Evaluation Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of a real media product?
The opening sequence for our film, ‘Magnus Opium’ does follow the forms and conventions of a real media product, but also helps to develop and improve them to enhance the understanding and enjoyment of the film for the viewer. The film is based on the typical values of a modern thriller which includes fear and confusion, but also plays into the hands of the horror genre, as the film is based around the event of trying to catch an illusive murderer who leaves young menacing spiders crawling over rotting corpses. It was this we wanted to capture in our title sequence but we also wanted to raise more questions for the audience so that they were still a little unsure, and had to watch the film to answer their questions. However again in doing so we were still worried that we would give too much away.
A thing that our Opening sequence has in common with professional, ‘real’ products is the advertisement of the production company, in this case collaboration between Zebra Animations and Art House Productions. The introduction to the main character which you see immediately as the title sequence begins. Titles which display the most important and creative forces behind the production, such as director and producer etc. Music which moves the whole sequence along, working with the cinematography and editing to create an overall sense of atmosphere and mood for the film. Lastly a smooth transition into the first scene of the film which completes the sense of verisimilitude.
Typical themes and values that run throughout the opening sequence and film area collaboration of: Murder, Revenge, Fear, Obsession and Mental illness, especially focusing on schizophrenia.
Visual references to these conventions can be seen throughout the title sequence. For example the fast montages of the lead characters face which occur throughout the sequence refer back to the idea of having a split personality, and seeing life from a different angle each time. The flashes show subliminal qualities on the character which make them feel as if she isn’t quite in control, and the representation of the spider being shown ties in with the idea that she is obsessive over them and despite all her problems and illnesses that she cant get away from spiders in some way.
The opening sequence is inspired from many other films and title sequences with probably the most obvious being Juno. After watching the opening sequence to Juno we decided that we would really like to do an animation. However, to draw out thousands of pictures like we would have needed would have taken a huge amount of time and effort and wouldn’t have given us the sense of fluidity and continuity that we wanted from the piece. We then discovered that Juno was made using photo- animation which although is an unusual way to create an opening sequence to a thriller/ horror film we felt that it was a new and interesting way of starting a film which hadn’t really been explored by real products.
Looking at ideas such as the Phantom Raspberry Blower, we decided that our killer s
hould be slightly odd in either how they kill or dispose of the bodies, although a lot more serious, This led us to the idea Dr Hannibal Lecter and Silence of the Lambs which helped us to continue to look at mental illness and schizophrenia which then led onto the idea of a dangerous obsession. After much thought and research we decided spiders would be a good choice. The idea being that the killer would place magnus opium, which is basically a spider’s egg, into the victim’s mouth so that after a few weeks the spider would hatch eating the body and destroying it before either the police found it or had a chance to gather any forensic evidence from it.
After this we began to look into making it more visually scary so that the sequence would help prepare the audience for what they would witness in the film. To do this we looked at other title sequences such as Sin City. The thing that I particularly liked about the sequence was the colour scheme. I lov
ed how menacing the drawings looked when coloured in black, white and red but unfortunately my group weren’t quite so sure on the idea, so we decided to stick with simple black and white. We also began to look at examples of Japanese horror films as they are renowned for being physiologically scary. This helped us develop the idea of the close-ups of eyes and faces etc, which are typical forms of the thriller and horror genre as they are used to scare and unsettle people.
The music again is also typical of the two genres. Written by Kirsty, a member of our group, it creates the backbone of the sequence. Beginning with higher, chilling tones it helps to settle the audience into the sequence before much darker, deeper and more insecure notes take over. The change in tone which continues throughout the sequence again helps to emphasize the ever-changing personality of the lead character and also helps to unsettle the audience who feel secluded and alone.
Although our title sequence doesn’t really follow a typical linear narrative which has a beginning, middle and end it does follow a circular pattern where the story arrives back at the large forbidding castle structure from where it began. This I feel completes the title sequence and still conforms to the conventions of the genre as well as allowing for the film to enter the first scene; which we added to the end of the sequence to allow for a smooth transition into the rest of the film.
