Evaluation Question 1

In what ways does your media product use develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
In order to create successful opening sequence we must ensure we use all information provide for us and data that we have collected to make our opening sequence as aimed as it can be for our target audience. We decided as a group that it would be a good idea to challenge stereotypes of what the audience may predict/inspect this is because we decided it would have to intrigue our audience and make them want to watch more as it wasn’t just there stereotypical action film. But still by doing so we ensured we made our opening sequence an action film and played with conventions to make it seem more intriguing for others.

When story boarding and mind mapping our ideas previous to filming we decided to it important not o make our opening sequence and the narrative complex therefore this would help to keep our audience intrigued and not start to lack interest. However, we did include a flash forward as we came to the agreement that this fitted in very nicely with our narrative, this is also another good way to keep the audience intrigued as well as they have an understanding of the structure as they begin to realise it was a flash forward which could help them to figure out or predict what is going to happen which is a clever way to allow the audience to watch without too much thought.

 Although we wanted to try and make our opening sequence unpredictable and we wanted to play with stereotypes however in the sense of characters and representation we did not play with stereotypes especially amongst characters. This is because for the character who was playing the thief in this case Jess (a member of my group) we decided on a general look as we believed Jess would be suitable for the role as she has a simplistic, appealing look as she has brown hair which is quite basic nothing too out of the ordinary, this could reflect the male gaze theory. We have also been able to challenge expectations as you may not expect a pretty quiet petite girl to get away with stealing government files, she shows masculinity as we have given this character a unisex name, making her connote dominance and control, showing that she may not be as emotional as him challenging stereotypes as the romance within the film would typically be led by the woman. Also to play with stereotypes  we came to the conclusion that it would look less predictable if Laurence who was ‘The Chaser’ wore a suit we believed this would be effective as its in contrast to James Bond as he is vertically also dressed in a suit and looking handsome. Additionally ‘The News Reporter’ was dressed smartly and when shown only the top half was shown which could suggest serious, also by the appearance being stereotypically looked after as her hair was down and straight which could imply she is sensible and very informative. Furthermore we included that I was very important to add a sub genre to create a wider audience so we decided to have a romance sub genre because we all felt we new enough about romantic films to create a sub genre.

For an action film we all came to the agreement that the setting is crucial because it sets the tone so in this incense it is important to have a dark and almost spooky looking setting to create a sense of mystery to the audience as that’s what the target audience of a action film look for. We created a sense of mystery by having a scene of a chase whilst running along an abounded railway line to avoid any confusion we decided to add a flash to the filming device so we could allow the audience to have a clear vision of what was going on. Also by using this technique it allows the audience to always question why something is happening which is a good way to keep them intrigued and it also helps o exaggerate the cliff-hanger which is about to commence.

Moreover, in order to make sure we were including and creating the right sound clips or nature sounds it helped y watch James Bond films in the process in free time to help understand what is successful and hat is not within sounds. The sound can be seen to be very important in some audiences eyes as it can be known to be the best way to create the biggest tension, if you think about it… what is more effective an horror for example the filming which is actually made to make you fright or the sound which goes with it to build up your tension. So when editing we included noon diagetic sounds such as the soundtrack which was an up beat, strong tempo which begun very fast and included a dramatic bridge to time tie it into the drama which just happened in order to exaggerate it even more so to create a sense of suspense as well as mystery. An example of this is when Jamie was hiding with the documents we included a jazz based soundtrack, then more loud drums and heavier music was played within the same soundtrack which was played with a fast tempo which reinforced the fast pace of how quickly the pace was which helps to create excitement and a sense of mystery. By using this kind of soundtrack therefore reflects upon the typical action conventions you would usually see this is because the soundtrack used allows to empathises the build up of drama ad excitement whilst making the sequence more entertaining at the same time which can help to make the audience feel the tension more dramatically.