Evaluation; Q1 In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of a real media product?

To gain knowledge and understanding the forms and conventions of an opening title sequence we were required to watch a number of thriller movies. The main forms and conventions we found in majority of title sequences are the institutional ident of the production companies, the movie title and titles of which inform the audience, for example, who the director and editor/s are. The conventional opening title would introduce the main character/s of the movie and would also introduce the setting and location, and finally, the use of sound indicated the theme, tone and genre of the up coming movie. To demonstrate our knowledge of the forms and conventions, whilst planning our sequence, we made an effort to include as many as we could and as many would fit our title sequence to help illustrate what we wanted illustrate. We compared our title sequence to the opening title sequence of "The shining" to highlight the conventions we used.

In our thriller opening we chose to use the convention of an institutional ident. Ours being "candistudios" a low budget production company. The screen shots of "The Shining" dont show the ident, but one is used at the very beginning.
From the moment our film starts we are introduced to the main character of the film, "Cohen", and the entire sequence follows him on his journey. During this time we are introduced to another main character, unknown, dressed in black. In "The Shinning" we aren't introduced to the characters but are introduced to a small yellow vehicle which we assume plays an important role in the movie.

Titles then begin to fade into and out of shots on the screen. As it is an opening title sequence we expect them. "The shinning" Shows title also, but movies such as "Collateral" do not. The title of the movies are both shown at different points of the opening. Ours being at the and and "The Shinning" just before the end.

The location in our sequence is vital, we see a shift from residential to rural areas (forest). As ours was low budget and we had minimal resources, the showing of location was not as clear as "The Shinning" as aerial shots were used.

The sound plays an important part in the opening of a title sequence, the soundtrack we created was upbeat at faced paced to indicated the fast pace of the theme of the movie and genre overall. "The shinning" uses an orchestral soundtrack to open of which creates an eerie atmosphere and gives the audience a clue of what the rest of the film holds.