Evaluation Question 1

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

Our fiction film opening definitely uses standard forms and conventions of real superhero films. We have followed many conventions of a real opening sequence. We took a lot of inspiration from Spiderman 2 and Kick-Ass. For example, conventions we followed:

·    Two of the main characters are introduced during the sequence, Angus and Jessica.

 ·    The drone of a teacher in the background, as well as the fold down chairs suggests a lecture hall and/or a university.

·    Our sequence has various titles, including the names of our actors as well as specific positions such as director and producer. John Solomon isn’t a real person, but he does have a specific role; later on in the film, he would have played the villain.

·    The music we chose also fits the sequence well; the initial music for the titles is sad and epic at the same time, reflecting the nature of Angus’ life. The choral string piece for the pencil lift is definitely epic enough to suit the context.

We also followed conventions of our genre: superhero. We haven’t especially broken the mould with this; we’ve used common stereotypes, as well as using some less used ones, for example:

·         A voiceover from the main character

·         Comic book styled drawings, quite an unorthodox way to tell his backstory  (similar to Spiderman 2)

·         The “average” super hero, someone you don’t expect to be one (Peter Parker, anyone?)

·         The love interest, almost always popular and pretty. Usually a damsel in distress as well.  (Mary Jane Watson)

·         Telekinesis, one of the original super powers

Aside from conventions, we have also used narrative techniques in order to sequence our opening. For example, we have followed Todorov’s theory of equilibrium:

·        The Agents – Angus, Jessica and the mad TV presenter.

·        The Equilibrium – Angus lives the life of an average teenager, bullied at school and in love with a girl who’ll never look his way. However, there is one thing that he’s good at…

·        The Disruption – Jessica is kidnapped by a crazy TV presenter, who thinks it’ll give him the last scoop he needs. No one in the school but Angus seems to care though.

·        The Journey – Angus uses his powers to get into the mansion where the presenter is holed up in order to rescue Jessica.

·        The New Equilibrium – Angus and Jessica start going out, the presenter is arrested and locked up and Angus gains the confidence to deal with the bullies in his own exceptional way.

We have also used things like continuity editing to give the sense of a real time sequence, which is really important both film and TV film and TV, as well as things like crossfading to make it seem like more time is passing, as well as disorienting the audience and adding to the eerie build up of music. Our title sequence is quite similar in style to the Spiderman 2 opening, with the lines crawling over the comic style drawings and revealing names of actors and film staff.