in Harry Potter

As a major aspect of fantasy we worked hard to create realistic looking  exisiting creatures; a pixie, a beast, a gremlin like animal.

• Set in a ‘imaginary’ world. For example, Narnia, and The Hobbit which is set in ‘Middle Earth’. Fantasy films often exploit real locations, and although the Hobbit and other films incorporate a CGI element, they are based in real locations (The director of Narnia, Andrew Adamson, filmed in the ancient forests and rivers of Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovenia with the forests and coastline of New Zealand).

Although our range of scenery was not as grand as other fantasy films, we utilised a real forest/moor landscape, the use of outdoor locations is a recurring factor in fantasy films.

• High production value costume design, intricate, original and complex designs, see below from The Hobbit

With the mise-en-scene of our film we have both challenged and conformed to media conventions within our chosen genre. Like most fantasy films we took design inspiration from medieval designs, our characters AGOR and TREHSARCH for example. However with the costume design of PHEX we strayed from the norm, with a far more modern design. Alike costumes from The Hobbit we spent time working into the fine detail of our costumes, and chose to incorporate a variety of materials/textures.