Closing blog post

This blog is now complete and is ready for assessment.

Evaluation

Question 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

I found that the preliminary task quite epically failed to be honest. We did hardly any preparation or planning which reflects in the video. We were very unorganized and had no knowledge of the use of technology that had to be used in media at that time. However, i felt it was a good experienced and i learnt a lot from the preliminary task, it was an advantage that it was a bad video as we can learn from the mistakes we made.
One of these mistakes that we have learnt from and improved on for the main task in preparing our actors and locations. We had our actors in mind from the very beginning when we was storyboarding and immediately asked them to see if they were up for it  and were able to do it on the days we arranged. Also i feel our organisation of time has improved majorly as we were way ahead of time for our deadline and started editing our  video before the deadline for the filming which felt good and less stressful. I think we have also improved on our Technical filming skills as we were not very experienced for our preliminary task and didn't even use a tripod to steady our camera to make our film look more professional. However, i think we did a better job in our main task as we felt more experienced and professional using the cameras and we obviously knew more about the different camera angles to use to be effective for this type of genre as we did quite a lot of research into real films of this genre.
After filming we had to edit our film to make it look interesting and more professional, adding things such as jump cuts to show our character was confused and we also had to add in our titles. I believe that our use of editing skills have also improved from our preliminary task. Using premiere pro became easier after a while and we got used to it so it became a good programme to use and it made our film look quite professional and continuous. I have learnt allot from the preliminary task as it let us experience what its like to edit and produce a film but i have also learnt form the main task, how to use premiere pro in a more professional way and use all of its abilities.
Overall i feel that i have progressed allot looking back at my abilities whilst doing the preliminary task as i feel i have produced a good piece of work for my main task, and hopefully my skills in media will continue to expand.

Evaluation

Question 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
In todays world, new technology is very important and plays a huge role in media in various stages of production.
Technology was very useful when doing research and planning for our film. we used out mobile phones to organised the times and places we would meet to do our filming, we also used Facebook to get some audience feedback on our research and we used this website, blogger to blog our ideas and research which was very helpful to keep us organised and be able to view our work easily and not just from college.
To produce our anamatic we used a camera to film each picture that we drew of our story board. we then uploaded the clips onto the computer and edited them all to fit together on a very new technology called Adobe premiere pro. We then used a very popular website called `YouTube ` to upload our anamatic video and embed it onto our blogs.
Using blogger.com really helped me keep track of what i have learnt and kept me organised as you can see clearly what you have done and what you haven't done.
EDITING

Evaluation

Question 4: Who would be the audience for your media product? 
We are aiming our film at people of the ages of 15-25, and mainly aiming it at males throughout this age group but also particular females too. This gives us a wider target audience and more viewers. We are also aiming it at a social grade of B, C1 and C2, and our psycho graphic segmentation target it at mainly rebels and hedonists as we feel these types of people would enjoy our film the most and understand the genre. 
Hedonists are those who like to have a good time, and people who watch films nearly always watch them with friends or family. Rebels are people who don't want to conform and challenge the traditional way of doing things and are particularly associated with teenagers.


Question 5: How did you attract/address your audience? 

I felt that I was successful in attracting my audience, as when I showed my film opening to my selected target audience and class of 16-20 year olds, I got very positive feedback. Although some thought it may be appropriate for a slightly more sophisticated group as it is quite hard to understand what the character is running from and use of enigma code may confuse our target audience. They recognised that it was a horror/thriller film and said it is very similar to a real film of this genre. We also found that people like a mystery in a film which demonstrates Barthes' Enigma Code and is a common convention of nearly all films.

I feel my text was successful because the audience easily recognised the genre and thought the titles worked very well with this type of genre. 

I successfully attracted my audience by using key conventions which I had seen used in other films of the thriller/horror genre. These conventions are firstly, fast editing for the chase, using many jump cuts to create an eery feeling and to show the characters is confused. This creates a tense feeling to the piece and means the audience are gripped.

