Evaluation Task 1

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

Nanci Kelham

What genre have you created?

• I have created an opening sequence to a thriller film called ‘Thou Shalt Not’ which is within the subgenre of an action thriller.

• I am comparing my opening sequence to a thriller with the thriller films The Dark Knight and Taken. I am going to be comparing my film with The Dark Knight in detail and also using some examples form the film Taken.

• The Dark Knight was directed by Christopher Nolan and stars Heath Ledger and Christian Bale. It was released on hr 24th of July in 2008 by Warner Brothers.

• Taken was directed by Pierre Morel and stars Liam Neeson and Maggice Grace. Taken was released by EuropaCorp on the 26th of September in 2008.

What are genre conventions and why are they used?

• Genres usually have specific elements that that the audience expects to be used due to the fact that these elements have been used very frequently in previous films of the same genre or subgenre. For example, in a thriller film the conventions could be weapons, violence and sometimes action or mystery depending on the subgenre.

• Genre conventions are very important for both the producers and the audience of the films because they are used to engage an audience and in order to be successful the conventions need to be appropriate for the specific genre.

Plot Line

• The plot line in my opening sequence is a young girl who is being held hostage in a church by a dangerous psychopath. By the end of my opening sequence, the character of an inspector is introduced and he is trying to negotiate with the psychopath in order to try and protect the young girl.

• The plot of The Dark Knight follows the menacing character of the Joker who wreaks havoc and creates chaos in the city of Gotham and the captured crusader has to come to terms with one of the most challenging psychological trials of his ability to fight against injustice.

• The plot line of the film Taken follows a retired CIA agent who is travelling across Europe and it is soon discovered that he will need to rely on his old skills in order to protect his estranged daughter, who has unfortunately been kidnapped while on a trip to Paris.

Plot Line

• The plot line of my opening sequence is very similar to both of these high budget films because they all contain an element of mystery and suspense due to the fact that there is either a hostage situation or kidnapping or a dangerous psychopath.

• My film is probably more similar to the film The Dark Knight because of the fact that the plot mainly revolves around trying to fight against a dangerous psychopath. Whereas, the plot of Taken mainly revolves around the daughter rather than the human traffickers.

• In my opinion, The Dark Knight is arguably more effective than my thriller due to the fact that it had a higher budget and therefore all of the elements and conventions worked more effectively because Warner Brothers were able to use famous actors like Heath Ledger and they were also able to use much larger scale locations and sets in order to create the atmosphere of the scene a lot more effectively.

Plot Line

Character

• The character of the Joker appears to be an evil, deranged psychotic killer and he plays the role of the villain in The Dark Knight. The character of the Joker wears clown style makeup and a brightly colour suit which ultimately makes the character appear comedic and cartoon like. This contrasts with the psychotic killer in my thriller who wears no makeup and is wearing a black suit and a white shirt. The use of the dark colours connotes that he is evil and the villain and so in my opinion this is a more effective costume for the character than the costume used in The Dark Knight. However, on the other hand the Joker’s costume could connote that he is deranged and crazed which could ultimately work more effectively. A similarity between Heath Ledger’s character of the actor who played the psychopath in my opening sequence is that they both have quite long and wild hair which works well with the deranged character.

Character

• The Dark Knight have used the conventions of a villain in a very different way to how we used them in our opening sequence. The Joker wears bright colours which is not a convention that is usually associated with a villain in a thriller film, however in addition to this the use of the crazed clown make up is a convention that would be used for a psychotic killer in a thriller and therefore this works effectively at portraying an evil and menacing character.

• The use of the dark costume for the psychopath or villain character in my opening sequence is a typical convention used for a villain in a thriller film because the villain usually wears dark colours as these dark colours work well at providing connotations of evil, danger and a negative character.

Character

Character

Action in the scene

• My opening sequence is most similar to the scene with the joker when he enters Bruce Wayne’s part and then starts to walk towards the character of Rachel and torment her. This scene in the Dark Knight rises is very similar to my opening sequence because both scenes consist of a psychotic killer torturing a vulnerable young woman. The action in The Dark Knight involves the joker, waving a knife in front of Rachel’s face and tormenting and threatening her. This is very similar to my opening sequence because my opening sequence contains the psychopath tormenting and teasing the young and vulnerable hostage with various torture weapons.

Action in the scene

• From my point of view, the scene from The Dark Knight works a lot more effectively than my opening sequence because I believe Heath Ledger’s acting is a lot more engaging for an audience and a lot more menacing than the acting in my opening sequence.

• In addition to this I do believe that the action in The Dark Knight is a lot more effective than the action in my opening sequence because my opening sequence only contains the psychopath tormenting the victim with various torture weapons and also at the end when the victim stabs the psychopath and the use of the fake blood. However overall there is not a lot of action in my opening sequence when compared with The Dark Knight.

• The scene which I am comparing my opening sequence to contains a lot of action. In this highly violent and action packed scene the joker enters by shooting a bullet up and then proceeds to torment not only Rachel but also all of the other extras in the scene.

Action in the scene

• The action in the joker scene not only involves the jokers interaction with the other characters but he also has an entourage of other villains how enter with him and also torment the other characters. This works a lot more effectively than my opening sequence which only contains the one psychopath tormenting the young girl. The use of various villainous characters works a lot more effectively, not only at creating more action in the scene but also at creating much more intense and thrilling atmosphere for the audience to engage with.

