Evaluation 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

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

Above are 9 key frames from my film opening – Insiders. I will refer to them throughout my evaluation from frame 1-9, reading left to right.

At the beginning of my opening, we made and edited a film ident as seen in frame 1. This ident relates to our film as the ‘clank / whoosh’ we used to suggest our film opening has an interesting story line and is different as it is not the normal jingle. The use of the pink font and the grey background suggests that our target audience is not just men but we are also targeting females.

In the first 30 seconds of our film opening we set the scene with an establishing shot walking through Covent garden, which confirms the romantic comedy convention used in most films nowadays. We were inspired to add the title of the location and time onto the shot, to remind the audience that this film opening although romantic, is part of the crime genre as you would see this title typically in crime and action films for example the very popular James Bond. We used the typical crime convention of using the inner city as the setting as that is where most crime films take place as it is a place of the rich and famous.  By showing the audience the scene through the establishing shot of Covent Garden it draws the audience in, as they do not know what is going to happen here.

In Frame 3, we again show the opening into Covent garden, as the sun is shining on the building it makes our genre look very romantic. Within these first 30 seconds of our film opening, we use the cinema convention of ‘opening credits’. We credited the director, editor, producer, actors and the musician we used in a large serif font, typically used in the romantic – drama genre.

As my film opening progresses, we are introduced to the characters (Frame 4). The close shot of the protagonists faces really introduces you to them and their personalities. As seen in this frame, the characters are dressed smart but casually with minimal hair and makeup as this film opening was not about over exposing our actors. The location is again shown in the background of this shot, as it is set in London and the actors are dressed nicely it gives the audience the impression this is a middle to upper class film.

The mid shot in frame 5 helps the audience have a clearer understanding of what is happening in the opening and our protagonist Lizzie is trying to organise a robbery in the middle of a busy part of town. We chose Lizzie to play this part as we knew that as a protagonist she would be very confident when filming which would spread to the audience who will be able to feel her confidence and dominance as she is training Isadora, our other protagonist, to join her elite group of robberies.

The extreme close shop in frame 6, is used to show the audience that this is a wealthy area and the elite group that our protagonist Isadora wants to join, only steals from wealthy people. We tried to show this through one of our actors using the prop of a Michael Kors bag which is popular brand for girls in the age range of our target audience, again, attracting them to our film opening.

The midshot in frame 7 is used to show the audience how our protagonist, Isadora is committing the crimes and her ‘boss’, Lizzie is watching her from afar. Our protagonist is being portrayed as a friendly person as she is ‘helping’ the people she is stealing from by giving them a receipt, or showing them where to go etc. and her body language in frame 7 is very Cloe and personal, also the audience can see this film opening is about a heist, and stealing peoples loved possessions as they can see the positon of Lizzie, our other protagonist watching Isadora do her ‘job’

Frame 8 is an extreme close shot of the robbery its self. This shot was very hard to film as we had to film at the right angle for the audience to see exactly what was happening.  This is a convention of a typical crime film as it has continued the theme of good vs evil. The prop – the camera helps the audience identify that our protagonists are mainly stealing from rich middle – upper class people as their money is shown through their outfits in our opening.

Frame 9 is our title scene. We captured the shot reverse shot of our main protagonist, Lizzie (boss) accepting Isadora into their elite and prestige group. WE decided to name our film opening insiders as it is about an elite group that not many people can be a part of as you must have a certain skill set. The title is in san-serif font as it adds a more relaxed and quirky tone to the film and helps the audience feel thrilled with what is happening, we added the effect of the title ‘bouncing’ on the screen which will reiterate to the audience what our film is about and will hopefully help them remember it.