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

Our film is of a thriller genre, which traditionally focuses on the plot over the characters, emphasising intense and physical action. Our film opening consists of non-stop action and builds up suspense, as we are unaware of what is going to happen until the end, when it becomes clear that it is a kidnapping. From the opening sequence we get the impression that it is a life or death situation. We studied two familiar thriller film opening, Taken and Memento, which both influenced our decisions and helped develop our ideas.

We have used a lot of close ups in our film opening, in the same way they have been used in Taken and Memento. The close ups emphasise the importance of specific objects within the film and make the viewer feel more involved and as if you are really there.

We have used aspects from the film 'Taken' to help inspire us, for our idea of the kidnapping and also other aspects such as the opening credits, we have took the idea of basic white writing on a black background to introduce the film just like 'Taken', although it looks plan, it stands out to make it eye-catching to the viewer and looks professional. Also, we used 'Taken' to inspire our ideas of the flashbacks of the kidnapping. Similarly, to 'Taken', which uses a flashback of a video recording when his daughter was younger at her birthday party years before. Whereas, we chose to make our flashbacks much more recent, and added effects to them in order to make it obvious to the viewer. We made them stand out by making the lighting brighting and adding a saturation effect to show it has already happened. The dark lighting throughout the opening conveys a typical thriller film.

We also looked at another opening to a film, 'Memento', and took ideas from the camerawork, lighting, etc. In both 'Taken' and 'Memento', they both start the film with music to build up impact, we decided to use this for our film and created our own soundtrack, however, the sequences we looked at used slow instrumental music. We thought for our opening, a faster beat would work better in order to help build up the suspense, which in the end worked really well.

Location

This is a picture of the location used for when Lucy's phone
is left at the bus stop.

This is a picture of the location used for the car; when Dwayne
gets in his car and speeds off.

This is a picture of the location used for when Lucy
is walking down the street and Antonio is behind her. We used typical urban surroundings as it shows originality and fits our genre.

Memento Analysis

The opening two minute sequence of the film “Memento” immediately opens with very slow classical music. The sound of a piano playing continues throughout the whole of the opening scene. This builds up a lot of tension and suspense like a typical thriller film. The word “MEMENTO” starts off the credits in a bold pale blue colour which stands out on a black background. The way it is also in capitals shows that it is more important in comparison to the rest of the credits which are much smaller. They also fade out very slowly which ties in with the slow pacing effect.

The background then changes to some ones hand holding a photograph and consists of very low key ambient lighting which links in with the way we want to create the opening scene to our film. The photograph has blood on it, which creates a psychological effect on our minds and gets us thinking about the reason for this rather than showing violence. This continues through most of the opening scene. The photograph is also taken with an old fashioned camera as we can tell from the style of the photograph it’s self. This gives it quite an antique effect rather than using a very modern digital camera. This part of the scene is shot using extreme close up so we get to see all the detail we need. There are no other types of shot at this part for example long shot as they wouldn’t give the same dramatic effect on the scene.

At about 30 seconds in we get the impression that the scene has been created backwards. As the handshakes the photograph the sharp red begins to fade within seconds after it. The picture after being taken would normally become clear but instead becomes a very dirty colour white. This is very unusual along with flashbacks for an opening of a film. We then see the photograph going back into the camera and a photograph is taken. At this point the credits fade out completely and the low key lighting effect changes to become brighter.

We then see the man who took the photograph he is also in extreme close up. The worried confused expression on his face shows us that he is unsure of maybe what is happening. His face makeup looks very dirty which has been deliberately done draws attention to the sharp red cuts on his face. This again gets us thinking psychologically about why he has this and what is happened. He looks quite shocked and worried almost as if he doesn’t really know or understand what is going on. As the camera moves very slowly it builds up a lot of tension.

The low key ambient lighting is still continued. We then have an extreme close up of dark red blood dripping backwards on the wall, however in does seem very clear in comparison to the photograph of what has been taken. We then see a man that has just been shot. This all happens very quickly and there is no time for the man to do anything. This is very unusual opening to a film as films do not normally start backwards. As we see the man on the floor which has been shot in a close up we get a look of part of the room, which looks very plain and basic like a rundown building, the floor looks very dirty and uneven. This could possibly have been shot this way so that a claustrophobic effect is created.


At the end of the opening the colour style changes to a black and white tint which links in to the very old fashioned camera effect as the camera slowly moves up his face. This is the point where the man hasn’t been shot and psychologically makes us think about what is going through the mans mind, as he has no expressions on his face to show what he is about to do or in this case “has just happened” due to the opening being backwards. This could suggest that maybe the man is so psychologically harmed inside he doesn’t understand the effects of what he is doing. This part is in extreme close up and continues to the end of the opening scene.

Storyboard

'Taken' Analysis

The opening scene starts with opening credits; I noticed that all the credits are all capital letters; this is maybe to emphasise the importance of the text. The first clip we see is 'EUROCORP PRESENTS' in where the 'EUROCORP' is much bigger than the 'PRESENTS', this is because the directors would've wanted the audience to see the main film production company; this could be classified as promotion aswell.

The clip after shows a flashback of a previous birthday; we as viewers know it is an old birthday due to the quality of the video footage; the brightness and saturation is much different, it has a yellow-tinting effect and is also darker which concludes to the viewers thinking it has some kind of 'old' cement . Also the extreme close up on the birthday hat shows it was someones birthday; this was taken on a handheld camera, this would give the viewers the impression that it's a home-made video.

