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

The Title (location, typography and meaning) of the film

In order to have a successful and effective film title to captivate the audience, I researched titles of different thrillers and how they use font and the different variety that they use. For example, pulp fictions 3D title still manages to attract the audience even though it is not the usual convention when it comes to font for thrillers. For the title I used Bebas Neue to give my opening a more professional look. Also I used a glass shatter effect on after effects to reinforce the accident scene that happens with inspiration from M. Night Shyamalan's Unbreakable.

The only difference is that the glass shatter was at the background of the title as seen above. I felt that in our opening,  the actual title shattering was more suitable for the scene as it reinforces the accident and links in to the idea of minimal violence for a 15+ classification.
Also the glass shatter effect goes with the storyline as the protagonist loses her memory i.e title represents her memory and it shattering represents her memory loss.

The name forgotten, is a summary of the plot line and is the main reason for the protagonist’s behaviour in the rest of the film. This is a general convention of films as the title is short (Memento, Inception, Pyscho) and very catchy. This may not be the same any more as movies such as the Silence of the lambs. Originally we thought of films with Latin or Spanish titles such as Memento and Da Vinci Code.

Location

Also majority of our opening was set in a hospital

with the first couple of scenes outside near the streets this allowed us to film the accident scene.This allowed us to challenge some thriller conventions especially when it came to lighting as the lighting was an uncontrollable factor. Therefore we had to film late afternoon to add a gloomy feel to the scene. We also used the hospital like scene inside with high key lighting. This convention was used to represent the intensity of the dreams the character is having.

Plot and Characters 

The main plot of our opening can be described as quite conventional but with a twist. Our main character is peculiar character as she's not the normal character seen in most thrillers. Her Islamic values and appearance physically adds a twist to both the story line and the scene.  This is because the costume and props the characters use in a scene somewhat describes their nature and adds some detail to the scene. Furthermore, muslim characters tend to be cast as the role of villians due to their representation in the media. Also the fact that she's a young girl makes our opening very unconventional as protagonists in thrillers are mainly males who are mostly dominant.

The costume in this image adds some sort innocence to the whole scene.

The plot of the film is quite conventional as we have the mentally challenged individual who kills people which is mainly due to an incident in their childhood but in our opening the protagonist waywardness is due to the impact of the friends she chooses.

Sound & Editing

The heartbeat used after the accident is quite conventional as it is an up building beat and tends to create tension and suspense on the audience. also the sound used in the dream is to add a dreamlike effect to it. This also links  the jump cuts in the hospital creates that sort of suspense as it fades to black.

How Character Is Introduced

When we first introduced our character, we could see her walking out of a building with the Islam call to prayer playing in the background. This reinforces her strict Islamic background. Unlike some thrillers we challenged the dark lighting that is conventional especially at the openings. This was done to highlight the innocence of the character and introduce her as a protagonist.

Story and How The Opening Sets It Up

The opening almost sets the scene, lays foundation and allows the audience to have some background idea of the storyline. In our opening we did this through the protagonists dreams, where we highlighted what had happened before with her friends.

Genre and How The Opening Suggests It

Most thriller openings are seen as very conventional i.e. dark lighting, ambiguous characters, violence etc. This then keeps the audience in suspense and gives them something to wait for. The opening acts as some sort of hint as to what is happening in the film. For example, in the silence of the lamb;

In the above, we can see that already there are some themes that have been introduced.