By: Caxie Dagupen

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

A) Introduction

B) How have you emulated your research findings in your production?

C) How have you departed from or challenged your research findings?

D) What about the forms and conventions of title and opening sequences, referring back to your research.

Contents:

A) Introduction

> The genre of our opening sequence is a ‘Psychological-spy’ genre. This is represented in our opening sequence through a variety of psychological-spy features such as ‘The Anarchist’ and how this character sends taunting messages to the male protagonist (Maxwell). As previously mentioned we have taken inspiration from other films in similar genres such as Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and The Joker. Examples would be how we took the savagery and virtues of the joker while we took aspects of blue filters and seriousness from the Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy film.

B) How have you emulated your research findings in your production?

Firstly, my group and I did both primary research through an interview and a questionnaire and secondary research through websites such as YouGov, Wikipedia and other websites such as Rotten Tomatoes to get our much needed information.

Through our interview with the teachers who were movie fanatics was the binding and intertwining the three sets of scenes. This was specially in mind during the editing because we had to cut each scene concerning each character and make sure it made sense even in parts.

An example would be how we had to clearly portray that Maxwell was running to save the person who was hostage, the Anarchist was watching the whole thing unfold and that Linda was being held hostage. We had to make sure that there was a distinction between these sets of scenes but holistically come together as one continuative narration.

B) Continuation

Another part of the research that was swiftly emulated in our production was the type of music and the genre of the music that was going to be applied in our opening sequence. Whether it was diegetic or non-diegetic or if we were going to have music at all.

This was a very important area where I thought it could go horribly wrong or just amazing due to the atmosphere that it would create. Most people in the questionnaire suggested that we choose a fast song such as the Eye of the Dragon from Rush Hour.

The final decision, however, was to just add a ticking down sound from the beginning of the opening sequence even before any visuals come up to nicely set up the tone of the scenes up to the point where the bomb suggestively blew up Linda. I felt that this was very effective indeed as it added a serious undertone and kept the enigma high.

What aspect did we depart

of challenge

The Anarchist

Maxwell

The ProtagonistsThe Music

The Pace

C) How have you departed from or challenged your research findings?

The Anarchist

What we actually did:

We just completely departed from the research findings from the questionnaire because we thought that it was too predictable and overdone where the antagonists are ‘the evil’ one, stoking a cat. We wanted to break this convention so we decided that the antagonist would actually be a beautiful woman who has a point and where her actions can be justified as she’s fighting for something that is morally correct but through a manner that isn’t.

What research said:

One of the aspects that we asked during our questionnaire was what they would expect from the antagonist. A lot of their answers were along the same line by expecting the antagonist to have some sort of physical deformity or something that doesn’t look good. During our interview, Ms Carr pointed out that she’d expect a normal villain who is almost deranged but would like to see a very intelligent villain instead.

Maxwell

What research said:

Research expected a very suave, intelligent and good looking main protagonist who is Maxwell in our opening sequence. The questionnaire wanted him to be some sort of superhero. While, on the other hand, the interview gave us a different perspective by advising us to make him more complex and an actual human with flaws, which people can emphasise with.

What we actually did:

We decided to make him a more complex character which could be seen in the opening sequence where he seemed very flustered and one step behind the Anarchist. Maxwell is portrayed as emotionally unstable and rash with his actions while the Anarchist on the other hand is calm and collected, directly contrasting from each other. This challenges the general public of what they expect, again, breaking conventions. We did keep him as a white upper class male in line with conventions and norms especially in this genre.

The Protagonists

What research said:

The people who answered our questionnaire wanted some sort of romance in the plot which I inferred would have to be between the protagonists such as Bond and his ladies.

What we actually did:

During our planning for the plot and pitch to our producers we had to straighten out the ‘bits and bobs’. We were first of all going to make Maxwell and Linda be husband and wife such as Mr and Mrs Smith but then we re-evaluated and figured that we might have been sued with a lawsuit for copying their idea. So we decided to again, break the normal conventions of love interest to Maxwell being Linda’s brother instead. Most recently, I have actually noticed that more and more films are focusing on bonds between siblings such as the film Frozen or the Divergent series.

The Music

What research said:

As I previously mentioned, there was a mixture of answers on what the music should be for the opening sequence and this was due to how much choice we had. We could have used diegetic or non-diegetic sound, voice overs or dubbing. Some people who answered by saying classical music or hip-hop music

What we actually did:

We originally wanted to play classical music to break some convention of the usual fast track music in opening sequences for spy films. However, we realised that our genre is more specifically a psychological spy film and also noticed that even other genres such as action are using 70s or 60s classical music hits. An example would be Guardians of the Galaxy where they didn’t use modern music, which appealed to older audiences. So in conclusion, we decided for a time ticking down to suggest the reality of the bomb and to create enigma which suits our genre and creates the perfect atmosphere.

The Pace

What we actually did:

We decided that having a fast paced opening sequence would mean a lot of action, which wouldn’t be a very good quality product due to the equipment we have and budget (£0) that we have to work with. In addition to that, we also came across the opening sequence of the film ‘Se7en’ which was very simple and eerie, creating an atmosphere that complimented our chosen genre. So we took inspiration from that film, suggestion from our interview participants and decided to depart from the conventional linear pace of spy films.

What research said:

In all seriousness, the participants in our questionnaire were a little confused with this question. I admit, it was badly worded but some did understand the question and replied that they actually wanted fast paced opening sequences. This would be the norm for spy movies. In the interviews, however did talk about how it would be really effective for a psychological spy film to have a variety of pace to both create mystery and raise the heart rate.

D) What about the forms and conventions of title and opening sequences, referring back to your research.

Our title and opening sequence is very simplistic and gets to the point of narration, enabling the audience to jump right in the middle of the action. Taking inspiration from our secondary research from the opening sequence of ‘SE7EN’, we took close up shots of Linda’s situation and only revealed the bigger picture later, creating enigma and building suspense. Due to my group’s wealthy knowledge of different films in different genres, we talked about adding something more modern in the opening sequence. This therefore led us to using text messaging titles and incorporate that with the plot, which isn’t as high quality as I wanted or wished for but does do the job.