Evaluation question 1.

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

Typical conventions of a film opening: 

• Titles
• Studio and production logos
• Establishing key characters and locations
• Non-diegetic and diegetic sounds (Narration, speech, music, etc.)
• Defining the genre
• Defining shots (Fast cuts for action films, slow and extended takes for horror films) 
• Enigma

Typical conventions of our genre:

• Weapons/Gadgets
• Introductions to key characters through certain scenes or narrative
• A team of two people, a smart one and an idiot. Usually the good guys but sometimes the bad guys
• fast music and non-diegetic sound behind dialogue and diegetic sound
• Fast cars
• Sarcastic humor
• Dry humor
• Dark humor
• Slapstick humor
• Enigma
• Bold titles 
• A Femme Fatale

In our movie opening we used a large amount of the conventions of our genre as well as a few that are not typical of the genre. The main character is introduced, however this 

could be considered as us challenging the conventions as usually the main character would be introduced in some sort of dialogue or narration, while we have used a freeze frame with the characters name over laid on top of the screen. However the piece itself raises enigma about the character, other than his name, who is he? what is he doing tied up? and things along these lines, this goes alone with the fact he is being chased by two people. The two people also raise enigma, who are they and why are they chasing the main character? We have challenged the general conventions of action/comedies as we have had the two bad guys as the team of two people instead of their being a sort of best friend mechanic between two main characters. This mimics the film 'Paul' as the two bad guys in that, one is trying to be professional while the other is an idiot. In the original idea for the opening we were going to have a female portray the main characters partner or the boss of the bad guys, however due to certain reasons we could not go along with this.

Our locations challenge the conventions of action/comedy's,

 as most of them usually feature the opening in a busy city, 

etc. (Hot fuzz, Bad boys) and our locations feature a rundown

 building and what would be considered farm lands and country side. 

This once again challenges conventions and raises enigma by making the audience ask where are the events taking place? The gloomy interrogation room is more reminiscent of a horror film, with sharp objects and chains hanging in the background, this is where we add some conventions from other genres into this one. We felt it made it more effective and partly shows what would have been in store for him if he had never escaped. The use of weapons in our piece is minimal but in the scenes featuring the bad guys, guns are usually visible as well as right at the end when the main character and bad guys pull guns on each other. This shows the action genre as well as raising enigma about who the characters are again and as to why they have guns, etc.  

Our comedy comes in the form of almost slapstick like comedy, funny costumes and the moment when one of the bad guys fall over. Small parts like this in action/comedy film openings help set the genre as well as define the fact that there will be serious moments combined with funny moments.

We placed music over the top of the majority of the opening to set the seen and the genre more clearly, using fast paced music and fast cuts it made it obvious that the film was an action one. We did not use many diegetic sounds other than some speech at the beggining and end. This is in a contrast to the opening of 'Hot Fuzz' where there isent much music, however there is a large amount of non-diegetic sound as the main character narrates what has happened. Therefor our opening still challenges some conventions regarding sound in comedy films, however for action films with something happening in the opening there is usually music which builds up to the climax in the opening, for us it is the standoff. 

When thinking of our opening we thought about films like Bad Boys and Hot Fuzz, both feature different types of openings but in the actual movies there is a varied use of things we have used (e.g. Montages and Chases) These things are almost typical of action/comedies, along with the fact that the setting for Hot fuzz, in the countryside, gave us ideas for where to set our piece. 

Our opening has challenged and met different conventions, as well as having parts of a conventions but changing it to suit the video. We have the two in a group mechanic but it is changed in the fact that it is the bad guys in the group, while the good guy is by himself. The fast music and opening itself is reminiscent of some action films, and not all comedy films, showing that we have focused on action more.