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

2. The title of the film The film is entitled “Disoriented”, this is defined as confused and unstable, which is perfect for both the Thriller genre and also compliments our narrative, which features a teenage girl who is having flashbacks of her parent’s deaths, yet it is not immediately revealed in our O.T.S that in fact she murdered her parents because she is mentally unstable.

3. The story & how the O.T.S sets it up The narrative of our product also uses forms and conventions of already existing opening title sequences. Our film is about a teenage girl named Niamh, who is having flashbacks of her parent’s deaths a year ago. She is also being constantly called by a mysterious man who we are lead to believe is her stalker. Eventually after the murder of a young man she is attracted to and a fellow student, we discover that the stalker is actually her psychiatrist trying to help Niamh, and Niamh has got serious psychological problems and in-fact murdered her parents and the other two characters. Niamh cannot live with what she has done and eventually kills herself. The story of our product is very similar to the story in ‘Shutter Island’, which had a character who is insane and is having flashbacks and dreams. You do not realise this character is insane until then end of the film, similar to our film, however, there are subtle hints towards this conclusion throughout the narrative. Our O.T.S sets up our narrative by including the flashback scenes, when Niamh is remembering her parent’s deaths. This gives the audience the impression that the girl is troubled and perhaps mentally unstable. Our character is often show clenching her eyes shut or holding her head or face, which helps to express to the audience that she has emotional pain. This is used many times in ‘Shutter Island’, including in the first scene where Leonardo Di Caprio is shown to be holding his head in a sink and washing his face frantically. There is also a scene featuring the Psychiatrist/stalker who is holding a photo of Niamh; this will confuse the audience and shroud the overall conclusion. This is also used in ‘Shutter Island’ by making the main character a detective to is looking for the man who he believes is responsible for his wife’s death, however, the man does not exist.

4. Setting &Location The locations and settings in our O.T.S are similar to those in other existing Opening Title Sequences. The first location that features in our O.T.S are woods. Woods are mysterious, spooky and allow the audience to feel as if the character is completely isolated, therefore woods are used in many Thriller films, for example the woods that feature in ‘House at the end of the Street’. We also featured the College as a location in out O.T.S. the College is a standard urban location which the audience will be aware of and assume is a place of safety. ‘Brick’ has many scenes that are within a College which expresses to the audience that even in seemingly safe locations, they are never truly safe.

5. Costumes & Props The costumes that our characters wear are very basic and ordinary; for example, the star – Niamh wears typical teenage girl clothing, so the audience can then relate to the character. She also wears dark clothing which imply to the audience she is a dark character who is mysterious and hiding a dark secret. The concept of having the main characters in the film to wear ordinary clothing is very typical of existing Thriller films, for example in ‘Brick’ the character is a teenager and wears the clothing to match that characterisation. The psychiatrist/stalker’s clothing is very dark and business-like, which is again typical within the Thriller genre as it allows the audience to see that the character is both professional and also suspicious. In ‘Collateral’, Tom Cruise’s character wears very smart business-like clothing to show he is professional. There are not many props that feature in our O.T.S, however, the phone that Niamh is holding is seen frequently to express to the audience that the character is seemingly being pursued by the stalker. The concept of being chased can be related to the ‘Terminator’ films

6. Camerawork, Special Effects &Editing We have used camera shots and angles that are very common in existing Thriller films to help us create the particular effects that we wanted to show. We used a tracking shot here in order to make the audience feel as if the character is being followed; this is a very typical shot within the Thriller genre as it creates tension and anxiety. We have also used sound effects when switching from our present day scenes to our flashback scenes; this not only allows the audience to be aware that they are watching flashbacks, but also creates an eerie atmosphere by using a creepy sound effect. We added eerie and disturbing music that we have edited to our O.T.S during the editing process. This is again typical of the Thriller genre, as it creates a dark atmosphere. We manipulated the scenes here to create a ghostly effect when fading between present time and flashbacks. This foreshadows the death theme in our narrative.

7. Title Font & Style The title fonts that we decided to use are typical of existing O.T.S’ for Thriller films, as the style of the writing compliments the narrative of the product. Our font style is disorientating as it fades onto the screen with broken and damaged lettering, which matches the title of our film – ‘Disoriented’.

8. How characters are introduced Our main character – Niamh, is introduced very quickly to the audience, by showing her right at the beginning walking through her college car park. This also helps the audience to depict her age and minor details about her background. Right at the end of the O.T.S, we are briefly introduced to a mysterious man who is the psychiatrist/stalker. His hands and objects in his hand are shown to the audience, so his identity remains hidden, very typical of the Thriller genre.

9. Genre & how O.T.S suggests it The genre of our piece is the Thriller genre, and we have ensured that this is completely clear to our audience. We have made sure of this by including many camera angles that are very typical of the Thriller genre, but most specifically that audio within our piece and locations are very Thriller-like. The eerie music throughout our piece is very unnerving and creepy which is very similar to existing Thriller films, such as ‘Shutter Island’. The locations also suggest the genre, such as the woods that I spoke previously about which are very Thriller-like.

10. How does your media product represent particular social groups? The most direct representation of a social group in our O.T.S would be the representation of British, teenage girls by our character Niamh. Niamh is a seemingly typical teenage girl who wears typical British, teenager clothes and goes to College. She is typical of the Thriller genre as she has lost both her parents, which expresses her isolation to the audience. She is atypical because she has serious mental problems and is in fact the antagonist in the narrative, after we are forced to believe she is the protagonist. She has a hidden aggressive personality which resulted in her murdering her parents. The concept of the main character in our film having serious mental problems which resulted in them murdering loved ones matches the characterisation of Leonardo Di Caprio in ‘Shutter Island’.