1. I n W ha t Wa ys Does You r Med ia Product Use , Deve lop Or Cha l l en ge Form s An d Con vent ion s Of

Rea l Media Prod ucts?

O When you make a media product such as a film opening it is important to look at the existing media. This enables you to have a clearer understanding of what you need to do and what yours needs to look like. Therefore before I could make my film opening I had to watch loads of films and focus on just the opening sequence to gain an understanding of what a film opening looked like.

I n Doin g This I Foun d Th at Al l F i lm Open in gs Ha d :O A production logo

O Stylized titles (that matched the genre)

O Introduction to the main character

O Establishment of the setting of where the film will take place

O Either a soundtrack or a voice over (in some cases both)

O A brief introduction to the narrative but not the whole story

O So I based my ideas and my film opening on this set of ingredients, in order to ensure that the audience and examiner could clearly see that this was an opening of a film.

O There for e …

Wha t We Did Wa s :O - Created a production logo

O - Used titles that clearly matched our genre

O - Included an introduction to the main characters

O - Ensured we had carefully selected setting to show where the film took place

O - Created a strong soundtrack and included a voice over from the main character

O - Introduced our narrative but not the whole story, the backstory

In addition, I had to look very closely at existing films within my genre so that I could gain a stronger understanding of the generic conventions of romance and action.

Na rra t iv eO Firstly we noticed that in many action/romance films the elements of romance are introduced early.

O For example, in the opening sequence of 'Mr. & Mrs. Smith' a man and women are questioned about their sexual relationship and intimacy by someone who is hidden; this already suggests that these individuals are married and they are the main characters.

O Additionally, in the film opening of 'twilight' we witness both a male and female who are in a relationship; this suggests the film is going to be based on them as they are the first characters to be introduced.

O In our film opening we conform to this by having the introduction of the couple's relationship in a sequence of three different settings which aim to show how they’ve been together for a long period of time.

CostumeO In addition, in a romantic film opening directors or producers seem to use certain costumes for the characters

in order to portray the specific genre.

O For example, in the film opening of 'Bride wars' the two main female characters are introduced in black evening gowns; this suggests that they are represented as traditional female characters who wear dresses, but the deeper meaning of the colour black could suggest that mystery is around the corner for them.

O Feminine costumes tend to symbolize female characters as vulnerable; this is a convention of action and romance films, the reason for this is so that the female character can be seen as weak thus she seeks for a male to save her.

O Masculine costumes tend to symbolize male characters as strong and protective; the reason for this is because they are usually the dominant characters who overcome battles.

O We have done this by choosing a red dress and a smart suit for our characters in order to emphasize the intimacy between them.

Cha ra cter iza t ionO From studying films within this genre we gained a clear understanding of the character types that we would

require and as a result we based our characters on many of these.

O For example, in the film opening of 'The notebook' a old female character is introduced; although there is a soundtrack playing, we can assume that she is innocent through her facial expressions therefore the audience can already empathize with her. Also, in 'Dear John' the male character is seen to be a member of the army which suggests his character is protective.

O From our research, we have identified that female characters are usually kind, caring and pure in the romance and action genre. Therefore based on this, we chose a female character of this type so the audience can favour her thus when she dies they will feel sympathetic.

O Furthermore, we also found that in our genre the male characters are usually kind and thoughtful. Based on this research, we chose a male character who the audience will admire. We want this character to succeed and to represent a positive portrayal so that the audience can connect with him.

Se t t ing O In many of the films that we looked at we noticed that settings were important in conveying meaning in the

narrative. O For example, in ‘The law abiding citizen’ a domestic setting is revealed; from this we can already assume that

the film is going to be based around a family. Additionally, props used in the setting such as the knife and baseball bat suggest that the film involves violence.

O Initially, we were going to use a hospital scene which indicates to the audience that the protagonist has faced some kind of tragic challenge. However, in our final edit we cut this scene as we did not feel it was emotive enough and it did not clearly show that our female character had died. So we created a scene where the male character is visiting the grave of his beloved finance; this will allow the audience to be aware of her death as well as feel emotive towards the situation.