• My opening sequence uses the conventions of the props of the torture weapons and the knife and fake blood used for the stabbing to create the action and violence in the scene and this works well with the genre of a thriller.

• The conventions used in the scene from The Dark Knight involves the use of guns, psychical violence and psychical torment as well as a knife.

Action in the scene

Action in the scene

Title Font

The title font that we used for the titles in our opening sequence was a long, thin font which helped to connote the thrilling and dangerous aspects of our opening sequence. We decided to create a logo for pour production company. This not only gave our brand a unique look but also helped our opening sequence to appear more dynamic and added a professional look to our sequence. The use of the long and narrow font not only provides a clear and legible font for our titles but the actual font itself works well with the thriller genre as the font works well as a conventions of a thriller film.

Title Font

I was able to compare the title font used n my opening sequence to the font used in a real media product, True Detective. This TV show uses similar titles to the ones used in my opening sequence. In both media products, the titles are placed on top of the images in the scene rather than on a black background between shots. I believe that this was used by both True Detective and m production group in order to ensure that the narrative wasn’t broken which would therefore relapse the tension created in the scene and in addition to this it also makes it clearer as to which actor is which character. The actual font used in True Detective is quite similar to the one used in my opening sequence in terms of the font being narrow and tall which again I believe helps to work alongside the conventions of the genre of the TV show.

Title Font

Title Font

Editing techniques

• The editing techniques used in the scene from The Dark Knight are quite similar to those used in my opening sequence. The scene from The Dark Knight cuts between the action of the Joker interacting with lots of the other characters and the action of Bruce Wayne. This is similar to my opening sequence as in my scene the action cuts between the psychopath and the young victim and the action of the character of the inspector.

• The shot durations of the scene from The Dark Knight are much longer than the shot durations used in my opening sequence because the action from The Dark Knight contains a lot more important information for the audience to engage with and understand therefore the shots need to be longer in order to make sure that the audience have absorbed all of the necessary information.

Editing techniques

• There are limited transitions in both clips due to the fact that the action in both scenes is quite intense and so it is important that the use of transitions doesn’t break up the action and therefore destroy the effect of the heightened tensional and suspense.

• However, both scenes have used effects to enhance the footage. The Dark Knight has used effects in order to make the colours a lot brighter and sharper for the audience as well as making the scene quite light so that the audience can see all of the action happening in the background of the scene as well as the main action of the scene. In contrast to this, my opening sequence has used the effects to make the scene appear darker and therefore work well at creating the appropriate mood and atmosphere for the scene as well as working with the colours to make them appear sharper and brighter.

Editing techniques

Camera Techniques

• My opening sequence used a variety of camera angles and movements in order to make the scene engaging and interesting for the audience as well as showing the action of the scene from various angles and perspectives.

• My opening sequence used a lot of close up shots of the victim in order to portray her emotions through the detail shown in the actor’s facial expressions. We also used a lot of mid shots and long shots of both the inspector and psychopath in order to show more character detail and the sue of the wider camera angles worked well at providing connotations of the importance and the status of each of the characters.

• The camera angles and shots used in my opening sequence mainly focused on the young girl playing the victim and her interaction with the psychopath. Whereas the camera angles used in The Dark Knight mainly focused on either the joker or Bruce Wayne, but separately as the shots switched between these two characters.

Camera Techniques

• The camera angles and movements in the scene from The Dark Knight mainly focused upon the character of the joker and his facial expressions.

• This scene also contained a lot of tracking shots that went around the character of Rachel and the Joker when they were interacting which made his interrogation more menacing and threatening. It also worked to show the action and the other characters around them.

• The difference between the camera angles used in my opening sequence and the scene from The Dark Knight was the fact that obviously because The Dark Knight is a high budget film the camera work in the scene works a lot more effectively because it is a lot more advanced. However, both scenes use a range of both camera movements and angles and the camera work in both scenes proves to be effective at conveying the action of the scene and allowing the audience to engage with and understand the narrative.

Camera Techniques

• There are many shots in both The Dark Knight and Taken that show similar images to the shots used in my opening sequence. Below are some examples of shots that are very similar to my opening sequence.

Similarities with Taken

• Although my opening sequence is much more similar with The Dark Knight than it is with the film Taken. There are still many similarities between the Taken and mu opening sequence. Firstly, the plot of Taken is quite similar to that of my opening sequence because both involve a hostage/kidnapping sequence. However, there are not many similarities between the characters involved in each of the films as Taken involves a CIA agent, a daughter and some men who capture people for human sex trafficking. The men who capture the daughter could be seen as similar to the psychopath in my opening sequence, however the psychopath is much more similar to the Joker from The Dark Knight than the kidnapping men from Taken. The editing and camera work also contains similarities to that of my opening sequence in terms of the scene is quite action packed with a variation of camera angles and lots of use of short shot durations and cutting between action.

Similarities with Taken

• Below are some images from the final fight scene in Taken and some images from my own opening sequence which demonstrate the similarities between the two scenes.

Similarities with Taken

Conclusion

• Overall, despite the fact that both Taken and The Dark Knight are big budget films that have used highly expensive equipment and A-list actors, there are many similarities between these films and my own media product. There are many similarities between the camera work, characters and even plot line. However, unfortunately due to the amateur style of my opening sequence my media product does not challenge real media products despite being very similar simply because it was filmed and edited using a much smaller budget and amateur actors.