Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The title of my two minute opening sequence is called “The Unwanted Wish”.  The title was inspired by a major event that happened on my 14^th birthday. On the morning of that day I made a wish, I got out of bed and everything from there went downhill. In the early afternoon of that same day I found myself in the middle of a huge water fight. I was soaked, and dripping with water from head to toe. It felt like a dream I couldn’t wake up from.

I got the opportunity to make my own short film; this made me think hard on what I would want this short film to be based on. I then decided to make the film similar to the event that happened on my 14^th birthday. My opening sequence piece falls under the category of the “Coming of Age” genre. My chosen genre is quite common as it engages my target audiences, which are mainly Teenagers. This is because my opening sequence piece is based on what goes on in the modern society and in teenage life now. Often teenagers make wishes for the future, but sometimes theses wishes don’t always come true and sometimes they can go terribly wrong and backfire.

I have had a lot of influences on teenage drama/coming of age films, examples of my influences are: twilight, fish tank, freaky Friday, 17 again, 13 going on 30, 16 wishes and finally 16 candles.

I had a laptop and a broken white candle as props for my opening sequence piece. I chose to use the laptop as one of my props because it shows how modernized the film is, and it also show how technology has changed from when they made films in the 1980’s till now. The broken white candle in the last scene of my film represents her confusion and how incomplete she is, this could have been the reason she made the wish.

I used Diegetic and non-Diegetic sounds in my opening piece.

Diegetic:

·         At the beginning of the film we can hear the character talking to her friend on Skype and als0 when she spoke to her brother, when he came to wish her happy birthday.

·         Footsteps, door opening, can be heard in the film

We know its Diegetic sound because it’s within the frame and within context

Non-Diegetic:

·         I used different background music to help create a foreshadowing of what’s going to happen in the next scene.

We know it’s a non-diegetic sound because it’s not happening within the frame or context.

I decided to make the costumes for my characters in my movie modern and in trend with the fashion sense going on in this generation. This is because it will appeal more to my target audience.

As my opening sequence is a “Coming of Age” drama I decided to use basic camera angles such as; close up, over the shoulder shot and a 360 shot. These shot were kept basic because if I made it too complicated my target audience wouldn’t be interested and they would lose focus in the film.

In making this opening sequence I achieved a lot. I learnt how to use different camera angles and how to incorporate them into different scenes of my movie.