The titles needed to be interesting with a scary feel to them, so having white writing on a dark blue neon background made this easy to interpret as an interesting film. My audience especially liked the titles too. A further convention is scary, fast and energetic or slow and eerie, music. My audience thought both the pieces of non-diegetic music fitted and helped create the atmosphere as the music was `spooky` and made it seam like a real film opening. As well as that, they said that they would continue watching the film, thus meaning it was a success in creating an exciting and tense atmosphere an creation.

My feedback for my opening titles is shown below in a video.

Evaluation. Question 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Question 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? 


Our film is a small budget film that appeals to a wide audience in the genre of thriller. We feel the of of distribution company that would distribute our film is `Metrodome`. This company distributes many films which tend to start off in a fewer number if screens and in art-house cinemas and then cross-over onto the bigger screens which will attract a few more viewers.

Metrodome is one of the leading independent film distributors in the UK. They acquire films and product for exploitation in cinemas. Metrodome has earned a reputation for acquiring and releasing quality independent films that challenge audiences - from box office smash hits like `Monster` and `Donnie Darko` to the box office success and Academy Award winning The Counterfieters. Alongside high profile theatrical titles, Metrodome’s award winning Home Entertainment department also releases new films, classic cinema, documentaries, animation, stage adaptations, television programming and historical drama. This is the type on distribution we feel would be best to distibute our film as they are a professional independent compnay and shoulb be abloe to distribute or film in the right way.

Because it is such a low buget film, this means there would be not much money spent on advertising the film which may cause its viewers to not know about the film and be unable to go and view it. However the best way of advertising a film is not expensive at all. This is word of mouth; having done research into many different producers and distributors, they all say that word of mouth is the most effective way to make your movie well known and get a big audience. Word of mouth is when one person watches a movie and then tells their friends, family, work collegues and people on facebook there opinions of the film, this means that other people will have positive feedback from that movie and are more likely to go and see it if they have a good review off someone they know and trust. So we would suggest to our movie distributors to do a screening programme, where our movie will be shown for free so the word of mouth will be big for our movie as these people should give some feedback for our movie. Word of mouth can make or break a film.

Another good way of advertising our film is in magazines, radio,tv and newspapers etc. this is a very effective way of advertising as everyone is likely to see or hear our advert. However, as we have decided to distribute with quite a small distributor they may not be horizontally integrated which means it would be harder to advertise into the tv or magazine industry so it would be very hard and very expensive to advetise this way. Also we wouldn't be able to advertise on billboards or bus`s or bus shelters which most films get attention from as it is very expensive and would not fit in a small film budget.

So the strategies we will be using is `word of mouth` to spread the word about our film. Also we would set up an official website on the internet to advertise and market our film, this is a very cheap way of advertising and a good way to communicate to our viewers. This is a very effective way of advertising as most people in our target audience age group use computers, so if we were to advertise on websites such as Facebook or Twitter we would surely get a lot of people interested about our movie. This is a method of marketing a film that many distributors use as it is very cheap and very beneficial to the film.

We would be hoping to get our film into cinemas such as The Electric, Birmingham. This cinema shows lower budget films as well as higher ones too, and we feel our film could crossover and eventually make it into bigger cinemas.

Evaluation

Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our film opening represents women and teenagers in a very emergent way and challenges many stereotypes.
The first shot we see is a pair of old fashioned raggy boots which are non gender represented which doesn't let the audience know weather the main character is male or female. However when it is established the character is a female there is still no representation or a residual idea of ideology as our character is not being portrayed as a steryoptypical female teenager of today as she is dressed in a hoodie which portrays that she is tough and hard which isn't expected of an emergent female.

Also our main character isn't being portrayed as a sex object, she is not dolled up and doesn't seem to want to attract any type of male attention. This is challenging such stereotypical representations of residual ideology that young females have to appear attractive and care what they look like to attract male attention as they feel they must appear in a certain way that mean find attractive.
It is Emma herself that the film in concentrated on and it is her reaction shots we see, tis makes the audience feel close to her as a person and eables them to create a relationship so the audience seem to care about her and become interested in what she is running away from. This is an emergent idea of a dominant woman.

