Media Text Examples

Media Texts Similar to Our Opening

Our opening will feature many match-on-actions that connect scenes of changing location, similarly to that of Notting Hill, where the seasons change as the character walks across the shot. This will indicate a passing of time to the audience, as well as keeping a fast pace without our opening looking disjointed. However, we will use a circling mid shot rather than the long, tracking shot used here.

These circling shots are similar to the one used in the opening scene of Moonlight. This motif is central to our opening as it gives an intimate and personal feel. Moonlight, however, uses this shot type to disorientate the viewer and reflect the confusion and slight sense of danger felt by the characters. In our opening, we would use this confusion to allow the audience insight into the feelings created by Rose's mental illness.

Our opening ends set in a hospital, showing our protagonist sitting on the bed and being spoken to by a doctor, nearly identical to that of The Last Exorcism Part II. As this is a very dramatic way to finish the opening, we need to show a realistic example of this setting and pay close attention to the mise-en-scene so that the audience is completely sure of where she is. 

The way in which we break up our circling shots with 'weird' scenes is similar to the video for Fall Out Boy's America Beauty/American Psycho, in which shots of a ballerina dancing are intermittent with footage of a boy cowering by a wall. As the video progresses, the shots become more intergrated, as the boy reacts to things happening in the ballerina's scene, just as in Rose, a seemingly normal shot of her on a stage is revealed to be an unsettling shot of her staring out to a non-existent crowd.

Mental Illness Representation

Our Opening Idea

I think that the way in which we have proposed to represent mental illness in our film opening is very outdated and stereotypical as showing a young woman/teenager has connotations of vulnerability. Therefore by basing the entire opening around the effects of this character's disability in the genre of horror/thriller, we are implying that it is negative and something to be feared or fascinated by.
In order to create a gripping and interesting opening I think that we should subvert the audience's expectations by using the motif of continuously circling the protagonist to draw more attention to her memories and experiences rather than how sympathetic she is.

I think that the suggestion to set the present-day part of our opening in a prison is unique but also reflective of real life as 95% of minors who are imprisoned have a mental disorder, and our character could potentially be a minor, allowing us to use the sign of a young, 'innocent' character to refine our opening.

Past Representations of Mental Illness

In the past, mental illness has been presented to us as confusing and scary as very few understood how sufferers are affected by their disability. For example, in Halloween (1978), the villain is an escaped mental institution patient, and is shown to be particularly violent. This feeds into the public assumption that people with mental disabilities are dangerous, which is an inaccurate representation.

We can see this in an episode of the US TV show 'Will and Grace'; 'Crazy in Love', in which Grace attempts to get out of jury duty with a fake doctor's note stating that she has Borderline Personality Disorder. In particular, that she is 'prone to aggressive outbursts' and some characters refer to her as 'psycho'. This is regressive as it enhances the stigma of people with this disorder or a similar one being violent. She also says that it was 'brilliant' to pretend to have a mental disorder to avoid jury duty, which trivialises this illness.

Present-Day Representations of Mental Illness

In the modern day, mental illness is often romanticised as those with any type or severity of one is seen as someone to pity or admire for their 'bravery'. Although it is true that those with mental illness may require more attention and care than someone without, this view creates some desire to have a mental illness. This could potentially have a bigger impact than the negative portrayal as if our target audience is of a similar age to our main character, they may be more susceptible to the influence of this glamorised representation. 

Nowadays, we see mental illness mentioned in a wider variety of media texts, such as music, particularly in the pop-punk genre. Because of this, we are shown a more realistic and accurate representation of mental illness as artists can tell stories of first-hand experiences. However, this is not always progressive, for example Fall Out Boy's '7 Minutes in Heaven (Atavan Halen)' contains the lyric 'I'm having another episode, I just need a stronger dose', which could reinforce a common assumption, of the past and present, that all mental health issues can be solved with medication. We would want to subvert this when creating our opening in order to make sure that how we present it is accurate and realistic. Mental illness can also be normalised which in some cases is progressive, and in others not, again because of the romantic light it is shown in. 

Film Openings Mood Board

Audience Expectations

Expectations of the drama/thriller genre

"I expect thrillers to be serious and dark, so with lots of black and grey colouring"
    -Charlie Thornton, 27

"Drama/thrillers usually deal with deep, emotional topics, like abuse, but still keep you questioning what happens next"
    -Jay Barnett, 23

"I expect suspense and aniticipation, so that I don't get bored halfway through"
"Dramas and thrillers are always gripping until the very end"
    -Joseph Sims, 29

"They're never set in one room, that's what keeps you watching...sometimes the setting makes it more interesting"
    -Madison Howell, 16

"I would expect a plot twist becuase you always want the good guy to win in the end"
    -Holly Butler, 19

