In what ways does your media product use, develop or

challenge forms and conventions of real media

products?

Researching recent products before I began to come up with film ideas improved my

understanding of the typical forms and conventions of real media products in the spy-thriller

genre from early 1900’s to modern day. Sky fall is a well-known modern spy-thriller which I chose

to analyse in depth looking at camera shots and mise en scene within its opening title sequence

to help me with my film ideas. I took aspects of lighting such as the low key eerie lighting to use in

the opening of the searching of the weapon scene to add to the mystery of the sequence.

However other films I briefly analysed at were Casino Royale, Salt and A Walk Amongst the

Tombstones. Altogether, by analysing the opening scenes to these films and doing extra research

on the genre itself, I found that the typical conventions of spy-thrillers are:

The narrative will usually cover up important information from the viewer to create secrecy. The film will show danger a character faces Todorov’s narrative theory will be shown throughout the film. Flashbacks/flash forwards are

sometimes used Sound is used to build up suspense and set the mood for the film. Low key lighting is used The setting is usually based in a normal environment or even a woods/forest as it creates an

eerie atmosphere Shadows Reaction shots Fast/short cuts all together Transitions Flashbacks/flash forwards

Title of film and NarrativeWe decided to name the film Project Pursuit as it memorable, catchy and also because the name of the weapon is called this. Also, the name of the film usually links to the narrative/props/characters such as in Skyfall, the house where James Bond grew up was called Skyfall and also in Salt, the Agents name was Agent Salt so we thought we would link the title to the narrative for it to make sense to the audience. We originally called the film Project Nemesis but feedback from our focus group made us rethink it and link it more to our film. The title of the film appears in between the chase scene and the normality scene to make it clear that they are two different time periods. The title is presented during blood splattering on the screen which foreshadows potential death in the film. The font of the title isn’t want we originally wanted as we wanted a coded text due to wanting to create a semantic field of codes and mystery. However, we couldn’t transfer a coded font from anywhere and Final Cut Pro didn’t have it therefore, we had to rethink what we were going to use. We then went back and looked at other opening title sequences and we were inspired to use a bold block font after looking at Sky fall. Skyfall’s font is in white however, we changed it to black to again foreshadow danger in the opening scene and film. We used a similar font style and placed it in the middle of the shot to suggest to the audience it is a serious film with important people.

As I researched opening credits, I found a film called Panic Room which had its opening credits positioned in large 3D text within the setting. We thought this would be good for our opening scene as it is quite unique therefore it make our film different from a lot of other spy-thrillers and attract a wider audience. We didn’t make the text large or 3D as we had action going on in the shots unlike Panic room but it worked well for us as we still managed to position some credits against walls and ledges to fit in with the conventions of spy-thrillers and make it look as though it is hiding to portray mystery within the film.

As our opening scene is too short to involve all the stages of Todorov’s narrative theory, we only have equilibrium at the start where everything is as it should be then a disruption. This is because if the whole narrative theory was involved, the opening scene would give too much away. The disruption is when Agent Logan starts following Agent Boyer in a point of view shot and it is shown by the volume of the soundtrack increasing to create thrill for the audience. The short cut transitions which are used at the beginning of the chase scene are used to compliment the action in the shots and keep the audience on the edge of their seats and guessing what is about to happen. Also, considering the binary opposition theory discovered by Levi Strauss, we used good Vs evil in our opening scene as it was between the protagonist and antagonist. We did this because in spy-thrillers, there is always a protagonist and antagonist against each other especially in the James Bond films such as in Skyfall with James Bond and Silva.

Panic room Project Pursuit

Camera shots/movementI looked at camera shots and camera movement in A Walk Amongst the Tombstones and Salt as this enabled me to see what type of shots are often used in spy/thrillers/spy-thrillers which would help me take inspiration for my opening sequence.