However, in the next scene our main character walks onto the train and gets a very dirty look off the female teenager sat opposite her; This passenger is also a teenager, but she has a much more appealing appearience which suggests she is of higher class.
The fact that the passenger gives Emma a dirty look because of the way she looks is also a residual  ideology of females being 'bitchy' and represents the way young females judge one another on the way they appear and instinctly react to someone who is not dressed in the same way with similar attitudes. This other character is female which suggests that females are dominant, thus demonstrating emergent ideology.

When Emma wakes up after the train crash, she is wearing more appealing clothing unlike before, she is also discombobulated and doesnt know where she is: Instead of her seeming rebellious, she is now vulnerable  which is very much a residual view of women.

It is denoted to us throughout the sequence that Emma is running away from something that she is obviously scared of because she keeps checking to see whats behind her. It is connoted that this thing is higher than her, something more scary, thus also connoting her innocence and defencelessness. This view is again residual. The vulnerable state of Emma is connoted by the mid shots that show her confused in a place that she does not recognise. 

The mise-en-scene of the forest makes it seem deserted and means she also seems quite small in comparison to the setting which is connoted with a long shot running into the forest, further connoting to us the residual ideology of females vulnerability.

Throughout our film there are no mae characters introduced, this is connoting ideas of residual ideology that men have a domniant position in society. This giving females a dominant and ovepowering representation.

Evaluation Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

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

In comparison with other real film openings, I believe that there are some obvious similarities between real media products of a thriller genre and our film opening.

It is obvious from the evidence above that our film opening titles shows a sign of creativity and also builds a sense of dark and loneliness which fits in with the genre very well and will interest or maybe suspend our audience, this is very typical of a real film opening in this particular genre.
Also, the music piece we have used in our film opening creates a real eery feeling of suspense which also makes it seem like a real film opening as it is very common for a real film opening to create such an eery feeling.
The genre, being thriller/horror had to be presented clearly, we tried to bring this across with big bold titles that show clearly the producers and the companies but also bring the genre across well which is brought through in our dark and mysterious titles. Also we tried to make our opening seem effective by having short clips of film then straight into a title, then another short clip of filming then into another title. we did this three times to show our creativity which in many was is similar to lots of real film openings.
Our film opening is very obvious and recognisbale as belongnig to the genre of thriller/horror. This is shown through the mis ene scence which is very dark at the beginging and gives a sense of enigma as to why the girl is runnung and what she is running away from. This makes our film opening seem very real as many real media products if this genre start with a similar story line and give a sense of enigma, this is very typical and common in a real film opening.

Also, our use of editing and jump cuts brings across that the character is confused and rehabilitated which relates to our genre of film. This is also very typical of a real film opening, to get the audience interested and feel connected to the character and make them care about her and her feelings is what a real film would aim for

Typically a real film opening shows details of cast and crew, the film title and the Production companies, this helps the main characters of the movie be recognised and given credit for their work. I feel that we covered all of this in our film opening which allows it to be viewed as a real film opening.

These conventions are very important in making a film opening recognisable as a real film in its specific genre. We didnt try to challenge these conventions too much as we realised the main conventions obviously do good in a film opening and sell the story well. However we felt the need to break the law of continuity by using a few jump cuts in the last scene. we decided this was a good way to let the audience know our character is confused and we tried to bring real emotion through and effect our audience.

Revulsion - Main task

Time Management: Updates

Filming today went really well, however it was a bit awquard to film as it was 5 o`clock and obviously home time which meant it was really busy at the train station so we had to wait for a while so get a better effect of the main character being lonely. However we got all the shots we needed to get so now we can start editing our film opening.

Time management: Updates

Unfortunately we was not able to film last yesterday as the weather was really bad and there was heavy rain which meant that our film wouldn't look continuous if suddenly it is raining. However, we are going to carry on filming tomorrow day time and night time to get the different effects of the time of day.

Time Management: Updates

Last night we only managed to film shots 1- 10 as it took us longer than we thought it would. However we are going to continue filming today after college and try to finish all our filming so that we have enough time to edit it and make it look continuous.

Time Management: Updates

Today we are going to start our filming of our film opening.
Today we are going to films shots 1,3,5,7,8,9,10,11,12,13 and 14. We have made sure that our actor Emma Wilcox is ready and available and have organised for her to meet with us in Worcester town centre tonight at a specific time. We have also got the props we need at the ready. Hopefully filming will go well today as we will then continue with filming tomorrow after college.

