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

In the opening scene of ‘The Night Before’ the viewer gets a third and first person perspective of what was happening leading up to the events seen on the rooftop.This gives a voyeuristic feel to

the scene that you are there as it happens. It can help you to relate to the character as well as explaining why he may have lost his memory.

As the rooftop scene starts you see Dan waking up and checking his surroundings. After he has got a rough idea of where he is, he stands up and puts on his shoe. After this, he takes out his phone and calls people he can remember from last night asking them if they know where he is and how he got there.This show’s our protagonist’s weakness; he can’t remember anything.

And the end of our opening, Dan is on the phone to a stranger who states that if “Tells [them] what they want, no-one has to get hurt”This puts the protagonist (and others) in peril. The stranger hangs up without telling the protagonist what the statement fully means, leaving Dan very confused.

This is also a case of mistaken identity. Dan has no idea what is going on, yet people think that he knows an important secret.

Because Dan is unaware of what he knows (or supposedly knows) the antagonist is trapping Dan in an increasingly complex web, making him feel isolated and hopeless. The fact that he also can’t contact anyone - which the viewer can assume is due to the stranger on the phone - means that he is already fairly isolated.

At the beginning of the rooftop scene Dan finds a piece of paper with a code on, it is slightly obstructed from the view of the audience - This creates an enigma as the audience would be wondering what it is because Dan does not appear to recognise it. Towards the end of the scene the audience sees Dan notice a number that has been scribbled on his arm that he was not aware was there. When he calls it a mysterious voice answers, says something very suspicious and then hangs up. This creates even more enigmas for the audience such as; how did the number get there, who wrote the number, who is the voice on the phone among others.