Media portfolio – Question 1

By Ryan Parsons

In What Ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products.

• Our Film “Cursed Life” use forms and conventions of real media products to help develop our project, For example we used a range of camera shots and rules such as the 180 degree rule which was part of the research before we started filming our piece. The research on film opening sequences helped with the making and editing of the film as I saw how the opening sequences are pieced together. One example was from the opening of the film “Seven”, the titles were clear but distorted and that was the theme we were looking for when editing the title sequence in Adobe after effects and using the animation prefects to add titles on to the footage of the film ta make specific parts of the sequence distorted and to show the mind of the main character in the thriller.

Another effect that we used from real media products was the speeding up of the hand transformation. The idea was used in an episode from the BBC Drama “Doctor Who” when the peoples heads which are shaking is speed up to show the transformation. I felt this technique is useful for our thriller because it adds a sense of mystery and would leave the audience thinking on what has happened and why it has happened. This technique is also useful in building up the suspense in our title sequence.Our film opening has used many camera techniques and effects to show different aspects of the main title in hope that people get to know the main character as he is the main presence in the opening and also to uncover the killer and to show the relationship between the two characters. There is a low shot to show the killers face which shows that he has power and control over the main character. After this there was a close up of the main characters face which shows the confusion of the event prior to this. Many films use a close up to show the emotions of a character in a situation. This was present throughout our opening to show a change in the main character.I feel that the research done before the start of the project helped with ideas for filming techniques and editing to make our film fit into the correct genre.

The Transformation of the main character to the killer. –Using After Effects to create a disorientating view of the killer. This adds effect on to the film fitting this on to the genre of a horror thriller.