Organisation: Locations

Here is a risk assessment for the location of Worcester town centre and the train station which is where we will be shooting the first part of our film opening.

Organisation: Props/Costume

This is a table showing all the props needed to film our film opening and the source of our props.

Organisation: Casting

Here is a table showing our main actress and extras. Using only three characters we hope this will come across effective as the whole film is based on the main character Emma.

Research: Shot List

Planning - Story board

Genre Research Summary

Having done lots of research into my genre of horror/thriller movies, the most obvious titles used in a eery film opening is big bold letters, this is to make the titles stand out and look important, I think this is a good way to get your creators and the names of the film  company across and give them credit for what they have produced. This is useful to me as i think it is an effective way to make your opening seem powerful which i will try to do in my film opening. Also the pace that the titles enter is very important as it gives the audience an idea of the pace of the forthcoming film and creates excitement which is always good to get your audience in the mood. The colour of the titles is also important as it gives a clear notation of the theme of the film and makes the titles stand out even more.
Often in film opening there will be text that says 'This film was inspired by true events' which I feel is enticing for the audience and automatically makes it more interesting as they know it is a true story.
The type of music used in this type of genre is quite slow but effective to create an eery feeling and represent the films genre, but also in this genre of film, very fast and upbeat music is used in particular pasts of the film to make it exciting and build up tension. Most often in Horror/thriller movies non-diagetic music and sounds are used to create a scary effect and make the film seem more interesting. Diagetic sounds are also used; things such as screaming and howling are also used in many films of this genre to build up even oree tension and make the audience feel involved and close with the film.
The type of character we expect to see in a film opening of this genre is a victim or the 'bad guy'. The attacker is usually in normal clothes but turns evil further through the film, and they do not seem to fit into the setting they are in. We intend to use the victim for our filming.
The mise-en-scene is important for films of the horror genre because it helps set the atmosphere. The lighting is dark and minimal, and the setting for the scariest bits are usually at night or in the dark to create tension for the audience.
The narrative code employed is the action code; tense music and fast editing is used to create this, but sometimes slow editing can be used too. Barthes' Enigma Code is used a lot to create a sense of mystery for the audience.
Popular shots for the horror/thriller genre are close ups. By getting close up to normal everyday objects, they can be made to seem sinister and this is very effective. Close ups are also used to make the audience feel more involved with the characters and build relationships with them to make their time watching the film more interesting. Jump cuts can also be used to create a sense of confusement of the characters and excitment for the audience. 

Audience Research Focus Group.

I have set up a research focus group on facebook to gain knowledge of the type of things our target audience look for and are interested about in  a film. I have invited many people in the range of 15-25 which is our target market therefore their feedbacks will be very useful to me. 

I asked my focus group. 
1. What are your favourite genres of film? 

2. What would you expect to happen in films of that genre?

The responses of theses questions have been very useful and I have found out that the most common type of genre that most people prefer are comedy and horror. They watch these types of films for a very specific reason. Whilst watching a comedy, I have concluded that everyone expects there to be funny scenes and situations and just general funny things that can make them laugh. However in a horror movie, peoples expectations completley change, my focus group expect to see general evil within the world by seeing scenes of different crimes such as murder and rape. also they look for blood and gore and an overall eery feeling and a snse of mystery. They also expect a film of this genre to frighten them, they predict that they will have nightmares and wont be able to sleep with the lights off.

Audience Research Focus Group.

Jemma Wheeler: 
Jemma lives in Bromsgrove and attends South Bromsgrove sixth form and she is sixteen years old. She likes going out with her friends and generally having fun. She likes listening to R&B and Pop music, her favourite act is the wanted, a boy band who have recently become famous.  She likes to eat KFC chicken with gravy and her favourite drink is wkd. She tends to watch very stereotypical programmes that a teenager would watch. Things such as `The X Factor` and `I'm a celebrity get me out of here`

Jack Whitehouse: 

Jack lives in Frankly, Birmingham and he goes to Bromsgrove new college and he is seventeen years old. He is a very outgoing person and very typically likes to party and drink alcohol. He likes to listen to drum and bass and R&B music. His favourite drink is beer and his favourite food is a Chinese takeaway. He also very typically watches shows such as `The X Factor` but he also watches other programmes such as `The Inbetweeners` and `Misfits` which he finds hilarious. Jack is very addicted to playing video games on his x box and his favourite game to play is Call of duty black ops; a war game. He also likes going shopping to spend his money that he gets from working in a pub called the Victoria in Birmingham. 

