The
structure of the sequence of our opening sequence is conventional to drama
films as we have shown opening titles, these are normally shown in other drama
films such as Drive. From our group’s research on other media products, looking
at the opening sequence of other drama films, we found out the type of opening
credits conventionally used and the position they are placed. Some of the
opening credits conventionally used in real media products and in our opening
sequence are ‘Producer’, ‘Director’ and ‘Casting by’. However even though our
group used credits in our opening sequence, being conventionally to real media
products, we were unconventional in the placement of our film title. In the
middle of our opening credits we placed our title ‘Behind Blue Eyes’, this is
unconventional to real media products as it would’ve been expected to be seen
either at the end or at the beginning of our opening sequence. We were also
conventional in the use of setting the mood of the film in the opening
sequence; this is again conventionally seen in other media products. This is
one way that our product uses a convention of real media products.
The
style of presentation in our opening sequence used forms that real media
products use, one of these is the use of backing music over the action in our
opening sequence. The music begins at the beginning of the opening sequence
when the camera is shown to be panning over the math’s equipment and then
finishes at the end of the opening sequence. This is a convention to drama films,
the music also dims down at the points in the opening sequence when the two
girls are talking and when the male voice over is being heard. However the use
of the voice over in the opening sequence is slightly unconventional to real
media products. This is because in real media products, in a drama film, not
much is given away at the beginning during the opening sequence, whereas in our
opening sequence the voice over gives some of the plot away. With quotes such
as “her skirt was short, her tie loose” this gives away the fact that the male
had been looking at one of the girls possibly in an inappropriate way.
The
style and colour of the font used throughout our opening sequence, I’d say, is
conventional. The entire font is kept in the same type throughout the opening
sequence and the colour is kept constant throughout as well, this helps in
keeping the main focus of the audience on the action that’s happening behind
the font and not all on the font itself. The audience would simply glimpse at
the written font on the screen then immediately focus their attention back onto
the action happening behind it on the screen.
The genre of our opening
sequence, being drama, used a lot of conventions that would normally be seen in
real media products. The first obvious convention we managed to create when we
produced our opening sequence was the beginning set the mood of the film,
therefore making it feel more realistic to the audience that are watching it.
Along with this at the beginning, our beginning also shows a graphical sequence
of the camera panning across several pieces of math’s equipment and books. This
is more conventional to TV dramas, as this is where it’s mostly seen, for
example the beginning of Downton Abbey shows a similar kind of sequence. We
were also conventional with the use of the drama genre as real media products
that are drama ‘put the characters in conflict with themselves as well as
others’ and this apply to the characters in Behind Blue Eyes. Sophie is in conflict with herself as she doesn’t
understand if what shes doing with Alan is right or wrong and because of this
her relationship with Paige suffers a small feud. There are a lot of emotional
themes used in Behind Blue Eyes that are conventional and that are expressed
through the characters throughout the film. Also our opening sequence focuses
on social realism, our plot puts across a realistic storyline that does happen
unfortunately in the real world and gets the message across to the audience
watching it.
The
narrative enigma in the opening sequence of Behind Blue Eyes I think is mildly
unconventional as the voice over may be giving too much away to the audience
before the film has really started. The use of this voice over was to give
hints of what could happen and it can be argued that it does more than give
hints in giving too much away as some of the audience in the audience feedback
clips guessed straight away that the film would be about sexual grooming.
However it can also be argues that the beginning doesn’t give that much away as
the majority of the audience in the audience feedback weren’t sure on what the
film was about, with guesses such as ‘rapist’ and a ‘dodgy relationship’.
The
introduction of the characters in Behind Blue Eyes is slightly conventional to
real media products when the girls are both introduced, as the scene is set up
to show the protagonist. It’s set up as Sophie seems to be doing everything,
such as, getting stuff out of her locker, getting a bad math’s result and the
shots of her ‘short skirt’ and ‘loose tie’. However the introduction of these
two characters can also be unconventional as they are always seen together and
could in fact be seen to the audience as ‘equals’, therefore not singling out
the one protagonist. The male character creates an enigma about who he actually
is, and this sets him up as the antagonist. It could be partially
unconventional that the male gets hardly any screen time and the audience see
little of him, but again, do we want the audience to see him so early in the
film?
The
camera uses conventions from real media products as the shots of the characters
are conventional. The close ups of the characters, especially the male in the
car, show their facial expressions and help to set the mood of the film; this
is conventionally used in other drama products to help the filmmakers get the
mood of the film across to the audience. Along with this the camera is
conventional as the shots, again, help to produce the protagonist and
antagonist in the characters that are on the screen. The camera victimizes Sophie
by showing the attention on her when it’s her and Paige walking and the camera
shows short snips of the male, which could even help set his personality that
he has a lot of secrets.
The
sound used in Behind Blue Eyes is very conventional to real media products as
the first piece of music heard when the opening sequence begins, automatically
sets the mood of the film. This is very conventional as the majority of other
drama media products use the music to create specific atmospheres whilst the
audience is watching it. Along with this the piece of music we found by
December Rising has lyrics that match our plot with lyrics such as ‘we were
best friends’ this benefits our opening sequence as Sophie and Paige are best
friends and it’s their friendship that leads to the storyline developing. The
other sound we used in the opening sequence was the voice over, which isn’t very
conventional. Not very many other dramas have the opening of their film to a
voice over and even if they do they don’t give a lot of the plot away which our
voice over could be argued to be doing.
The
editing and special effects in Behind Blue Eyes were used to help set the mood
of the film as well and this is conventional. We used cross dissolves between
some of the shots that kept up with the tempo of the action happening on
screen. Also, we had longer shots that weren’t short, sharp shots as this wouldn’t
have been conventional to the drama genre. We edited ‘Behind Blue Eyes’ onto a
black screen to show the simplicity and obviously let the audience know the
title of the film. This wasn’t conventional though as we edited it in the
middle of the opening titles, it’s normally seen at the beginning or at the end
of the opening credits.
The mise-en-scene in Behind Blues
is conventional to the scenes they are. The classroom is completely
conventional as it involves the school equipment, other school children and
even outside in the corridor the children walking past in conventional as that
is what’s typically suppose to be seen in a school. The mise-en-scene of the
car only shows small parts of it, like one side of the outside, the interior
mirror and the back seats. This could be conventional as they’re getting into
Alan’s car and he is a very mysterious man by not seeing much of the car it
could portray his mystery over to the audience in another way.
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