In the next main clip, it shows a man (viewers are thinking, maybe, the little girls dad?) waking up from this flashback; as it's some sort of dream. However he doesn't seem that happy due to the facial expression and body language. It feels that he is missing out on something and in his expressions shows some sort of anger towards the viewers. Also the the two clips are to a contrast, in the previous clip it shows a light/bright tint wheras this clip shows a man in a dark room, room so dark that it's hard to see him. In a room this dark, it may represent he lives in a dark world and wants to escape this world.


The flashback birthday party is in any case would be more of a celebration (a happy memory) but in this case it seems more of a bad memory. He then turns the light on in where the viewers can see a focus on him but the props (take-away boxes) show that he lives a lonely/quiet world.

First, it was recorded on an extreme close up but now recorded on a medium-long shot. This may be for the viewers to identify the man's surroundings and maybe show them the kind of conditions he's living in. It shows the difference and creates a contrast between the video footage seen in the flashback; that was the life he was living and now it feels like he's lost it all.

In later scenes in the film, the viewers believe they will be given the reason why everything has changed for this 'lonely' man. He then picks up a picture of a little girl (probably his daughter) and looks at it for a good couple of seconds, when he puts the picture down you can tell by his facial expression that he misses her and want to put things right. From what I can tell as a viewer it seems like the attention is all on his daughter. This creates an emotional connection so viewers feels empathy towards the daughter.

The next main scene shows the man get out of a car and walking into a shop. When he talks to the shop keeper he seems to be smiling and looks more of a cheerful guy; he is obviously putting on a front to hide his true emotions. When they're both talking it shows a shot-reverse-shot pattern and also shows a good example of the 180 degree rule.

In the main last scene it shows that he buys a present for his daughter as it seems that it is her birthdays soon, the way he wraps her present shows he's some kind of perfectionist.

Production Treatment

Title: '24 hours'

Genre: Thriller

Duration: Approximately 2 minutes

Audience: Our target audience will be late teens to early twenties, so around the 16-25 range. Although it may attract some older attention.

Resume: The opening of our film will tell two stories at once by consistent flashbacks of what has previously happened in order to indirectly explain the purpose of the other story.
The flashback will show the lead up to the kidnapping, so Emma waiting at the bus stop for Mo to collect her, but he never does. At the same time, we will show Mo receiving a threatening phone call from the kidnapper and him making his way to where he should of collected Emma from, but instead he finds her phone and bag.

Suggested Elements
Performance
Emma: Stands waiting for Mo to pick her up, shivering because she is cold.
Mo: firstly, Mo appears calm and chilled, but then he speeds up his pace to emphasise the importance of saving Emma.

Costumes
Emma: Casual clothing. Leggings, Uggs and a jacket.
Mo: Gang related clothing. Black jeans, red hoody and a black jacket.
Antonio: Gang related clothing.Black tracksuit bottoms, black tracksuit jacket with a hood.

Props
We will use several phones throughout the opening of the film, Emma's bag.

Key Locations
Bus stop
Mo's House - living room

Title/Opening Credits
LEMA presents
Director: Louise Atkinson
Writer: Mohammed Abubakar
Louise Atkinson
Emma Cousins
Antonio Paulo

Characters
Lucy: Emma Cousins
Dwayne: Mohammed Abubakar
Warren: Antonio Paulo

Recording Days

Filming (pre-production)
- 28th february - 9th march
During this week we will aim to film the majority of our opening scene, although we may need to film into the next week aswell.

Editing (post production)
-9th march - 30th march
We will begin editing as soon as we have finished filming. We may have to re-shoot some of our shots so therefore will make the process longer.

Main Task - Shotlist

• Opening Credits - Black screen with white texts to make the text stand out. The role in smaller text and the name of the student in larger font to emphasise the name.

• A sound bridge of the phone ringing will link the two scenes. Close up of the phone ringing. The setting of this would be in a living room or maybe bedroom - a room where it's dark to create an intense start to the film.

• Zoom out from previous scene so viewers can see 'Mo' in the shot which. will show a shallow depth of field, the focus was first on the phone whilst 'Mo' is blurry but reverses to the telephone being blurry and now the focus is on 'Mo'.

• This will be a flashback. A long shot of Emma walking home. She will be on her phone texting. The location will be dark with very little lighting and on a quiet road. We will add a different effect to this so that the viewer can identify that it has already happened.

• Mo answers the phone with some hesitation.

• We will split the screen for this scene so that both characters can be seen at the same time. Both characters will stand with the phone against their ear. Both will be in different locations, Antonio walking quickly down a busy road and Mo inside his house. The conversation will take place during this scene.

• Back to a flashback of Emma texting. This time we will zoom in on the phone screen to focus on what she is texting and who she is texting.

• Medium close up of Mo still on the phone to Antonio looking worried. The phone then ends with the "end tone" which we will use from Garage band.

• Mo slowly takes the phone from his ear, as he slowly takes in what has just be said to him and replaces the phone back on the table.

• Flashback of Mo at his house receiving Emma's text.

• Shot of Mo leaving his house. First shot is him opening the door, the next shot is Mo exiting the house.

• Long shot flashback which shows Emma walking with Antonio in the background, following her. This scene will have low key lighting also.

• We see Mo get into his car and start the ignition. The lighting here will be brighter, natural daylight.

• Extreme close up of the car wheel to show Mo speeding off.

• Flashback of Emma's phone lying on the ground ringing out. A sound bridge will link the two scenes.

• Long shot of Mo bringing the car to a sharp standstill, where he should have been picking Emma up.

• Mo finds the phone alongside Emma's bag, coincidently a her phone receives a text at the same time.

• Flashback to Emma in a dark room, alone.

• Black screen and '24 hours' appears on the screen in a large white font.