Gary Jones: 

Gary is twenty-three years old and has a full time job at a club, working behind a bar. He likes to have fun and go out regularly with his friends. He also likes to shop a lot and spend lots of money on things such as new clothes and weird glasses. He is interested in quirky things such as sci-fi films and lady gaga. 

Gary is more comfortable working alone than with other people and finds himself not usually as sociable as others. However, around the people that he knows well and is comfortable around he is very confident and an outgoing person. 

He likes to drink coca cola, however, on a night out he likes drinking cocktails. His favourite food is sushi as he adores fish. Gary likes watching programmes like `CSI` and `Star trek`. As he finds them interesting and he likes solving puzzles. 

Target Audience

We are aiming our film at people of the ages of 15-25, and mainly aiming it at males throught this age group but also particular females too. This gives us a wider target audience and more viewers. We are also aiming it at a social grade of B, C1 and C2, and our psychographic segmentation target it mainly at rebels, but also mainstreamers and hedonists.

This mood board represents the type of people we are aiming our film at. The things the like, enjoy, do, watch, wear and generally act like.

Film Openings: Genre Specific Analysis

Shank

Shank is a youth-based action film, set in a decaying future London.

The opening sequence is very effective and creates a great expectation of the type of genre and storyline the film is about.

The opening starts with some videos of crime taking place. this immediately sets the tone of violence and rebelliousness.

The diegetic music used in this opening is very eerie and sets the genre of thriller and action.
Near the beginning we also see what is known to be a main key convention which is the name of the production companies who are very important as they are the ones who have funded the film.

Then the main actors are identified and we see that `Adam Deacon` who is a star from the film `Kidulthood` is mentioned first, this gives the audience a good feeling that the film is going to be a similar genre to `Kidulthood` as it has the same actors but also because we see him holding a baseball bat which connotes that there will be violence and threats in the forthcoming film which is a very stereotypical view of this type of genre.

Also identified is `Kaya Scodelario` who is one of the main actresses from the recent series of Skins. This too gives a good sense that the film is going to be generally similar to skins which is also a typical type of programme for this genre. This is a good way to attract more viewers as these films and TV series are very popular to its target market which will attract the same kind of people to this movie.

      

 

The mise-en-scene of this film opening is very typical for this type of genre as we see a typical rundown town and buildings which are not very picturesque. We also see a picture of a smashed car, a CCTV camera and lots of barb wire and a lot of old flats. this connotes that the genre of the film is very `gangster like` as the CCTV cameras and barb wire connotes that the characters must be outrageous and have to be contained and watched by cameras. also, the smashed car gives a sense of rampage and fury. 

      

The titles of this opening scene is are very effective, they are in bold print and in capitals which make them stand out and appear powerful. There is not much colour in the title sequence, they are just black and white, this connotes simplicity which we relate to the genre of the film, it also makes it seem interesting as there seems to be no background as it is giving us no clue to the role of the characters or the setting of the following film, this makes the audience wonder about the characters and want to carry on watching the film. 

       

After the title sequence, the film opening cuts straight into a street chase; we see a young boy at the age of about sixteen running away from a boy on a motorbike who is right behind him chasing him. This is an example of Barthes` enigma code, as the audience is sent immediately into a chase that they know nothing about, they don't know who the victim is or what he has done or why he is being chased, this portrays a mystery to draw an audience in, pose questions and, as such, become intrigued in the piece and continue watching the film. 

Genre Mood Board

This is my genre mood board, it is a sort of 'mindmap' of ideas that can show and represent the genre of our film. These are some of the typical things that represent the genre of thriller and a sense of loneliness as a young girl ha runaway from home. 

