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

Our film opening is not too dissimilar to openings of mainstream films that you would see in the cinema today. We used a linear storyline with only one small flashback, and stuck to a typical filming style using regular shot types and following the conventions of our genre. In our original concept "The Streets Run Red" the storyline was very complex and we planned out lots of create but difficult shots, so when we had to start again with "The Case" we decided to go for a simple, but effective approach, finding a fine line between creativity and control in terms of filming, editing, and scripting.


We chose to create a Film Noir/Thriller, although rather than sticking to a conventional detective story like "Double Indemnity" (Billy Wilder, 1944), go more in the direction of the film adaptation of Frank Miller's "Sin City" (Robert Rodriguez, 2005); a more action based thriller, but using typical Film Noir conventions such as;

• Artistic use of shadows and lighting to create an enigmatic feel.
  
• Building of tension throughout via use of fast cutting (but also slow pace), music and general atmosphere.
  
• Characters such as detectives play a main role often and the villain is not always obvious from the start (often double crossing later, or use of a "Femme Fatale", a female character who seduces the protagonist into committing an evil deed)

Our sequence follows some of these conventions completely and others not at all. In terms of the lighting and shadows, it was a key part of our opening. The key moments for these are when the villain first leaves the house and also when he lights his cigarette at the end of the sequence. In the first example we positioned the lighting to create a huge looming shadow giving the villain an aspect of fear and terror, but also enigma. The last shot in the sequence uses silhouettes to create enigma, leaving the audience unsure as to who fires the gun. This leaves a feeling of suspense which helps build up tension.

Other ways in which we built up tension where through use of the music (downloaded from http://www.freeplaymusic.com), which as the villain enters the office started to get louder and more dissonant until it finally came to a climax where the detective's head is slammed into a table. Also at the end before the gunshot there is the brief moment of silence after the music fades, which we did so that the audience would think the sequence finished, when really there is one final surprise. We shot the sequence at night time to give a mysterious feel to the sequence, and also allowed us to be more artistic with the shadows and lighting.

Although we did not have a femme fatale in our opening sequence, we planned to introduce one later in the film, but chose not to have her in the opening. We did however have a detective in our opening sequence and also a killer. This follows the Levi-Strauss theory of binary opposites such as good/evil, represented in ours as detective/killer. We though it important to have two opposing characters in the opening sequence that followed archetypes of the genre (for instance the trench coat and the hat for the killer, shirt and tie for the detective).

Most Film Noir is in black and white, which "Sin City" follows, adding only certain colours in for added emphasis. We were not able to edit our film in a way that enabled us to copy the style of "Sin City" so instead chose to edit the film in low saturation. By not having the film entirely black and white it meant that certain objects (like the red rose) stuck out from the rest of the sequence which is quite dull colours.

We stuck to conventions of typical film by using a real time form. By having our sequence as linear it allowed for lots of matches on action for continuity especially the gate sequence in the garden where we cut between lots of different angles to make a very boring action interesting. We did break convention by choosing to have no dialogue throughout our sequence. We did this to make the audience focus their attention on objects and clues throughout the sequence rather than the charcters themselves the majority of the time (like all the notes in the detectives office).