evaluation - question one

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

In order to make the opening sequence of our film 'Premonition' fit the hybrid genre of psychological thriller, we ensured that certain elements such as the mise-en-scene, sound, camera and editing were tailored to fit the codes and conventions of that genre. The opening sequence uses these conventions to clearly illustrate the genre, however also challenges and develops them in alternative ways so that it doesn't entirely conform to the audience's expectations as to make it unique and make sure that they are surprised whilst viewing it. This was important so that the audience’s interest would be constantly engaged throughout the viewing of the film. We were able to determine what codes and conventions are usually implemented in psychological thrillers through research into films such as Donnie Darko and Memento.
In addition to the forms and conventions of psychological thrillers, we also had to ensure that our opening sequence followed the customary, linear form of general opening sequences by:

• Introducing the main character
• Giving the audience an insight into the narrative
• Exemplifying the themes
• Incorporating titles such as credits and the name of the film
• Using music to enhance the viewing

From our treatment, we determined that our film consisted of various themes which we attempted to show in our opening sequence. We noted that many of these themes are present in other psychological thrillers. For example, Don't Say A Word features a character in a psychiatric hospital with a mental disorder, which is similar to our character Cornelius, who also ends up in an asylum.
Our themes included:

• Terrorism
• Crime
• Psychological instability/mental disorder
• Insanity
• Conspiracy

The Butterfly Effect

The form of the opening sequence included aspects that are conventional for opening sequences in general, as well as things that are more unique to the psychological thriller genre. One of the main aims of opening sequences is to introduce the audience to the setting, and we did this successfully by using a panning camera movement as our first shot. The shot introduced the audience to a dark, confined office space littered with numerous books and papers. This setting fitted the psychological thriller genre, as it served as an insight into the character's mind and the audience could deduce that it is a troubled character with numerous conflictions. Many psychological thrillers are often set in dark environments with mysterious connotations to arouse a viewer's curiosity. An example of a film conforming to this convention is The Butterfly Effect; its opening sequence also features the main character in a darkened room and an enclosed space, where it is not clear what the purpose of the room is, therefore intriguing the audience. 

Helena Bonham-Carter
as Marla in Fight Club

As well as this, an opening sequence ought to familiarise the audience to the main character that the narrative will revolve around, which is also accomplished in our opening. Our character fit the conventional expectations of a character from the psychological thriller genre, by being enigmatic and having psychological conditions that affect the narrative. This was similar to the character of Leonard Shelby in Memento, as the plot centred in on his amnesia which allowed it to be more intriguing and perplexing. Similarly, Norman Bates in the film Psycho, suffers from dissociative identity disorder, which is more similar to our character Cornelius as their mental illnesses effect their personalities and the way in which they behave. This is appropriate for a psychological thriller as it allows for more twists and unexpected events to occur if the character itself is unpredictable. The character that Premonition revolves around is a male named Cornelius who happens to suffer from the mental affliction of schizophrenia. The mannerisms of characters involved in psychological thrillers are commonly eccentric due to the mysterious and often twisted nature of the genre. The disorder attributes to why Cornelius undergoes the hallucination that allows him to predict the attacks on the world trade centre. Male characters are also predominantly featured in this genre, which I saw from researching psychological thrillers, as various ones such as Disturbia, Memento and Shutter Island all feature males as male characters. Female characters are commonly presented in psychological thrillers as love interests, such as in Fight Club, where the cast predominantly consists of males, and the significant female character, Marla, is used to implement love into the narrative. Our film both conforms and challenges this convention, as the cast would be predominantly male, fronted by a lead male character, however there would be no female character involved for the purpose of romance.