First ideas

My Partner for this task is Jemma Turnbull. We have decided to go for a more mysterious film which is still a thriller/ horror movie but can relate to our audience.
We will rate our film as a 15 as our target audience is late teens and youths from 15-21 as they may be able to relate to this film, but if not, they will find it interesting and entertaining.
 Our first idea for our opening of a film:
A young girl out on her own having ran away from home. she gets into some trouble and has to catch a train out of town. This train is very old and knackered therefore the lights are switching on and off and shakes. All of a sudden the train goes pitch black and everything stops.
She then awakes in a different world where she seems to be `invisible` as nobody notices her and bash into her and walk straight past this little girl in need. We will then do some camera effects to make it look as if she is spinning and all she can see is this weird world. The titles will then end and the film can then start. This will draw people in to watch our film as the opening is very mysterious and doesn't conclude. this will encourage viewers to watch the rest of the film as they want to know the whole story as they have been dragged in.

From Script to Screen: How does the credit sequence from Dexter work?

In the 1940s and 50s a film style called film noir was very popular in America. These films portrayed the dark side of American life, full of urban crime and violence. Film noir had a distinct style, with shadow-filled low-key lighting. Night ruled in film noir, the shadow more important than the light.

The film opening of Dexter is a great example of this film style. The opening is very creative an cleaver which also portrays a dark side to the phsycologically challenged.  

Eric Anderson, the creative director of `Dexter` says that instead focusing mainly on what he calls 'self indulgent details', he thinks the most important things are the piece’s story, how it fundamentally relates to the show, and then how will this prepare a viewer’s mind for the show. This has to build excitement within the piece, therefore creating its overall impact on the audience as these will be the opening scenes for the series.

Dexter as a character is a forensic bloodstain pattern analyst but is also a serial killer. Whilst he goes through his transformation, he has been described as 'exactly the same Dexter except something is wrong.' This is demonstrated throughout the piece with crime scene type photographs which give a sinister feel to the piece.

The use of noir lighting and shallow depth of field adds a tense atmosphere throughout the piece, by using low key lighting and use of shadows it creates a more eery feeling to the opening.

Eric Anderson also realised that the word 'Dexter' is more or less the same upside down, so wanted to incorporate this feeling of everyday things being seen as menacing into the opening sequence. He also wanted to use this idea for Dexter as a character - normal on the outside, but if you look harder you see a completely different side to him as he seems to be mentally challenged. I think that the creative director thought very hard about what type of character he would create. Creating Dexter as a more original character brings a different feel to the film and he wants the viewers to look deeper into the story and try to figure out Dexter's other personality for ourselves, this gives a different perspective to the film and really makes the audience think. An example used by Eric Anderson to demonstrate Dexter's character was this one below of a window. First glance makes it seem like a normal window, but once you find out that Martin Luther King was shot from it then it becomes interesting and eery.

The first thing we see though is a close up shot of a fly on Dexter's arm. He squats it and we see a smile on his face as if he has enjoyed killing it, and he seems to gain a thrill from killing, this is very typical for this type o genre as it gives the audience a clue that Dexter isn't mentally stable which adds mystery to the film.

The mise-en-scene of this clip is important because this is the thing that gives this feel of 'eeriness'. The mise-en-scene and the shallow depth of field shots work together to create tension. The shallow depth of field shots are close up to the objects, such as the egg being cracked and the bacon being sliced to make them look as though they are representing a murder scene which makes the opening very tense and puts the viewer on edge as these normal everyday life objects are being portrayed as something much more interesting.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The titles of Dexter are also very interesting as they are quirky and unique. The editors have used block capitals which makes the titles stand out and seem powerful, but they are also in bright red which obviously represents blood, and immediately the audience can see this which is very stereotypical of this genre.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The non-diegetic music is very important in this film opening because it help to set the feel for the piece. It starts off quiet and with just a simple beat, this tune is obviously Japanese, which sets quite a calm atmosphere. However, suddenly the diegetic sound of Dexter squatting the fly is played whichshoks the audience and brings forth a feeling of suspense. As soon as it rolls into the title, the music starts getting more of a beat. The music sounds kind of spooky an eery. The music carries on with more or less the same beat, and the diegetic sound of the food frying and Dexter eating is played over the top. As the credits are coming to an end, the music dies down and a 'ping' noise is played as Dexter walks out of his apartment smiling. This 'ping' is a noise that indicates how 'cool' and normal Dexter comes across, despite everything else. The music overall is very effective because it helps give that sense of things not also being as they seem on the outside.

