Task 1

Task 1: in what ways does your media product use, develop, or challenge form and conventions of real media products? 

"In what ways does our film follow the rules of real thrillers...or not!"
Our media product is very similar so some of the films that we have researched leading up to the events of filming the opening sequence. 

The Bearing:
In the first image above (top left) you see a man in a hoodie who has just put a package in someones letter box. This man is wearing a hoodie to try and cover and disguise himself, also the only part of his face that is being shown are his eyes because they are looking around to show that he is doing something wrong.

In the second image you see a mysterious looking man sitting at a cafe where you see that he has just collected the package from the letter box. Then you see him leave it on the cafe table and he drives off. The man is wearing a hat and his hand is covering his face to try and hide his identity. In the third image there is a kitchen where someone is slicing some meat to represent the gore,danger and thrill of the film. There is also another pass over on the wheel of a car. In the fourth image you see someone pick up the package from the wheel of the car and someone walking into a restaurant kitchen. This shows two different locations to show that we had a variert of places where we shot to make it more professional. In the fifth and sixth image you are in the kitchen and you see the pass over of the package from a man to the chef which then tells you that this has all been planned out and people are being paid to pass this package around, which makes you think that it is definitely illegal. The final scene is the chef putting some pills from out of the package into someones food, there is a close up of the chefs face so you can catch his identity. Then in the eith and nineth image you see the pill being crushed and put into the soup and stirred around and served. There is a close up on the soup to show you the pills inside it and to create the feeling that the pills are not going to be something good.
This is the end of the opening title sequence and it reveals what was being passed arond all of the time.  

This is all a very stereotypical thriller opening where you dont see what is going to happen but it builds the pace and atmosphere of the film to get the audience excited and stuck to the film.

Our opening title sequence is a very quick and fast pace sequence with all the boxes moving across the page. It makes it mysterious and different. We originally looked at ‘Miami Vice’ which is where we got the idea of the passing something around because in Miami Vice they pass around a USB stick with important information on it. And then we looked at The Tourist because we wanted it to have an action side to it too. It is similar to The Tourist because they both show a selection of locations,you can see some dodgy looking characters in my opening sequence and in The Tourists. There is also a passing in The Tourist. You see someone pass a brief case which links to the passing of the package in ours. Because our thriller is action based and about a package being passed around we needed to find a film that is similar is some sort of way. We looked at a high concept film called ‘The Tourist.’

This film is an action packed film about mafias, bad guys, spy's etc which our film is also vaguely about. So if i had to say what film our opening sequence could be similar too i would say the tourist. ’The Tourist’:  

This is a break up of the film the tourist. It shows its story line and its relevance to our film. It shows spy’s, guns, love, action, ‘bad guys’ etc to show the stereotypical action film. 

You can pick up the story line that two people (Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp) are on a train making a plan about something. It shows you them kissing so it makes you think that they may have fallen in love, but you can tell that someone is watching them by the font of the picture and how it has been edited so show that you are looking through a camera watching them kiss.Therefore you know that these two people are 'wanted.' Then you have a mysterious brief case that is being passed from one hand to another, then the dodgy looking ‘gangsta’ character walking out of his plane. Then you see some spys of MI5 or MI6 people who are obviously searching for the people Johnny Depp is playing or Angelina Jolie. Then you have a scene with a gun, and then the Name and title of the film.

A thriller/action film always has to have a villain. However out thriller challenges the conventions of real media products. In many high concept movies where there is a villain he is well dressed and looks like he would have lots of money-like in the tourist:

But as for us in our thriller/action film we wanted to have a low key villain. For us it was not about what they wore etc because we are making a low concept film and we wanted our character to be mysterious and under cover and it isn't really relevant to the opening of the film because what is important is what is being passed around, not what the villain is wearing.
Our Villain: 














Another rule of a good thriller/action film is having a pretty woman in the film. We decided to follow this rule and we had a pretty, elegant and female touch to the sequence. 
Our pretty woman:

We used the tourist as one of our main focal points of research. It connects with our story board really well with the passing of the brief case and the similar characters, and the action packed film is what we would expect the rest of our film to be like. 

 
Normally in an action film there is something sneaky going on, that shouldn't be happening. In our sequence we had the passing of the package and in the tourist they have the passing of a brief case. By emphasising the thing being passed and just having that in the shot it makes it more of a centre of focus and more interesting. It makes you want to know what is in it and it draws the watcher in. I think it is impotant to emphasise important things to show that they are the focal point. 
Overall I would say that The Bearing and The Tourist are quite similar in their format, their stereotype and how they are created. We took lots of inspiration from it because it creates the same vibe as we wanted ours to create in our thriller/action film.