Task 2: Research into existing products

Romantic Comedies

Conventions

• Love theme introduction
• Credits - style of text (hearts, flowers, wedding bells)
• Boy meets girl
• Hesitant to get into a relationhip
• Good love match
• Break up due to argument/disagreement
• Reunite
• Live hapily ever after

Pretty women

I will be analysing the opening sequence of a romantic comedy called pretty women. First of we hear a non diagetic sound of a piano playing in the background throughout the whole event. Pianos are usually played into high class events so we know that the party is held for someone important. Next we get a close up shot of a man hand entertaining some women with magic tricks. The man is using real gold to perform the magic tricks so we know that the guests are very rich and important people. Next we get medium shot of Edward dressed in a black suit talk on the phone to a women. The black suit fits in with the mise en scene as the scene is taken place in someone’s mansion that is located in a rich part of town. The black suit tells us that he is also a very important and the fact that everyone is running around him tells me that the party is for him. We always get a medium shot of Edward throughout the opening sequence witch tells me that he is the most important thing in that scene as you can only see some of the background. Edward is seen driving off a sports car that belongs to someone else. These shows how important he is as people cant say no to him. A bird’s eye view shot is taken of Edward driving the car and by the looks of it he is not a very good driver. This goes back to the mise en scene of being rich as we get the idea that he is driven to places rather than him driving himself. Next we see a contrast as we move from a rich area to somewhere that is lower class. A close up shot of two people’s hand exchanging drugs for money is shown which then moves up to their faces. They are wearing leather gloves and caps which is a complete contrast to the suits that were worn in the party. We also get a long shot of two women standing on the pavement all dressed up waiting for someone. We instantly get the idea that they are prostitutes. We also see graffiti on the shutters behind them which sums up what kind of area it is. A long shot of a sign that says hotel is shown. The letters HO are lighted up but the rest of the letters are not. This gives us the idea that the main female character in this film is going to be a hoe. Next we get a close up shit of a woman in her knickers and we straight away know that she is a prostitute as we hear diagetic sound of an alarm ringing at 8:55 meaning that she has been asleep throughout the day and is waking up now. We then get a close up shot of her pictures with the males faces crossed out. This gives an insight into the characters life and we get the feeling that her relationships have not ended well. A close up shot of her zipping up her boots is shown but she is zipping it up with a safety pin. This shows that she is not very rich. Furthermore we see the camera flick between the two characters which gives us the idea that they are going to meet very shortly. This film is a Cinderella story and follows the conventions of a classic romantic comedy.

Horror

Conventions

• Evil
• Blood
• Gore
• Villain cannot be killed at first attempt.
• Usually has a Halloween theme to it
• Main character is often a women
• Lots of murders
• Weapons
• Intended to make the audience scared
• Credits are often in red and white with creepy font

Scream

The film begins with the word SCREAM in a creepy font shown on the screen. The font is white to begin with but changes to red and also we can hear a women screaming and the sound of a knife slicing something. The white font turning into red which symbolises blood and the women screaming in the background tells us that women are the prey. Also the sound of a knife slicing something gives us the idea that a knife will be involved in killing his victims. So far the opening few seconds tell us a lot about the film and it follows the conventions of a classic horror. In the first scene we hear diagetic sound of the phone ringing. We then go to a close up shot of the women’s hand picking up the phone which then moves towards her face. We hear a mysterious voice over the phone and as she is talking to him the camera moves towards the left where we can see a full glass door. This gives the impression that she is being watched. In the next scene the camera is taken outside and we can hear crickets in the background. This tells the audience that she is in the middle of nowhere and there aren’t any houses near hers as you wouldn’t hear crickets in the city. Next we see the women make some popcorn when the phone rings again and it’s the same mysterious voice. He flirts with her for a bit and we get a medium shot of her pulling a knife out of the knife holder. Also we see the popcorn getting bigger and bigger but she doesn’t seem to notice as she is distracted by the mysterious man. We then get a medium shot of her walking from the kitchen to the living room. The mysterious man asks what her name is and when she replied why he said because he wanted to know who is looking at. From there the medium shot of her zooms in to a close up of her face where we can see hear facial expression. Clearly at this point she scared and in the background we can hear a dog barking. This tells us that someone is outside as the dog would not bark for no reason. We start to hear non diagetic sounds in the background and we see a medium shot of her locking the door and stitching the lights on outside. Next we get a close up shot of the popcorn getting even bigger and are starting to pop. This starts to build tension and we could just feel something bad is going to happen. The phone rings again and now the mysterious man is really angry and says if she hangs up again he will cut her up like a fish. She is really scared now and the music starts to get more intense as we see a medium tracking shot of the camera following her around the house making sure all the doors are locked. The music stops when she locks all the doors. This is done to make audience feel that she is safe as all the doors are locked but they have another thing coming. We see that she is terrified and all of a sudden the door bell rings which makes her jump and before she could call the police she gets another phone call from the mysterious man which also makes her jump. The mysterious man is playing with her and soon we know that he is going to kill her. Also the opening sequence of the film does not really follow the conventions of a horror as we don’t see any blood and people getting killed but we know that it is going to happen at some stage.

Thriller

Conventions

• Music plays a big role in building up suspense
• The identity of the villain is kept a secret
• Quick cuts
• Opening and closing credits follow thriller theme
• Shots are taken from strange angles
• Many twists in the storyline
• Dark lighting and locations are used
• Weather is used to influence mood
  
  I watched the film Se7en in class and I will be analysing opening sequence of the film. First off we se a medium shot of a person in a shirt. We don’t see the face yet so we get the indication that this person could be one of the main characters in the film. We finally see his face as he does his tie. Next a close up shot of his hands picking up his police badge from the table is shown. We get the indication that he is quite an important person as he dresses formally. Next scene we see is a medium shot of a dead women lying on the floor where the camera moves up from her legs to her head. We see that he is a workaholic and that he doesn’t like working with people. Next we see a long shot of him in bed which starts to zoom in. He can’t go to sleep and is maybe thinking of who the murderer could be. The next scene we see is a extreme close up shot of someone turning the pages of an empty book. The hands are out of focus and we hear non diagetic sound of thunder in the background. The book is blank and we get the idea that the person may keep a record of all his/her kills. The credits show up next with creepy font and disturbing music playing. Also we see an extreme close up shot of a person peeling off their fingertips with a blade. This tells us that this person is insane but clever and by cutting his/her fingertips the police won’t be able to catch him. An extreme close up shot of the person cutting out pictures and letters to the police would not be able to recognise his/her handwriting. Throughout the scene we do not see who this person is and this puts the audience at the edge of their seats as they want to know who the person is. Music plays a big role in thrillers and it was no different in this film as the music is very disturbing and creepy. This also fits in with the killer as the things he/she is doing is very disturbing to watch.