 

Research: Analysis of the opening of Juno

1. The opening sequence of Juno is very effective; it helps give the audience a good overall prediction of the film. The diegetic music is a very quirky downbeat love song which helps show that in the film love will develop and will be very strong. It is very cherry and happy which shows that she is happy with her lifestyle being contained as a child.

     2. The mise-en-scene is also very effective and plays a very important part in representing the forthcoming movie. The animated opening scene is very creative and smart which may connote to Juno’s character. We see shots of Juno walking past some suburban houses in her local area which connotes that the film will be very low key.

     The colour scheme of the mise-on-scene is very colourful showing colour of a baby blue, yellow and green. These colours are very childlike which connotes that Juno is still a child and is stuck in her own bubble of frozen time. The leaves falling from the trees show time passing and establish the time of year which will become important as she is pregnant. We also see Juno walk past an acoustic guitar which shows her retro interest in music

    
      3. Juno’s costume is very unisex which connotes her character to be very tomboyish, as she is wearing a blue jeans which are very stereotypical, a red sweat top and converse shoes; this also shows her in an indie view as she is very individual and doesn't seem to care what people think.

      4. The sunny delight carton she is drinking connotes her individual style of a bland diet, it also shows her childish nature as it is a drink mainly aimed at children, as we already know she has a childish nature this makes it even more obvious that she is in her own world

 5. Throughout the opening titles, the shots are sketched showing a child like feel to the movie. Juno walks in front and behind the credits, giving a continuity touch to the opening. She is in a bright red jacket and this makes her stand out against the dull buildings around her, connoting that she is the main character and that she is oblivious to the world around her.

     

Research: Key Conventions

Key conventions of an opening scene of a movie:

• Titles 
• Actors/Actresses names 
• Diagetic music 
• Barthes' Enigma Code 
• Narration 
• Exposition 
• Being able to establish the genre 
• Main characters 
• Main story line or setting of the movie.

 Having done some research into opening titles, I found a lot of key conventions.
One key convention is that the production companies are shown at the beginning of the titles. They are the ones who have funded and produced the film, so they have a duty to be mentioned. The names of the main, or most famous, actors are shown too. This is sometimes to draw the viewer more into the film if there is a famous actor identified. In the opening title, main characters are usually shown to show us, the audience, that they are important and take the most crucial role. The main setting is nearly always shown too, which sets the scene and gives the audience a feel for the movie. An example of this would be a council estate being shown with teenagers roaming around, which would give us the image of a film such as 'Adulthood'. The characters being shown in a certain setting gives them a persona, and this setting could be natural or unnatural for effect.

The most important thing - the name of the movie - is shown either at the beginning or at the end of the titles. 

The music most of the time always starts at the beginning of the titles and this non-diegetic music ends at the end of the opening titles, either for being dramatic or for a change of scene. The type of music can give the viewers a sense of the type of genre of the film.

As well as the production companies and the actors, the costume and music people are shown too. This is because they are of obviously importance to the movie. The last person to be mentioned is the director as he is the main person in charge of the film and has put the movie together and is basically in charge.

Popular shot types in the opening titles are close ups - especially in horrors - are point of view shots. Flashbacks and ellipsis are used too, for example "three months earlier". Writing a time or place can also be common. Narration/voice over is also popular. This is usually the main characters telling his or her story so far or introducing themselves.

The main thing that an opening title does is open up questions or puzzles which the audience find will be answered throughout the film, Barthes' Enigma Code states this.

There is usually drama or action too, showing what is to come. All these key conventions help the audience recognise the theme running throughout and therefore be able to tell the genre. These conventions are all very important in keeping the attention of the audience as to ensure they will want to carry on watching the film and are interested about what is about to come later on in the film.