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



Distributor

This is our first title card, upholding the traditional form of most opening sequences in the sense that conventionally speaking, it is the distributor of the film, who provides the funding on which that film is not only made, but also advertised, introduced to the market and sold on. Therefore due to the fact that it is the distributor (in our case Vertigo Films), that takes the biggest financial risk in terms of the films success, they are mentioned first in the title card. Being a low budget film, typically we could expect the distributor to potentially spend up to one and a half times more on the films distribution than the actual budget involved in making that film. Clearly it is therefore the distributor that plays the key role in the films success due to the fact that typically, any film is only as valuable as it's distribution deal.   





Production Company

This again upholds generic convention in terms of the chronology of our title cards. The production company also plays a huge role in the succes of the film. In this case, i have chosen to name the production company 'SIRATED' as a result of the fact that the name seems to fit the genre of the film without conforming to the seemingly mundane conventional spelling of the word 'serrated'. The production company is funded by the distributor to put together all aspects of the film, from research and development to the final cut of and post production. The company provides the final cut of the film for the distributor to find an audience for. The production company is an absolutley crucial aspect toward both the life and success of any film, they are therefore typically assured a significant mention within the title cards/ sequence of said film.









Director

Again, sticking to the codes of convention, we have mentioned the director third in our opening sequence. The film is (or should be) a result of the director's artistic vision due to the fact that it is thier concept on which the film is based. However, there is no way that the film could possibly be made or recognised/ succesful without the presence or help of both the distributor and the production company, therefore they take presidnce before the director in terms of the title cards of a film.





Title

We have chosen to include the actual title of the film after the initial opening sequence and not alonside the opening titles for two primary reasons which have become commonplace in modern films. Firstly, seperating the display of the main title card from the crediting title cards gives it a greater sense of significance and impact on screen. Secondly, the attention span of a modern day audience is generally less than that of audiences of prior generations, as a way of aknowledging this, we have incooperated our titles into an opening sequence as is the modern convention as opposed to opening with a leangthy title sequence. The opening seqence does not feature the word 'Aftermath' until it has established that the film to follow will portray the aftermath of the events depicted in the sequence, therefore following chronological convention. The title 'Aftermath' is also a slight pun in the sense that Kate says she was 'in maths' before the incident took place.

The establishing shot of the sequence is of Alex's video confession which as we can see from the logo on the bottom right hand side of the screen, he posted on 'YouTube'. The shot follows the conventions of our intended steriotype for this film. Firstly, the 'Sirated' poster that we can see in the background is representative of the specific genre of music that such a character would listen to (metal/hardcore). The black T-shirt underneath his schoolshirt was a specific choice in terms of Mise en Scene as it can be argued that it is a subtle indication to the darker person that Alex was beneath his external image, hence why the shootings came as such an apparent shock.

This shot presents us with two different frames of narrative from Kate. It is meant to signify the fact that although she is the narrative figure, she is telling a story from a subjective point of veiw. The film as a whole was intended to reffer back to her interpritation of events and showing her telling the story within this kind of shot may encourage us as an audience to interprate what she says in a different light, setting us up for the the discovery that she may not in fact be telling the truth. This is to some degree conventional, however with particular regards to the 'Neo Noir' style films. 

The sequence makes frequent use of conventional shots such as the 'over the shoulder' (OTS) seen above. As well as this, we ensured that we tilted the camera for a slight upwards angle on the inspector to give him a stance of power and importance within the shot. Whereas shots of Kate are all tilted at a sligtly dowward angle to somewhat victimise her within the shot.