In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge

forms and conventions of real media products?

Question one

I feel that on a whole, our opening sequence follows the forms and conventions of real media products. However, although our chosen genre is sci-fi, to the audience the genre of our film is quite subvert. This is because from the opening sequence you cant really see that it is sci-fi like which challenges similar media products as in films such as Star Wars where the genre is obvious with in the first few seconds due to the mise-en-scene, music etc. Instead it is similar to Children of men in the way that you don’t automatically see the genre although there may be some subtle clues. As the film unfolds I think it will become clear.

• Society is a theme explored within our film through the protagonist, the homeless man. British films in particular deal with society based themes such as unemployment and so in this way we have followed conventions of similar products but have developed it by the homeless character being the one out to protect everyone and becoming the hero. The themes tie into the events that take place and the mystery aspect of it is what makes the story unfold and gripping for the audience.

• The iconography, lighting mise-en-scene and setting are conventional of a similar film, for example the dirty streets, the background, extras etc. However one thing that may not be so conventional, but is due to our filming rather than the storyline, is the lighting. The lighting of our sequence may be brighter and more natural than expected for this type of film.

• Looking at Todorovs’ theory, I think this media product follows a classic narrative pattern. It shows the equilibrium- the hero walking through London, the disruption – the hero finding the paper the antagonist dropped and through the film the disruption would be resolved. We showed this in our sequence by split screening the equilibrium and not the disruption as it clearly showed a difference between the two of them. The split screening and the music are enigma codes for the disruption about to take place.

• I think our opening sequence follows the typical format of existing opening sequences. The function of an opening sequence is to introduce the main character, which ours does, and establish the setting, which ours also does. An opening sequence also gives the audience a chance to form an opinion of the characters. Ours does allow this as majority of screen time is of the main character but it may not be the right opinion that we were aiming for. Although the voice over may create questions for the audience which may challenge their own stereotypical views.