evaluation - question two

How does your opening sequence represent particular social groups?

The way in which a character is represented affects the interpretation that the audience have of them. Factors such as costumes, facial expressions and dialogue are imperative in showing what social group that the character may belong to. There is only one character that has a prominent appearance in our opening sequence. The key character is Cornelius, and the way in which he is represented is determined by various aspects such as camera, sound and mise en scene.

A main factor of mise en scene is the character's costume. In order to give the impression that Cornelius was a smart and educated man, however helpless to his mental condition, we dressed him in a baggy formal shirt and thick black rimmed glasses. The formal shirt and glasses give the idea that someone is educated and refined, however the fact that his costume is unkempt and messy contradicts that and confuses the audience, letting them unknowingly gain an insight into his character as his schizophrenia would cause him to act in a contradictory manner. This representation is similar to that of the character William Foster's in the movie "Falling Down". From the initial research, we saw that William also wore glasses and smart clothes, which gave the audience the impression that he was a civilised person. The behaviour of his character then contradicts that impression, as his abrupt change in character by leaving the car spontaneously shows that his personality was volatile and unpredictable. Similarly, we didn't want our audience to be able to predict what Cornelius would do. Another costume that is featured in the cutaways to the asylum scenes is the straitjacket that Cornelius is wearing. This clearly depicts him as being a crazed manic, as that is the most common connotation associated to that garment.

Extreme close up of his eyes

Camera shots that are used to portray him include extreme close ups, such as when his eyes open suddenly. This abrupt movement represents him as being quite an unpredictable character, as it was a sudden, unexpected movement. The extreme close ups also only allow the audience to see selected parts of him, which also could be representative of the fact that he has a very fragmented mentality and people are subjected to seeing only parts of his personality at any time because of his mental disorder. This is seen in the close up where his eyes roll back, which represents him as being a peculiar person as it signifies that something extraordinary is happening to him which is not a usual action. Over the shoulder shots and high angle shots that are featured in the opening sequence never real much of his face, which once again emphasises that the audience will not be able to understand him as a whole immediately from the opening sequence and represents him as being mysterious. The high angle shots also portray him as being quite vulnerable, as the audience are looking down on him, and can see that he is helpless to the hallucination he is experiencing.

Props - A vast amount of books, folders and papers

The props that surround Cornelius include papers, notebooks and stationary, all of which reinforce his representation of being an educated and smart person. However, the fact that they are all littered messily around him also allow the audience to deduce that he is a disorganised person, which could symbolise the greater issue of his mental instability. Other props also include various pills across his desk, which also portrays him as needing to maintain his mental illness medically.

The facial expressions of Cornelius are predominantly stoic and apathetic, apart from the slight surprise that is present on his face when first entering the hallucination. This represents him as being largely unemotional, however when he is drawing, his expression is that of concentration so he could also be seen as being quite serious. His posture supports this representation as he is sitting upright, signifying that he is a confident person. His body language when searching for paper is quite frantic and alarmed, illustrating how he is in a trance as well as representing him as an impulsive person.

The lack of dialogue in the opening sequence means that the audience will struggle to have a perception of Cornelius' whole character, as speech can also heavily influence the representation of a social group. For example, a character that is meant to have a wealthy background and is of a high class is stereotyped as speaking in an eloquent and well articulated manner. However, in order to keep to the connotations of a psychological thriller, we wanted to build as much suspense and mystery as possible. Having Cornelius not speak and to allow the audience to compensate for that by having their own individual perspective on the character meant there would be a greater element of mystery. The dialogue that is used is the voiceover of a news story. To make the opening sequence more interesting as well as representing how the story was broadcast worldwide, the voice over consisted of voices of different accents to represent various nationalities which consisted of British, Indian, Australian and American accents.