Altogether, we used a range of shots for our opening scene such as point of view shots, follow shots, pan shots, static shots, long shots, low and high angle shots, side shots, a close up and a mid shot which follow conventions of real media products such as Salt and A Walk Amongst the Tombstones. At the beginning of the opening sequence, Agent Boyer was introduced first to suggest to the audience she is the most significant character in the film, this is common in most films. We didn’t reveal her identity until a bit further into the opening sequence as we wanted to intrigue the audience. When her identity was being hidden, we used a static low mid shot of Agent Boyer’s legs walking in a ‘sexy’ way towards the camera. We did this as we wanted to apply the male gaze theory so the film would appeal to men and make them want to watch it as they will think there will be more of that further on in the film. We also used a pan shot to show her feet walking. The purpose of this shot wasn’t just to keep her identity a secret, but to show her costume as she was wearing heeled boots. A heel is seen as sexy and also glamorous which is how we wanted to portray Agent Boyer, but the boot suggests she is ready for action which shows the spy-thriller genre. The heels were inspired by that in the film Salt as Agent Salt’s representation is similar to the way we want to represent Agent Boyer- sexy and glamorous but also strong and independent to challenge the female stereotypes

We used a cheat cut when Agent Logan was first introduced as we felt the shot would have been too long if we showed him walking all the way towards the camera and the audience would have become bored, therefore we cut it shorter and created a cheat cut to show the distance he had walked. Not only did we do it to stop the audience from becoming bored, we deleted it before hand and then added it back in as we needed a clear view for the audience to see Agent Logan watching Agent Boyer picking up the key for the opening sequence to make sense. A cheat shot was used in A Walk Amongst the Tombstones trailer as when the main character walked through the door of the café, there was a fade to black transition and then him about to sit down therefore, we knew it wouldn’t confuse the audience if we also did this.

A Walk Amongst the Tombstones

In the film Salt, close ups were used to show facial expressions. However, as we wanted to keep our characters identities a secret at the start, we decided to use a close up of a key rather than their faces to show the audience what Agent Boyer was doing because otherwise they would have been confused as to why Agent Boyer walked over to the black box for no reason. It was also difficult trying to film a close up of the characters faces whilst they were running as we didn’t have the equipment to do so.

Salt

In A Walk Amongst the Tombstones trailer, there were a lot of long shots which we took inspiration from. In the trailer, they were used to show what the character was doing, however we used them in our opening scene to show what the characters were wearing- to show their high class and status, to also show the pace of their running to show action and to create an intense mood which are conventions of the spy-thriller genre.

Another shot which was often used in this trailer was a point of view shot. We used this shot as we thought it would create a sense of realism and suspense which is a key convention of spy-thrillers as it also involves the audience as they can see what the character is seeing.

Also, we did a high angle shot of the characters running so we can see how far away Agent Logan is from Agent Boyer. In A Walk amongst the Tombstones this shot was used in low key lighting. We shot them in high key natural light as we wanted the distance between the characters to be clear as the aim was to let the audience see how far away Agent Logan was from Agent Boyer to help start and build up the tension to make the audience nervous as what is to come. This is because in most chase scenes such as in Salt, the person chasing nearly always catches the person in front to build tension for the audience.

SoundIn our opening scene we used a fast paced non diegetic sound track over the sequence to match similar media products chase scenes such as in Inception and Reservoir dogs. We knew that the music had to be fast paced for the chase scene to be intense but we wanted the pace and volume to increase up to the chase scene to create tension for the audience. However, the track we chose called Man eater was quite fast paced throughout so to make it calm but also suspense filling leading up to the chase scene, we edited it to make a repeated sound similar to a chime to be in sync with Agent Boyer’s footsteps. We also used Final Cut Pro to find non diegetic sounds to make our sequence more realistic such as a phone ringing and hanging up which we used for the normality scene. The Final Cut Pro software also allowed us to cut, copy and paste the diegetic ambient sound in the normality shot to fill up silent shots as in the process, we learnt there is never a silent shot in a film.

There are parts in the opening scene where the volume of the sound increases for a second to make the audience jump. This was the case in the shot when Agent Logan was first shown. This makes the audience aware that Agent Logan is the antagonist as he is automatically introduced in a negative way due to the sound being loud and sudden. There was also a point in the chase scene when the sounds volume went lower when both characters went separate routes. We did this as we wanted the audience asking questions as to why it suddenly went calm from being so dramatic and tense. It is stereotypical for the characters to go separate ways in a chase scene to catch one of them; however, we slightly challenged this stereotype with the music. We made the music calmer when usually in chase scenes such as in James Bond films, the music goes dramatically louder to leave the audience on the edge of their seats rather than feeling confused. We challenged spy-thriller sound conventions because we left the audience feeling confused as we wanted them to be surprised rather than on the edge of their seats as mystery is a common convention in spy-thrillers.

