Alex Foster Evaluation Question 1

7/31/2019 Alex Foster Evaluation Question 1

1/5

WE ALL FALL DOWN

Evaluation

Alex Foster


2/5

In what ways does your media product use, develop or

challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

How have you represented and explored your chosen genre?

For our opening sequence, we researched into our chosen genre, Thriller/Horror,by looking at trailers, reading profiles of films on IMDB, looking at films that were

similar to our opening sequence idea e.g. Paranormal Activity (in terms of how

it is filmed video camera quality) and Chucky (in terms of narrative), researching

popular Thriller/Horror film themes with the use of questionnaires/surveys and

looking at cinema releases in the last 10 years. We wanted our opening sequence

to be unique, yet still conform to conventional Thriller/Horror films.

We have represented our chosen genre of Thriller/Horror by using various components including:

music, lighting, props, characters and narrative, editing and camera shot/movement/angle/composition.

What conventions you have used in your opening sequence and how have you

challenged them? What examples of other films can you compare to your sequence? How

have you applied narrative theory and representation in your response? Connect the

conventions to your target audiences expectations.

Music: Our theme tune is a childs voice singing Ring-a-Ring-a-Roses a capella. The use of no instrumental

music creates a sense of mystery, suspense and fear in our audience; but also highlights the innocence of a

childs voice which makes them all the scarier. The ominous giggle at the end of our theme tune creates a

sense of anxiety in our audience for the film to come. Our theme tune conforms to conventional Thriller/

Horror films, for example, Orphan (2009) uses a young girls voice singing The Glory of Love as its theme

tune. We used the convention of a nursery rhyme as our theme tune, because Thriller/Horror films commonly

use them, as they are seen as spine-chill ing by Thriller/Horror film audiences.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWI0HNTxWog
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWI0HNTxWoghttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWI0HNTxWog


3/5


4/5

Props: The props in our opening sequence comply to Thriller/Horror films. Our

main prop is the plastic doll called Mary, who is the main character and villain of

our opening sequence. She is the main Thriller/Horror prop convention for our

sequence. At the tea-party, to suggest a real childs bedroom, there are a lot of toys

in the background and attending the tea-partyincluding a toy of the character Sid

from the Ice Age trilogy and Minnie Mouse to set the present day feel, but also so

audience members can relate to the child. Other props include the toys on the

shelves during the credits, a tea-party set, an off-screen lamp to light up the tea-party

scene, the bin bag at the end of the sequence and one of the most useful props which

is not visible in the sequence the hand-held video camera that is filming the whole

sequence with a record sign and the date, which is similar to the cameras used in the

Paranormal Activity films.

Characters and Narrative: The main character of our opening sequence, andwhat-would-be overall film, is a plastic doll called Mary. She has blonde hair and

a little pink dress, which typically is used to suggest innocence in a character

which can be scarier than a obviously evil looking character. Also, childrens toys

are supposedly innocent and fun , so the appearance of being innocent fits in with

this but suggests that she isnt. These characteristics are similar to those of

Rhonda from The Bad Seed (1956). Mary would fit into the Villain stereotype

in Propps 8 Stock Characters theory. The other main character is a young girl

called Molly, who fits into the stereotype of a small, innocent, loveable child who

everyone sympathizes with and pities due to the inevitable death she will have

due to Mary. Her curly, ginger hair along with her school uniform create an

incredible cute look which makes her an even more tragic character. These characteristics are similar to those of Max

from Orphan (2009), as she is a loveable character at the hands of an evil character, too. These two characters are typical

characters of a Thriller/Horror films storyline, so our characters conform to a Thriller/Horror typical narrative and Levi

Strauss binary opposition theory of Good vs. Evil, Innocent vs. Evil, Natural vs. Supernatural and Empowered vs. Victim.


5/5

Editing: Our opening sequence was partially edited in iMovie (and the theme tune in GarageBand

and iTunes), but mainly Final Cut Pro. In our opening sequence, we edited to make it look like a

hand-held video camera was recording it. We added a LiveType layer over our footage with a record

sign and the date. We also used LiveType to create our credits and their flashing effect. Other editing

included short, sharp crackles between shots, as if the camera was faulty. This creates an atmosphere

similar to that of the Paranormal Activity films, which often chops and changes between different security

cameras to show the main events in the film. However, since our sequence only uses one hand-held video

camera, instead of chopping and changing to different cameras, a fuzzy crackle was added. This also creates

suspense, as the number of crackles creates a sense of unease to what the scenes are cutting to. In the scene

when the camera has been turned off by Mary, all action is heard but not seen; this was achieved by adding a

voiceover over a blacked out screen. Editing is perhaps most effective in our opening sequence during the credits,

as three separate shots of the doll on shelves through generations is used, and a green-screen was used to

change the wallpaper to make them fit to the time period shown in the date at the bottom.

Camera shot/movement/angle/composition: The camera shots/movement/angles/composition

are key to making our opening sequence fit into a typical Thriller/Horror genre. Each camera shot

used was chosen out of all of our footage because they contained the key elements to explain the

film so that our opening sequence would make our audience want to see the rest of the film.

The hand-held video camera does not move in our opening sequence apart from when Molly knocks

it onto the floor, which makes it more realistic as a video camera. The traditional camera which films

the street scene explores many camera movements including panning of the mother walking, low-

angles of the mother placing the bin bag down and the young girl picking up the doll, close-up of the

doll in the bin bag, two-shot of the father and daughter walking, point-of-view shot (from the dolls

perspective) of the father and daughter walking, and the daughter going to picking up the doll, and a

long shot of the father and daughter walking away down the street as well as being an establishing

shot. The composition change in our sequence is mainly during our credits, where each shot of the

doll in different generations becomes better qualityas cameras wouldve improved over time. The

composition throughout the bedroom scene does not change and is good quality, but when in the street,

the composition becomes a lot lighter when there is the point-of-view shot of the father and daughterwalking down the street to suggest heaven (see Lighting).

Documents

Alex Foster Evaluation Question 1