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.

character profile - cornelius

CHARACTER PROFILE

- Young male: early twenties

- Mentally unstable: suffers from Schizophrenia which causes him to have regular hallucinations and other psychological problems

- Lonely: feels isolated due to his mental disorder

- Lack of interaction with others means that he is awkward and uncomfortable in social situations

photo storyboard

vertigo

One of the most interesting things about the opening sequence for Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 psychological thriller Vertigo is the use of sound to build up suspense. The gradual building up of sound accompanies the shots as they zoom closer in on the face, creating an uneasy atmosphere amongst the audience as it is often uncomfortable to be so close to a stranger's face. Rather than continuously building up, the sound wavers whilst the camera zooms into an extreme close up, triggering the audience's apprehension as it is unexpected what is going to happen next; the sound is unpredictable as it builds up and quietens down in places. A red tint then overwhelmes the extreme close up of the eye, which has sinister connotations of death. The credits are then presented with kaleidoscope images besides them, which was a clever way to make the credits look interesting yet still relate them to the film, as vertigo is associated with a spinning sensation. The re-appearence of the eye, alongside the nightmarish non-diegetic sound has a haunting effect. The extreme close up of the eye is a significant shot that could be replicated for our own opening sequence as it is an interesting shot and can successfully create tension and suspense for an audience.

bridget jones: the edge of reason

Much like many other opening sequences, the opening of Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason begins with showing the audience the names of the production companies involved in creating the film. This is particularly significant when major companies, such as Miramax and Universal for this particular film, are involved, as it allows the audience to deduce that this may be a film worth watching due to having a large amount of money invested in it, which often means that the quality may be higher in comparison to independently produced films. Having a major film company invest in a film means that with a larger budget, the film can utilise a cast with familiar names, therefore showing how it aims to target a mass audience as people are more likely to watch a film with an all-star cast. Camera shots used in this opening sequence begin with a high shot looking down at Bridget's diary as she narrates. Writing in a diary is often a private moment where someone reveals all their thoughts, so it allows the audience to feel more of a connection with the main character as it seems she is sharing her personal thoughts with them also. A two-shot involving Bridget and her mother is used to show the affection and close relationship between the two characters, establishing it as being a mother/daughter relationship to the audience. The use of a high angle shot looking down at Bridget gives the audience the impression that she feels inferior and uncomfortable in this environment, as it is overpowering her and the surroundings seem to be more attention-grabbing and dominating in the shot. A fade transition is used to move from the party to an outdoor environment. There is a significant contrast as high key lighting is used and the effect gives the scene a more whimsical and romantic feel, which is befitting of the romantic comedy genre. The names of the cast are clear in a handwriting typography in a pale, pastel colour. This suits the romance genre as well as emphasising that the film will revolve around personal matters of the main character. Hearts and devil signs that are present near the cast's names subtley lay out the antagonist and protagonist of the story, so that the audience can then associate the name with the character. An establishing shot revealing the greenery of their surroundings as they are in an embrace contrasts the initial snowy setting that the audience was introduced to. This could be to emphasise that this is simply Bridget's fantasy and not reality

the butterfly effect

Unlike the other opening sequences I have analysed, the opening of The Butterfly Effect begins with a brief quote that summarises the Chaos Theory. It reflects the title of the film, as it mentions the effect that a butterfly's wings can have, and allows the audience a brief understanding of what the film might be about. The theory is about how small actions can have drastic and inevitable consequences that create chaos, which gives the audience an insight into the narrative as they can then deduce that the film may also be about how someone making changes over time can result in large unforeseen consequences. The first shot is a mid-close up that introduces the main character vaguely. Because of the fact that it is hard to distinguish what is happening in the shot, the audience feels compelled to continue watching. The low key lighting also sets the atmosphere and represents the psychological thriller genre of the film, as the darkness has connotations of something mysterious and unknown. The non-diegetic sound used also contributes to creating suspense, as it anxiously builds up tension for the audience before climaxing with the diegetic sound of the door being forced open. The shots that follow, as well as the sound then become more fast-paced and rapid, showing a succession of the character's actions in a few shots. The camera zooms out into a mid-shot to show the surroundings and introduce the audience to the setting. Initially, it is hard to make out what type of room it is, but the confined space successfully creates tension and suspense as it becomes obvious that the main character is attempting to hide. As the character begins to write whilst there are cut away shots to policemen calling for him, the audience is then given a further understanding of the narrative. An extreme close up of the words "save her" when he is writing then fades away into the wings of butterflies, emphasising how the character's motive of wanting to save "her" will trigger the butterfly effect.