In our opening sequence, Cornelius was introduced in a way that was mysterious and his personality was unclear so that the audience would be curious to find out more about the character's intentions. Through my initial research, I found that the film Donnie Darko implemented this strategy in its opening sequence, by introducing the character of Donnie in a mysterious way by using an establishing shot, panning around his surroundings to show him waking up in an unusual environment. We did this ourselves through a range of camera shots, such as extreme close ups to emphasise his facial expressions. However, in efforts to make sure that too much wasn't revealed about him, we also used shots such as over the shoulder shots and high angle shots to give the audience a more fragmented view of him.

Credits are a common part of openings, which we included and created in a way that would fit our chosen genre. Our idea was to have the credits resemble a collage made out of newspaper cut outs, because it was unique way of portraying the titles and more interesting than simply editing them in with a simple font. It also illustrated the genre well as the cut outs linked to the abstract mentality of the character, therefore reinforcing that the film would fall under the psychological thriller genre. This was developed by the opening credits of Se7en, as the typeography used in it resembled that of handwriting, so it made the credits more personable to the character. A way in which we challenged the expectations of the form of an opening sequence was by incorporating crime and conspiracy elements, making it more of a hybrid genre.

Opening credit used in Se7en

The title of our film was specifically chosen to give the audience a clue as to what the narrative of the film may be about. The word 'premonition' means to have a warning of a future event beforehand. Premonition stems from the talent of a future sight where someone is able to acquire knowledge about a future event through a psychological medium such as hallucinations, which is known as precognition. Schizophrenics can be sent into a state of precognition where they suffer from random delusions. We employed this phenomenon into our narrative and exaggerated it so that the character was able to foresee the September 11 attacks. This fulfils the conventions expected from a psychological thriller, as the narrative revolves around something that has developed from the main character's psyche. The thriller aspect comes from the presence of the attacks being featured in the narrative. Both these elements combined challenge the audience into thinking what has compelled the character to draw the attacks. This conforms to the form of real media products, as many other films of the same genre also relate to events that take place within the narrative, or what it is about. This includes titles such as Fight Club, The Sixth Sense, Strangers on a Train, and American Psycho.

We implemented non-diagetic sound in the opening sequence to build up suspense. The pace of the music in the background matches the actions taking place in the shots, and this follows the conventions of the psychological thriller genre by creating tension amongst the audience. Over this, we have a voice over of news reporters giving a live report on the attacks on the world trade centre. At first it is not clear that the voice over is relevant to what Cornelius is drawing, which puzzles the audience and compels them to continue watching. Once the link becomes apparent the audience can evidently distinguish the psychological thriller genre of the film, as it is obvious that the character has somehow made a connection to the attacks but it is not clear why. Similarly, in Memento there are voice-overs where things are being murmured indisinguishably, and the relevance of the voices to the visuals is questionable, which shows how we used and developed conventions of actual psychological thrillers.

The opening sequence also requires the ability to give the target audience a brief insight into the narrative, and hinting at what it may be about, and this is done through the mise-en-scene of the shots coupled together with the sound which hint at the plot line without giving too much away in order to intrigue the audience and make them want to continue watching. The mise-en-scene of the shots reflects the film's genre in various ways. The character profile of Cornelius was established through his costume. We chose to have him wear glasses and formal clothes that made him look like the smart and educated person we wanted him to be represented as. Again, this is similar to how the character profile of Donnie is established in Donnie Darko, as he wakes up in pyjamas, which illustrates how he is a regular teenager.

Cornelius's costume

However, Cornelius' clothes were unkempt such as the top button undone in order to make him fit the psychological thriller by portraying him as having a mental problem. The props used in the scenes mostly consisted of office items such as numerous books and papers, which further emphasised his educated background. Smart, educated characters are common conventions of psychological thrillers as they are often the ones having to resolve complex situations. Other props used were various pills scattered across his desk. They also fit the psychological criteria of the genre as it becomes obvious that he is suffering from something, however it is not immediately clear that it is a mental disorder so this intrigues the audience into finding out. Low key lighting is also used to give the setting more of a mysterious atmosphere. Similar to most psychological thrillers, the darkness is successful in building suspense.