Evaluation of opening sequence

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

We have explored our chosen genre, mystery by considering a variation of themes such as crime, murder and a police investigation. When creating my opening sequence, a lot of research was involved, in order to make it successful. For example, when researching how we could adapt our characters to the current characters in mystery films, we noticed that the majority of characters are represented from Propps 8 stock characters in the mystery genre. One of the characters Laurence Grey can be represented as a hero due to his role within the police force. For example his role is to find the murderer of the crime scene using his intellect and knowledge, presenting his as a heroic figure. Anastasia Robinson is seen as a helper as she is involved in the questioning of the murder, covering up for her sister who is indeed the real murderer. Murder connotes danger, violence and crime, resulting in it being the base of this storyline. When deciding that I wanted my opening sequence to be within the Mystery genre, I then had to research many openings to a mystery film. This enabled me to understand where titles should appear, what camera shots and angles are most often used, what music is stereotypically used in Mystery films, as well as sound, props, and effects. When deciding on actors and actresses, it helped us decide on the attitude they should have in order to go along with our script, but to also be guided by our research of the mystery genre.

As part of my research I looked into the conventions of a mystery film, to help me decide what should be included within my opening sequence. When gathering my research, it showed that a handful of mystery films always include a villain.

One example is Richard Jenkins in the film Cabin in the Woods. This villain is usually centred on the main story, in order to keep audiences connected to the narrative. Usually to create suspense, directors such as Alfred Hitchcock in films like Psycho have often not revealed the villain until the end of the story, creating a dramatic ending, and an unpredictable assumption. As well as this my film includes a mystery convention of flashbacks. This is presented from the interview scene, creating enigma and drawing the attention of the audience members.

I looked at a variety of opening sequences to mystery films such as the opening of Memento which was directed by Christopher Nolan. Flashbacks were used in the opening sequence, when travelling backwards in time. To ensure I included this in my opening sequence, I looked at the type of music used. The majority of the time the music was slow pace, high pitched and occasionally low pitched by using instruments such as pianos and violins to increase suspense.

. From a personal reaction, music played a big part in my overall opinion of the opening sequence. It ensured to create a specific mood to fit in with the visuals on the screen. This contributed to the effective flashbacks and the suspense created. When also looking at the lighting in mystery films, it was often dimmed with a sudden spotlight focusing on a specific character at times. To include this in our opening sequence, mainly in our interview scenes I reduced the lighting in the majority of the room, and had a spot light of main characters to increase focus and mood. This created a sense of mystery, as seen in stereotypical mystery films such as Inception.

In the opening scene of Inception, dimmed lighting is varied throughout a change of scenes and adds to the mysteriousness of the film.

As well as this, camera angles and shots are often used in order to create status. High angles create a feeling of minority and vulnerability, close up shots help identify emotion of the character, and highlight specific parts you want the audience to see. This creates enigma due to the focus on characters individual characteristics and character traits. This helps audiences connect to the characters and involve themselves in the film. When comparing media products to my own, it enabled me to see what could be improved or included, or what could be included. One way in which comparing other media products within the mystery genre, to my opening sequence, was seeing how and when titles appear. As well as carrying out a questionnaire to my target audience, this enabled us to see where titles often appear, how and in what colour/pace. One example I have used within my researched is The Cabin in the Woods.

They are a perfect example of a mystery film, and include inter titles throughout the entire opening sequence. Although the music during the opening sequence was upbeat and fast, the titles pace contrasted to this and fitted in with the mystery genre. When making the titles for our opening sequence I looked at many different mystery opening sequences to gather the overall presentation of titles. The research I done to find out about colours, pace and position of titles helped me with the overall presentation of titles. In order to come to a decision on how titles would appear, I had to think about how they would affect the audiences concentration, and also if it would fit into the chosen genre being mystery. As well as the comparison to other mystery opening sequences helps with the choice of titles, it also determines the audience appeal. Depending on how you present your opening sequence, it helps decide whether audiences feel informed, entertained, are using the film as a form of escapism or a way of socialising. The opening sequence is one of the most important parts of a film, it helps give the first impression of a film and helps give the audience a reason for watching the movie. After watching and researching a few mystery opening sequences, many of the films had either an audience appeal of entertainment, or a social reason (uses and gratification theory).

By including these conventions it ensures to keep my target audience entertained, when feeling the mood and environment provided through all these ways. In order to create a successful opening sequence, these conventions in a mystery film all contribute throughout the film in order to entertain and satisfy viewers. People of our modern society watch films in order to engage with film, due to its involvement in society. Film has been around since the early 1910s and therefore people have certain expectations of its development throughout the years. Therefore my target audience being ages 15 and above, have a certain outlook on how films are made today. My film is in colour, with dialogue, and a range of different camera shots and angles in order to make the film more appealing to the audience. All of these points were not all available in past years and due to the improvement in technology, films are made to be more entertaining visually and audibly.