How does your opening title sequence use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our OTS was inspired by many other films and we incorporated aspects of these films into our opening title sequence. However, in places, we do challenge and develop conventions. Here is a video showing you some examples of our chosen conventions in our Opening Title Sequence.
Here we have explained each convention, what films they come from and why we have chosen to use, develop or challenge the convention.
Using Conventions
- Convention 1: "low key" Lighting -
- In our Opening TitleSequence we chose to use the idea of low key lighting. This is a simple light source, making the OTS quite dark. Our single light source of choice was lit Candles in the basement and dim lights in the house. This was a convention used in The Conjuring (2013). We chose to use this convention because it created a deeper atmosphere throughout our Horror.
- Convention 2: Fonts and Colouring -
- The titles in our Opening Title Sequence we a dark red, using the font 'Times New Roman. This was like the font and colouring in The Last Exorcism (2010) and the font in The Conjuring (2013). Times New Roman is a typical font used in possession genre'd horror films and so we followed that trait.
- Convention 3: Props -
- One of our props included a cross during the exorcism scenes. This is typical to those exorcism scenes in Horrors. We kept this the same because our Opening Title Sequence was very religious and the cross prop added realism to the OTS. This is like The Omen (1976).
- Convention 4: Mise-en-scene(costume) -
- The possessed girl in our OTS is dressed simular to those in The Exorcism (1973) and The Last Exorcism (2010). This costume was to give the audience an effect of realism and would therefore add a scarier sense to the Opening title Sequence.
- Convention 5: Mise-en-scene(location) -
- We have chosen to film part of our Opening Title Sequence in a basement, just like The Conjuring (2013). This was because when watching The Conjuring we got a great atmosphere during the exorcism that we wanted to re-create in our OTS. We also filmed scenes in the porch of an old house because it created a sense of enclosure but was also in a house, which is associated to be a safe place and so therefore made the OTS seem scarier.
Developing Conventions
- Convention 1: Priest dying -
- In possession horror films, a priest is normally called in to perform an exorcism. In all horror films that we studied, the priest survives and fixes the possessed girl. However in our OTS the priest's power wasn't strong enough and the possessed girl ends up killing the priest. We decided to use this storyline because it made our Opening Title Sequence unique and memorable.
Challenging Conventions:
- Convention 1: Freeze Framing and Effects -
- We decided to freeze frame our OTS to fit the titles in to make it look less like a trailer, it also created an suspense so that the audience carried on watching.
- Convention 2: Shot Choices - We chose to use shot choices to create an opposite effect. In on of our shots there is a low angle shot on the possessed girl, usually this would show how vulnerable the possessed girl was, but we chose this shot to show power.