1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of film openings)

Title: Bitter Youth

The title of the film 'Bitter Youth' is symbolic of how his childhood was bitter and he was never treated equally to those around him. The troubles of his youth have been carried over into his adulthood and will be present for the rest of his life. This sends the message to the audience that everything has an effect on you. The title represents the film well as it sends a message to the audience that it will not be a storyline filled with light-hearted characters. The plot consists of a bitter character who is trailing his emotions along with him and every action he takes. The title is presented in black on a black and white shot. This fits with the genre of Psychological Thriller as it creates confusion as it is not a bright and natural colour.

Setting and Location: We set our film in a church and in a basement. These are both settings which fit with the typical conventions of a psychological thriller film as they are vulnerable and eerie feeling locations. We used the basement as the ‘stalker’s’ place to collect all his images of Sammie, the girl he stalks. This is a private location in his home where nobody would choose to look, this connotes his love which has been undiscovered by anyone else but him as it is underground. The church is used to symbolise Sammie’s purity as she is dedicated to god. The location of this shot is in a basement which is in his house. This makes the relationship between the stalker and his board of photos and his time with 'Sammie' intimate. The mise-en-scene in this shot is filled with cardboard boxes which are suggested to be filled with other images that the stalker has taken. This adds to the genre of Psychological Thriller as it makes the viewer question what they are seeing which creates confusion.

Costume and Props: Sammie wore a dark coloured coat and trousers contrasting with a pastel coloured top to symbolise how the core of her was pure but her stalker was corrupting the outside of her by becoming possessive and stalking her.

The stalker wore a baggy black t-shirt, trainers and jeans to symbolise how he wanted to cover himself up and remain unnoticed so ensure that he would not be suspected of stalking Sammie. The dark coloured clothing represented his dark and obsessive personality.

The naturalistic clothing shows how normal the stalker attempts to feel around Sammie however this is contradicted by the soul purpose of his stalking.

We used a board covered in photos of Sammie to clearly represent that she was being stalked. We used a Polaroid photo which the stalker shook to symbolise how he was shaking Sammie’s life and recreating it to what he wanted it to be through his own eyes.
The sun was setting in this scene which darkened the shot. This left it looking like some colouring had been drawn out of the shot however it continued to look natural. This links to the conventions of a Psychological Thriller as it is natural but is used to the it's advantage in the shot.

Camerawork and editing: We used a Cannon 300D camera, a tripod and an apple mac computer to film and edit our opening sequence. When filming in the church we didn't not use a tripod as we wanted it to be like the eye view of the stalker. We decided that it would create a more naturalistic view from the audience if we allowed the camera to move with the camera person. When filming in the basement we used a tripod in contrast to the corrupted mind of the stalker and how normal he looked when being shown from a distance. We used a variety of shots, including an over the shoulder shot to compare with how the stalker would look if he was being followed. 

We used an apple mac to edit our film together using the iMovie application. This allowed us to experiment with various effects and titles. These are shown in other frames we have used. We liked the idea used in the film 'One Hour Photo' with the stalker stood infront of his wall of photos with his back to the camera. We used this idea but changed it to an over the shoulder shot from behind the character.
The close ups we used in our opening sequence, particularly in this shot are commonly used in  psychological thriller films. For example, Momento, uses close ups in the opening sequence which is where we took our inspiration from for some of the camera work we used.

Title font and Style: We used a plain, standard font to symbolise the simplicity of Sammie’s life. This paired with the black and white colours used connoted the contrasting lives of Sammie and her stalker. The black represented the dark and corrupted life of the stalker and the white represented the pure and innocent life of Sammie.  The title is dragged across the screen on the talkers hand. This represents how he drags his feelings for Sammie and his obsession over her into everything that he does.

Story and how the opening sets it up: The story we chose for our film would be that the stalker would have known Sammie since they were children, however they had grown apart. The stalker kills everyone around Sammie in attempt to gain a closer friendship with her again when her loved ones die. The opening sets this up as it shows the stalker following her wherever she goes and also covering a board with photos of her from various points throughout her life. The church is also symbolic of this as there is a graveyard outside, where they will return to at various points throughout the film as each friend of Sammie dies.

We used a low angle shot to define the film as being about a stalker and how a girl if being followed by someone. The non-naturalistic heights for a person to be watching someone from a low angle which shows his strong obsession as he is willing to lower himself to be around her.

Genre and how the opening suggests it: The opening suggests the genre as the music builds tension but also misleads the viewer. The diegetic music in the church endorses calmness which builds confusion as it contrasts with the negative plot. The confined settings in which we filmed our opening sequence represented the confined mind of a mentally unstable person, alike the stalker. These all suggest the genre as a psychological thriller creates confusion and builds tension without attempting to mimic a horror movie.

The black and white shots in the opening sequence automatically draw the audience in as they are contrasting to the naturalistic film they would usually watch. The typical psychological conventions aim to confuse the audience which is what we wanted to develop when changing the colour and speed of some shots.

How characters are introduced: Sammie is introduced when she walks into the church; this immediately creates an innocent, caring person as she is dedicated to god. This also suggests that she is reliable as she showcases her commitment to something.

The stalker is introduced through an extreme close up of his eye. This immediately suggests that he is going to be at the forefront of the plot as he is shown in an intimate view. As the stalker is shown from various angles in his basement, the audience are shown that from all angles, he is completely dedicated and obsessed with Sammie as he doesn’t remove himself from concentrating on her throughout the opening sequence. The gap in the doorway to where Sammie is sat represents how the stalker is only an onlooker on her life and not directly involved with her. The close proximity to her is symbolic of their close friendship in their childhood which had been pulled apart as they entered their teenage years. The mise-en-scene in this shot contains a typical church. This worked in our favour because a film in the Psychological Thriller genre typically has a setting which the viewer can relate to or that is believable to them but have something abnormal occurring in it.

 Special Effects: We used special effects in our opening to add to our genre of a Psychological Thriller. We used transitions between each shot to allow the sequence to be more aesthetically pleasing which means that the viewer will want to watch the entire film. We used stop motion for our final credit of who directed the sequence. We used a Vignette effect on the sequence to create an eerie feeling. This brought back the non-naturalistc feel of the sequence as some parts have their colour removed to represent the stalkers mind. He was deprived of feeling and happiness when he was young which has been brought into his adulthood. Alike the colour being washed out of some shots. The corners of the shot were turned black when we used this effect, this symbolised the dark circle the stalker wraps around Sammie who is represented by the paler centre, throughout the film. The use of newspaper cuttings for letters in this shot is used to create a threatening feel towards the audience, as if they are being watched also and brought into the film. This is a convention of the Psychological Thriller genre as it indirectly involves the viewer.
Our inspiration for this special effect came from the film Se7en, where in the video link at 2 minutes it shows a word being removed from a bank note. We took a more non-naturalistic approach with this and used stop motion using the entire screen with a clutter use of the mise-en-scene and simply varied black and white lighting.