Evaluation Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

To influence the production of our opening sequence, we researched real media products to examine how they use conventions. The real films we looked at include:

• Casino Royale
• Quantam of Solace
• The Usual Suspects
• American Beauty
• Se7en
• Taken
• Rounders
• 21
• Lucy

Our film:
In our film opening; Blake, a private detective who used to work in the police force, meets up with one of his old colleagues. He asks Jen, another ex-police officer, for her help in obtaining information on a criminal gang, who he suspects are responsible for the abduction of his fiancé.

During the research and planning phase, there were a number of films that helped influence the production of our opening sequence.


Titles and Music:
For the titling in our opening sequence, the decision to have abstract shots behind the titles was loosely inspired by Se7en. However, we decided to make them less sinister to fit our theme of an action film.

The opening of Se7en displays a series of shots which reveal small pieces of information about the film's plot. For example, the opening sequence shows various pictures of murder victims, who have been killed in very grotesque ways. This is relevant to the film's plot, as the film follows a murderer who kills his victims in equally grotesque ways depending on which of the seven deadly sins the victim has committed. Our title sequence also uses abstract pictures, but we decided to base these shots around the setting of our sequence. This decision was made because we did not want to confuse our audience by referencing plot details that were not present in our opening.

As our opening sequence follows the build-up towards the gunshot scene, we needed a music track that would build up suspense. Therefore one of our group members composed a music track which was influenced by the opening theme in The Usual Suspects. We were also inspired by the opening of The Usual Suspects when we were deciding the order for our titles. We based them on the order of titles shown in the film's opening, which starts with the distributor, followed by production, director, the title of the film and then the actors.

The music used for the opening of The Usual Suspects is mysterious and atmospheric, so we decided to create our own music track to achieve a similar effect. We also believed that it was important for our music track to work alongside our dialogue, as we did not want a large gap in between the two music tracks we used whilst the dialogue was being delivered.

Narrative theories:
Prior to the production of our sequence, we learnt about narrative theories and the role they play in the structure of a story. We thought it necessary to address some of these theories in our opening sequence.

Barthes' Five Codes:

Barthe proposed that the actions occurring in a text can be identified by five 'codes'.

• We used the 'hermaneutic code' with our inclusion of the ring shot, as the audience is left to wonder what the importance of the ring is before it is revealed later on in the sequence. An example of how this is used in a real piece of media would be in American Beauty, as the first scene also reveals events that happen later on in the film.

• 'Engima codes' were implemented with the glances of the thugs, as well as when they reach for their guns. These glares, alongside the tension of the soundtrack, signifies that a conflict is about to occur, whereas the act of reaching for the gun reveals the oncoming climax of events. This can also be seen in Casino Royale, as the villain's stare and a focus pull onto the glass reveals to the audience that Bond has been poisoned.

Propp's Character Theory:

Propp suggested that there are several character types which can be applied to any text and used to make characters easily recognisable.

• Blake plays the role of 'the hero', who must struggle against the villain to complete and objective. Hero characters include James Bond from Casino Royale and Skyfall and Bryan Mills from Taken.
• Although we do not see her in the opening, Rachel; Blake's fiancé, is 'the princess': a character who is sought for during the narrative. An example of a princess character would be Kim Mills from Taken 
• Jen acts as 'the helper', a character who aids the hero on their journey. This resembles characters such as Professor Norman in Lucy and Detective Mills from Se7en.

Todorov's Theory of Equilibrium

Todorov believed that the majority of stories follow the transition from equilibrium to chaos. The role of the hero is to resolve this disruption, which results in the return to a new equilibrium.

• Our film does not follow a conventional narrative route. The opening sequence of our film starts with the disruption rather than the equilibrium. However, our film steps away from the narrative route to show glimpses of different events. We were inspired by The Usual Suspects and American Beauty to show events that occur later in the film at the start. Using this technique allows us to highlight different events and gives the audience the chance to speculate their importance.

Genre Conventions of Action Films

Strong, alpha-male lead character

• When we were deciding how to represent our lead character, we knew that we had to make him powerful and recognisable. Our first thoughts for a strong alpha-male lead turned to James Bond, who did influence Blake's character quite a bit. However, we we also wanted to make sure that are character was not the cold-blooded killer that Bond is. The purpose for Blake's actions is his kidnapped fiancé, meaning that he does what he has to in order to rescue his partner. This character trait closely associates with Bryan Mills from the Taken film series, who was another source of inspiration for the character of Blake. 

The visual style often consists of dark colours like black and brown

• Our setting is very isolated: everything beyond the surface of the table is unlit. We decided on a minimalist setting as it allowed for more focus on our characters. We felt this was necessary in order to drive the story of our sequence. Our decision was influenced by the opening sequence of Casino Royale:

• Blake wears a black suit with a white shirt and black tie, which is a common costume for male lead characters.
• Jen wears a black leather jacket and a dark shirt. We wanted our depiction of Jen to reflect her character and background as well as fitting in with our visual style.
• The two thugs in our sequence wear different clothing: one wears a leather jacket whereas the other has a checked shirt. The leather jacket is a good signifier for a criminal character, whereas a checked shirt could have denotations of poverty. 

A busy, urban setting to reflect the action and pace

This is an example of an urban
setting from Taken.

• This is where our film begins to challenge some conventions of action films. Many action films such as Taken, Lucy, The Usual Suspects and 21 use use urban settings. This is for a number of reasons, but primarily because there is a very fast and busy pace in an urban environment. This is often linked in to the plot of an action film, whether it helps to emphasise the danger of a car chase in films such as Lucy or the thrill of gambling in 21. However, the setting in our opening is left very ambiguous, but the poker game takes place in an isolated environment. Nothing beyond the table is visible, which does not reflect the settings that are common in other action films. However, the setting does work well for building suspense, as the focus of the audience is on the characters. This emphasis on the dialogue makes the scene much more tense, which is more common in action-thriller films. As our setting is arguably more suited for a film about gambling rather than an action film due to the isolated and claustrophobic atmosphere, we would ensure that the action genre is clear by showing a more traditional urban environment in the following scene. This would also make our film's narrative more dynamic as the difference between the settings would utilise binary opposites.

There are clear signs that we have been influenced by common conventions of action films. However, there are also many conventions which we have decided to challenge. Todarov's narrative theory is extremely common in action films, but instead we have chosen to start with the disruption. Whilst there are clear similarities between Blake and Bond through the use of costume, he also takes after Bryan Mills; a character willing to do anything to save the people he holds dear. As the focus of our film is on its story, we wanted to make sure our characters were more three-dimensional than recent action films.