O We also kept the accident out so the audience maintain interest. We saw this in films such as ‘Titanic’; the incident of the ship sinking is not exposed, but a ship is shown to enable the audience to question what has happened, thus they would want to watch the whole film.

Ti t l e sW ordin g , S ty le & Movemen t :

OWe noticed that the wording in the romance genre are quite similar. For example, the wording of ‘in association with’ in romance films are generally simple yet elegant; this allows the audience to clearly recognise the titles. This is evident in the film ‘Dear john’.

OWe also noticed that the style of the movement is quite specific to the genre. For example, the movement is of titles in romance films usually fade in and then fade out. This is also a basic way style that can easily be read by the audience.

OWe took this idea into account when creating our film opening titles; therefore we created sophisticated and simple text as it will ensure that it is readable to the audience, whilst still being stylish.OAs it is an emotive point where the title appears in our film, opening, we wanted to stylise it to represent the mood. In our title we included a blood effect which will symbolise the death and murder of the female character.

Wha t d id we d o d i f fe ren t ly?O The main aspect that we subverted in our film opening is the cast.

O In all the romance films that we looked at, the couples were predominantly white but the black character was usually funny. For example, in ‘The revenge of the bridesmaids’ there are two protagonists; one female who is white (Joanna Garcia) and the other is black (Raven Symone). Although the black character is a protagonist, the number of white characters are still highly dominant.

O However our selection of cast was limited because we are simply students who are producing a film opening in the time scale of two months. We had to choose whatever actors we had access to and also those who were available when we were as well as willing to give up their time for free. Despite this, we held auditions in order to be as professional as possible but these were held in our school which has a high Bengali intake so the auditionees were predominantly from one ethnic background. During the audition process we were selective based on acting ability as opposed to race as we were limited with options.

O Looking back at it, I think that this was a good decision to some extent as the audience will value the idea of characters from other races being the main protagonists. It is an important change in conveying equality as people of all races fall in love and audiences should be able to watch films where people of other races fall in love, not only white couples. However, although this may be a positive portrayal of black people it may limit audience and be hugely unsuccessful.

2 . H ow does your media product r epr esen t pa r t i cu la r soc ia l groups?

Gend er r epresen tat ionO There are only two characters in our opening, the couple. So through this we have represented both genders.

O Our female character conforms to the female gender stereotype of being loving, caring, and sensitive. In addition, our male character closely conforms to the male gender stereotype of being protective. However, we also show him as being sensitive and compassionate through the proposal and the grave scene, which subverts to the stereotype.

O I think that this works very well because in the film opening the male character is represented in such a sensitive way that the audience will feel empathy towards him; this could counteract the more violent and aggressive representation in the rest of the film as he seeks his revenge.

O I think that the audience will feel that he is a kind and loyal person for proposing but when his lover dies, they will feel devastated and in some ways will support his attempt of revenge.

Ra cia l represen ta t ionO Due to both characters being black we have created a racial representation.

O We did this intentionally because from our research we found that there was an overwhelming dominance of main characters all being white in this genre.

O It seemed that the representation of black people was quite negative and we wanted to subvert this.

O Black females are represented as feisty, confident and dominant therefore our female character is shown as sweet and innocent.

O Black males tend to be represented as criminals, unemployed and deviant thus we wanted our character to be sweet and caring, subverting this stereotype.

Age represen tat ionO Finally they are both young adults, aged 17/18 but they are supposed to be casted as young adults in their early

20’s. Therefore the age group that we attempted to represent was early 20’s.

O I think that this age group can be associated with the romance and action genre as this is the age when young people tend to have their first experiences of relationships.

O Both characters are shown as being quite mature and serious in a long-term relationship. Perhaps the kind of relationship that we constructed is too mature for this age group but we had to cast young people to play these roles as we did not have access to adult actors.

O Looking back, if we had more time the storyline would have worked better with slightly older actors. If we were to do it again I think that we should make more of an effort when choosing the age of our cast.

O If we were making a whole film we would obviously have had greater opportunities to represent different groups. Although our two main characters have been shown in the opening, there might be other females or people of other races who would be in the film; this would be an opportunity to counter-act the initial representation. But I think the main characters and the way in which they are represented would be the most memorable for audiences.