Final Opening Idea

For our final opening, we decided to combine the storyline and layout of the first initial idea; a montage following a girl throughout her day, with the complex shots proposed in the second idea. The camera will circle around a mid-shot of our protaganist, a teenage girl, in 'safe' places such as her bedroom, for most of the opening. We decided to use the motif of a 360 degree shot to emphasise the importance of the girl in this story, as well as reflect the sense of isolation that the character is feeling.
However, this will also be broken up by much shorter shots of unsettling events, such as the girl being shouted at or trying to hold a door shut from an unknown intruder. As the opening progresses, these strange events will become more extreme, such as our main character trying to drown herself in the bath or being hurt. In doing this we hope to build tension and draw the audience in, making them want to know what happens next.
In order to clearly distinguish between the two types of scene in our opening, we will use contrasting colour and sound. For example, the circling shots will be much brighter and quieter in comparison to the 'weird' parts. Despite this, we will aim to use a uniform and constant colour palette throughout so that our opening feels complete and whole. 
We also wanted to include themes of mental illness in our opening as in addition to this being a common theme in thriller films, we also wanted to give a more accurate representation of this than in the films etc we have come across before. Non-diegetic sound will get louder throughout the opening to metaphorically show her deteriorating mental state.
The opening will end with a shot of the girl in a hospital, presumably because of her mental illness and how it has been affected by the events before, leaving the audience intrigued as to what will happen to her. 

Preliminary Task

For our preliminary task, we had to include certain film techniques such as a match on action and a shot-reverse-shot. We decided to create more of a story around these in order ton show our ability as well as making the video more interesting.

Storyboard

We planned out the footage we needed to film by drawing a storyboard:



In each frame we drew, we needed to indicate any action taking place in this shot using arrows, for example when I am walking across the room, there is an arrow pointing in the direction of the media suite.
In addition to this, we wrote the duration and type of shot, whether it was interior or exterior, the action in the shot and sound effects we would add to it. We also stated that we would be using straight cuts for every transition.

Filming

We filmed our preliminary task in chronological order, excluding the tracking shots, close ups of me looking shocked and the shot-reverse-shot. For this we filmed all of my parts first, getting closer to my face in order to maintain the angle at which we filmed from, then repeated this for Molly. This was because another group were also filming in the same room, so we had to wait until they had completed shooting all their footage in order to not break the continuity of their video.

For most shots we filmed using a phone on a tripod to ensure that the footage was not shaky and therefore looked professional. However, for the tracking shots, we did not have a dolly or any alternative so we decided that we would get the best results from just walking with the phone off of the tripod. 

Editing

The editing process for our preliminary task consisted of cutting together the sections that we did not film in order, adding in non-diegetic sound (dramatic music) and making sure that the diegetic sound obtained from the original video was loud enough and uninterrupted. For some shots we had to use sound from discarded footage as it was clearer and so we had to fit it correctly to the action. 

When editing together shots we also had to make sure that we matched the action so that the video flowed and looked like it was filmed all in one take. To do this we just lined up the action of the last few frames of a shot with the first few of the next. We also added some animation to the part where I looked shocked in order to create more tension within the scene. At this point, we darkened the colour to create drama and left it this way up until I walk back out of the media suite door at the end.

Film Opening Credits Research

In a recent media lesson we watched the openings of three different films; Trainspotting, Amelie and Halloween. We created visual diagrams showing the diegetic and non-diegetic sound, editing, camera work, mise-en-scene and how it relates to the atmosphere of the scene. This was so that we could gain ideas on how to create our own film openings professionally and effectively for the genre that we choose. 

Trainspotting:

genre: drama/crime

notes: The opening begins with a short establishing shot of a Glasgow street before a man runs into the frame. This immediately raises the tension as the audience is wondering who/what he is running from. Cross-cuts are used to the characters and main themes of the film. The main character narrates the entire opening to background music that fits its fast tempo (both non-diegetic sound). It also stops on shots of new characters to show their nicknames, which draws the audience's attention to them.
A shaky travelling shot is used whilst the character Mark Renton is running to reflect the hectic feel of the clip. 
The opening ends with the protagonist falling to the floor with smoke coming out of his mouth which invites the audience to be curious as to what will happen next, thereby drawing them in. 

Amelie:

genre: drama/romance

notes: This film begins with yellow titles on a black background which makes them stand out, drawing the eye to them. These cut to an establishing shot of what could be assumed to be a typical french street. A car then comes into frame, beginning the action of the scene and setting a calm and slow pace for the rest of the opening. This moves various shots of different scenes, said to all be happening at the same time by the voiceover throughout, followed by a time lapse of Amelie's pregnant mother and Amelie being born. The names of the main actors and actresses in red are then placed onto a yellow background. The use of contrasting colours again draws attention to these. The scene then cuts to the main title in the same colours but reversed. 

After this there are clips of Amelie as a child doing different activities such as playing with dominos and eating. 

Halloween:

genre: horror/slasher

notes: The opening begins with a long shot of the house in which the first scene takes place, indicating that the film is set in a suburban area. The shot travels to the right to a window through which the audience can see a man and a woman on a sofa. 
Some tension is created when the lights in the window suddenly turn off. Darkness has connotations of fear and horror and so the audience will then expect something scary to happen.
The camera follows the villain from a POV shot through the house, which increases tension further as we are anticipating something, without knowing what this is. We also see him pick up a knife, which immediately tells us that he could be dangerous.
The entire scene is set at night which is typical of a film of this genre.
The clip ends with a shot panning outwards of a child holding a knife standing in front of his parents. This has a cliff-hanger effect and makes the audience want to keep watching as they do not know what has happened or why, but enough of the narrative was revealed to interest them.