The opening sequence for our film, ‘Magnus Opium’ does follow the forms and conventions of a real media product, but also helps to develop and improve them to enhance the understanding and enjoyment of the film for the viewer. The film is based on the typical values of a modern thriller which includes fear and confusion, but also plays into the hands of the horror genre, as the film is based around the event of trying to catch an illusive murderer who leaves young menacing spiders crawling over rotting corpses. It was this we wanted to capture in our title sequence but we also wanted to raise more questions for the audience so that they were still a little unsure, and had to watch the film to answer their questions. However again in doing so we were still worried that we would give too much away.
A thing that our Opening sequence has in common with professional, ‘real’ products is the advertisement of the production company, in this case collaboration between Zebra Animations and Art House Productions. The introduction to the main character which you see immediately as the title sequence begins. Titles which display the most important and creative forces behind the production, such as director and producer etc. Music which moves the whole sequence along, working with the cinematography and editing to create an overall sense of atmosphere and mood for the film. Lastly a smooth transition into the first scene of the film which completes the sense of verisimilitude.
Typical themes and values that run throughout the opening sequence and film area collaboration of: Murder, Revenge, Fear, Obsession and Mental illness, especially focusing on schizophrenia.
Visual references to these conventions can be seen throughout the title sequence. For example the fast montages of the lead characters face which occur throughout the sequence refer back to the idea of having a split personality, and seeing life from a different angle each time. The flashes show subliminal qualities on the character which make them feel as if she isn’t quite in control, and the representation of the spider being shown ties in with the idea that she is obsessive over them and despite all her problems and illnesses that she cant get away from spiders in some way.
The opening sequence is inspired from many other films and title sequences with probably the most obvious being Juno. After watching the opening sequence to Juno we decided that we would really like to do an animation. However, to draw out thousands of pictures like we would have needed would have taken a huge amount of time and effort and wouldn’t have given us the sense of fluidity and continuity that we wanted from the piece. We then discovered that Juno was made using photo- animation which although is an unusual way to create an opening sequence to a thriller/ horror film we felt that it was a new and interesting way of starting a film which hadn’t really been explored by real products.
Looking at ideas such as the Phantom Raspberry Blower, we decided that our killer s
hould be slightly odd in either how they kill or dispose of the bodies, although a lot more serious, This led us to the idea Dr Hannibal Lecter and Silence of the Lambs which helped us to continue to look at mental illness and schizophrenia which then led onto the idea of a dangerous obsession. After much thought and research we decided spiders would be a good choice. The idea being that the killer would place magnus opium, which is basically a spider’s egg, into the victim’s mouth so that after a few weeks the spider would hatch eating the body and destroying it before either the police found it or had a chance to gather any forensic evidence from it.After this we began to look into making it more visually scary so that the sequence would help prepare the audience for what they would witness in the film. To do this we looked at other title sequences such as Sin City. The thing that I particularly liked about the sequence was the colour scheme. I lov
ed how menacing the drawings looked when coloured in black, white and red but unfortunately my group weren’t quite so sure on the idea, so we decided to stick with simple black and white. We also began to look at examples of Japanese horror films as they are renowned for being physiologically scary. This helped us develop the idea of the close-ups of eyes and faces etc, which are typical forms of the thriller and horror genre as they are used to scare and unsettle people.The music again is also typical of the two genres. Written by Kirsty, a member of our group, it creates the backbone of the sequence. Beginning with higher, chilling tones it helps to settle the audience into the sequence before much darker, deeper and more insecure notes take over. The change in tone which continues throughout the sequence again helps to emphasize the ever-changing personality of the lead character and also helps to unsettle the audience who feel secluded and alone.
Although our title sequence doesn’t really follow a typical linear narrative which has a beginning, middle and end it does follow a circular pattern where the story arrives back at the large forbidding castle structure from where it began. This I feel completes the title sequence and still conforms to the conventions of the genre as well as allowing for the film to enter the first scene; which we added to the end of the sequence to allow for a smooth transition into the rest of the film.
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