Question one: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge the forms and conventions of real media products? Frame Analysis By Luke Poore

Introduction My Opening title sequence matches well with the Thriller genre. It is not so much a “typical thriller” as it’s in a dystopian style so conventional thriller elements like building tension are created in different ways to stay relevant to the dystopian style and setting. My film takes it’s main inspirations from the “Book of Eli” and “I am Legend” as the setting is post-apocalyptic world and the main character is the center of everything as he fights to survive. Our film is a hybrid of the thriller genre and dystopian films, as it take the majority of it’s technical aspects from thriller films. But the plot and story is dystopian.

Frame One - Title Our Film is called “The Enduring”- The word means a continuation or long lasting it is mainly used in a negative way e.g. ‘I endured through the pain’ so it was easy to apply to a dystopian thriller. We placed out title at the end of our opening titles because we wanted to show the character and the setting to give our audience a taste of what was going to happen later in the film. Also “The Enduring” suggests to that it is going to be an up hill struggle for the protagonist throughout the film which is fairly typical and conventional of the thriller genre.We put the title in white with a black background to suggest that the motive of the protagonist is clear and that there is a translucent difference between the protagonists aims and the antagonists aims. We did not use the color red in our title because we didn’t think it would represent our opening title sequence well as there is not a lot of blood/death in our film although it is highly reflective of the thriller genre and is use in the majority of thrillers.

Frame Two – Setting and Location For the setting of our opening title sequence we chose a woods/forest this was because it was isolated and gave the feeling of loneliness without having to show the emotion on the protagonist face this is conventional technique of thrillers. It is also set in the daytime which is not very relevant to the thriller genre but as it was filmed in a forest it kept the some light out and the use of surveillance shots gave and unsettling atmosphere even though is the daytime is meant to be the safest time of day. In terms of the lighting the grey/ overcast weather helped to create a dreary mood.

Frame Three – Costume and Props The third shot is one of our protagonists clothing, We had our main character in outdoor wear as it matched the setting and also helped reflect a dystopian style which we had aimed for as our film was a dystopian thriller. We didn’t use props throughout the opening title sequence this because we gave the impression that the protagonist had nothing left and nothing to help him survive, by doing this it supported the style of our film and was extreme reflective of the genre. It also helps the audience think about the idea that the protagonist is in a post apocalyptic world and the fact that he has nothing left. The costume makes the protagonist look ordinary which helps create the feeling that extraordinary events happen to someone normal which is a convention of thriller films.

Frame Four – Camerawork and Editing The majority of our shots were typically conventional of thriller films. So this included extreme close ups, close ups and low/high angle shots to show power of the character. Our protagonist face is shown quite a bit in the opening title sequence this is to try and help build an bond emotional between the audience and the character early on. However the antagonists are not shown as we wanted to conform to typical thrillers in which identities are hidden for a long remainder of a film, so this is we have used CCTV shots to introduce the wwwwwwwwwww audience an unknown antagonist. Use of the CCTV shots helped imply a storyline of watching and surveillance.

Frame Five – Titles and Font For our titles we picked a font that was clear and easy to read. Basic writing is used in a lot of thrillers it’s because it helps to bring a sense of normality when the actual film is usually quite the opposite. For the font we didn’t want it to look too plain because that might suggest that the film would be similar, so we found a font that was slightly distorted and fractured in order to help mirror our film in the opening title sequence. We made our titles white with a plain black background, we took inspiration from Se7en as it also used the wwwwwwwwwwww same technique but with a different font.

Frame Six - Story The story was mirror in our opening title sequence and gave our audience a taste of what is to come. The montage used was to show that our film was going to be a little confusing in places. Close ups of our protagonist shows that our film was going to be psychological and would make our audience think about on screen action.

Frame Seven - Genre The opening title sequence heavily infers lots about the film. The use of many CCTV shots suggest a that the threat/antagonist is unknown but very powerful and wealthy, this helps to suggest that it is going to be and uphill struggle for the protagonist and that it would last for the majority of the film. A wooded setting can also help the audience to understand the conventions of a thriller and how it is matching with the film, as woods are isolated which is a typical thriller setting. The main sources of inspiration came from other films that had been successful in this genre like I Am Legend and The Book of Eli by using these films as a guide, it helped us to create our film.

Frame Eight – Character Introduction The first shot of the main character is right at the beginning of the opening title sequence this helps to establish a bond between the protagonist and audience early on. Showing the character trying find someone in the OTS, helps to create questions from the audience (e.g. “who is this person?” “what’s happened to his friend?” etc.) making our protagonist as the sole person in the opening suggests to the audience that he is going to be the focus for the majority of film with not many supporting actors in the film. Also conforms with the dystopian style of the film.

Frame Nine – Special Effects As our film was independent and low budget, special effects couldn’t play a massive part in our film as it had to be more narrative driven to be successful. The only thing where special effects were prominent was the titles which had effects on them, mainly to match the music. For example the beginning titles don’t have much effects on them this is due to the calm music, however on the later titles there is many more effects (e.g. flickers, jumping) this is because of the change in music, because we wanted our music to match the on screen action including the titles. The only other special effects used were the CCTV effect on some of our shots, we used this to create an unnerving surrounding the protagonist and to give the impression that he is being watched.