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

I've chosen nine still frames from our opening sequences that I believe develop or challenge forms and conventions of the fantasy genre.

Frame one: Use of costume and props

In this frame you can see two of the main characters in our film, Alice to the right and Rosie to the left. The costumes we chose reflect the era in which our films set in - the 60's. We did a lot of research into our costumes, Rosie's costume consists of a cream blouse and black dress with her hair in a half up and down style. Alice is wearing denim like button up skirt with a vintage looking blouse which really ties in with the era our film is set in.Both of the costumes were chosen as they portrayed the age of the characters, young teenagers from the 1960’s.

For the most part of our opening sequence the only person to be visible is Alice riding her bike through country roads and paths. Alice’s bike is the only prop used in the opening. Luckily we had access to a bike that looked like it was from the 60’s, the era in which our film is set in.

Frame two: Creating the enigma

It’s important to show enigma in our opening as our film’s genre is thriller/fantasy. We created the enigma by fading Rosie in and out of the shots she’s in to make the audience intrigued. This also creates a mystery around her as a character. Our story is quite complicated to portray in the opening as Alice is in fact a ghost rather than alive, but by showing Rosie fading in and out it gives the impression there’s a difference between the two characters.

Frame three: On location

This image shows where the majority of our opening sequence was filmed. Our sequence starts with Alice going on a journey on her bike to meet her friend in their favourite place. This long remote pathway is located in Glinton, which is not too far from our school. We chose this location as its surrounded by greenery and not many people are around which made it fit perfectly into our opening as we couldn’t show anything that wouldn’t have been around in the 60’s. There is a round to the right but as we aren’t using any audio from our clip it doesn’t matter.

Our second location is small field near to one of our group member’s house. It was a clear open field making it perfect for the part of our opening where Rosie and Alice meet up. It also shows Rosie is a secret to Alice as she doesn’t want to be around people with her.

Frame four: Font

We use the same font throughout the opening sequence until our title at the end, but the colours are consistent. Most films keep their fonts consistent therefore we chose to do this too. We chose a black and white theme to portray the era our sequence is set in. The white stands out against the darker colours in the shots which creates a contrast.

Frame five: Portraying the genre

The genre we based our opening around is thriller/fantasy. We portray the genre in many different ways throughout the sequence. Firstly, the entire film is shot in black and white; we chose this because it’s set in the 60’s however it also adds a sense of mystery. Flashbacks are also used in our opening which many other thriller films use. We thought it would be a good way to show the story of Alice’s life and what it’s become. When Rosie fades in and out of shots shows an element of the fantasy genre as it would suggest she’s not your average person. The tone of the voice in the narration paints a dark place in your mind giving the sense of a thriller. The field in which they both sit in is quite secluded which shows they shut themselves off from the world, making them ‘abnormal’.

Frame six: Introducing characters

One of the main characters in our opening sequence is shown right at the beginning biking along a pathway. Her character is introduced through both written and symbolic codes. The characters actresses name appear on screen at the same moment shes passing by on her bike, this gives the audience the impress it's the characters name. Alice is featured in every shot apart from the black bird at the beginning this implies she quite an important character. The second character to be introduced in the opening sequence is Rosie. Rosie fades into shot which creates a mystery around her character and presence. The characters are also introduced through the use of narration, Alice - the voice the narration - explains her past and who Rosie is. This gives the audience an insight into who the characters are.

Frame seven: Editing and camerawork

Our opening sequence includes a variety of shots, angles and editing techniques. The shot shows a blackbird flying across the sky, to do this we used panning. This is quite effective as the song we chose is about a blackbird therefore we wanted a shot that would tie both the music and image together. From then on wards the majority of Alice whilst biking are long, we used this to show our prop - the bike. Once Alice and Rosie meet we alternated between two shots and over-the-shoulders shots to show their friendship and conversation. 

For editing we mostly used the cross fade transition as we thought it went well with the image we were trying to portray. Alongside the cross fade transition we used both dip to white and black as these transitions fit in with our colour scheme throughout.

Frame eight: How the story is set up

The main story line of our film is Alice telling the story of her past and how she came to die. However we didn't want to give away in the beginning that Alice was dead, therefore we chose to tell her story through use of narration. We gave subtle hints about Alice's death for instance in the scene with Alice and Rosie, Rosie fades which creates a mystery around that character. The narration used also hints that Alice isn't Alice by using the past tense to explain her life.

Frame nine: Title of our film 'Her Name is Alice'

Our film title is at the end of our sequence, we did this in order to tie the narration with the titles on the screen. The last line of the narration is 'So let me tell you a story, my name is Alice' therefore we thought our title should be shown whilst the last line is read to create an impact and makes it stand out.

The style of title we chose to use is very simple and sticks to the colour scheme of our film, black and white. We used black and white throughout to portray the era our film is set in - the 60's.The font chosen also links with the other font we used, they were both white with similar styles.Another reason why its good to use a simple background is it doesn't give to much away about the film, meaning the audience would want to continue watching. Also this means the title is the main focus as there is nothing around it to distract you.

The lovely bones is a fantasy film, just like ours. Their film title is rather similar in layout and colour. We took inspiration from this title because as a group we really liked it.