EditingDuring editing, we added in transitions, sound and edited shots together such as putting together match on action shots to ensure the sequence was continuous to create a realistic opening scene. We used fast short cuts in the chase scene by using the blade tool to cut the shots down to the size we wanted to show fast paced action to give the audience a never ending feeling of when it is going to end. We also used jump cuts at the beginning and end to show the distance Agent Logan moved to speed up the action as some of the shots were too long and the audience would have become bored. To make sure we got the jump cuts right, we practiced them as a group by filming us running and walking then editing them by cutting out certain parts. The jump cuts were effective at the end of the chase scene as they suggest speed and determination of Agent Logan wanting to catch Agent Boyer which is stereotypical of a male character. The transitions we used were: a fade to black transition at the start of the flash forward to make it clear to the audience that it is a flash forward and also a dissolve transition in the middle of the chase scene to show time had passed and that the audience know the characters have ended up in a different location. I took the inspiration from Salt for this transition as it included it in both its opening scene and trailer.

We didn’t use any special effects in our opening scene as we didn’t have the equipment to do so but also because there wasn’t any need for them.

Mise en sceneCostumes are a large part of conventional mise en scene in spy-thrillers such as for showing the class of the characters and the role they play e.g. protagonist. Agent Boyer is wearing heels to represent her as sexy and a smart black outfit complete with a blazer to show her high class, and feminine side. The inspiration for this costume was taken from Agent Salts costume in Salt as she was represented as an independent and sexy women by wearing heeled boots which is what we wanted to achieve through Agent Boyer’s costume. Agent Logan is wearing a suit to look smart which is stereotypical for a male spy as it suggests importance and professionalism. The inspiration for Agent Logan’s costume was taken from the James bond film. Even though James Bond is a protagonist and Agent Logan is an antagonist, we still wanted to portray him as a stereotypical strong and professional Agent which is what James Bond is. Linking to editing, we wanted to make the opening scene continuous by colour matching some shots of Agent Logan as the first shot he appears in is blue. We colour matched the shot after this to blue as well as we want to suggest to the audience that Agent Logan is mysterious and full of secrets, which he is as these are the connotations of the colour blue.

James Bond Agent Logan

Agent BoyerAgent Salt

As we were basing our opening scene in our local area to create a sense of normality, we decided to film the searching of the weapon scene in a car park. The lighting there was very low key but this was good as spy-thrillers mainly have low key lighting throughout. Luckily, when filming the shots weren’t pitching black as we had artificial lighting coming from the ceiling lights. They were a yellow light which made the lighting quite eerie with benefited us as this helped to achieve the lighting conventions in the spy-thriller genre. However, the chase scene had very high key lighting due to natural light coming from the sun. We decided to film in the day and have this type of lighting as a lot of spy-thrillers have chase scenes in the day such as Skyfall and Salt as the action that causes it usually happens in the daytime. The lighting we used also brought a sense of realism to the sequence as the audience can see the surroundings of an everyday place. It would have also been difficult to film outside at night and be able to see the shots and for it also not to look like a horror film.

We didn’t use any deliberate props apart from the ‘weapon’ which we had to switch for a key as we found

out that if we were to use a fake plastic gun in public, we could have been arrested. However, it worked to

our benefit as the key suggests secrecy which contributes to the semantic field of mystery in our opening

scene. Also, there were cars in the setting which we expected as we were filming in a car park but it made

the sequence look realistic as it is a ‘normal’, everyday setting. However, it was difficult to film with these

props are they kept moving in and out of spaces which meant we had to keep re filming as we wanted to

make the sequence as continuous as possible.

Overall, our narrative contains a lot of conventions in the spy thriller genre:

Suspense is created through the use of dramatic music and low key lighting.

Action is shown through the use of short cuts and fast paced music

Realism is created by the setting being a local, ‘normal’ environment

A sex icon is used to attract a wider male audience- male gaze theory

It includes a flash forward

It includes a chase scene to show action in the spy genre

It involves secrecy by not revealing identities at the beginning

It has a semantic field of mystery- key, identities not being revealed, characters going

separate ways, mysterious phone call for Agent Boyer in the flash forward