Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

This shot is found in the first scene of the film. We have placed our main character in a dark room tied to a chair.  This is a conventional scene in an action thriller film. By placing this as our first scene we have opened our film with sudden tension and excitement. This differs from other action thrillers where the tension builds up in the opening and does not begin with a high impact opening. There is very little information about what is happening in this scene leaving the audience puzzled, questioning and intrigued about what is going to happen next. Leaving the audience uncertain of the reality is a conventional form of a real action thriller film. The main character is also introduced in this scene, however the audience may not be aware of this as no evidence is given in the shot to lead the audience to believe that he is the main character. This is very unconventional of any film as normally the main character is introduced very early on in the film and with detail and information that the audience can associate with the character.

This shot follows on from the previous one and although it begins to set the scene, it still leaves the audience questioning what is happening in the movie. In this scene we looked at raising the pace of our opening as the first scene was rather slow. In this shot the main character is made to look secretive and shifty as he enters a room and begins to unlock a cabinet. We achieved this feeling through our shot angles as well as our chosen location. Firstly with regard to the filming, instead of placing the camera in a stationary position we decided to use it to track our main character as he moved into the room, giving the impression to the audience that he was being followed. Acting also a played a key role as Fergal (the actor) made his character to look shifty by the way he kept looking behind his shoulder as if he was making sure he was on his own. Finally we chose this location as it best suited the scene that was going to be filmed, since the room looked elegant,  it was well lit and it contained a lockable cabinet.                  

This is an example of one of our many screen titles in our opening. We found it difficult when deciding what tiles to use as although we wanted to use something that would be perceived as conventional in an action thriller film we also did not want to use anything that would make our film look tacky or cheap. This resulted in us choosing to use a rather basic, sleek font design placed on top of a graduated blue and black background. Although this may not be the  most action thriller oriented title,  it simplifies our opening allowing the audience to focus on the story rather than be distracted with large flashy titles.

The scene which depicts the opening of the briefcase again represents something similar to the expectations of an action thriller. A briefcase is unlocked and opened to reveal large amounts of used banknotes. It is common to see large amounts of money in an action thriller, however it is often represented in different ways. Large amounts of money are more likely to be associated with the villain, the villain has normally obtained this money illegally possibly through robbery or business to do with drugs. So although we have used large amounts of money which is represented as a key element in an action thriller film, we have also challenged the forms of the genre by giving the main character (who isn't a villain) a large amount of money instead. As this is in the opening 2 minute sequence the audience are unaware of where the money has come from, again this is aimed to keep them puzzled and confused.  Clearly the reality will become clearer later  in the film.  

Games of poker are often found in the action thriller genre of films so again this is very conventional. Card games depict tension and gambling.   However we have again attempted to challenge the conventions of our genre, this time through our editing. When looking through our filmed footage of this scene we felt that it was rather slow and not as exciting as it could be. Instead of re filming the scene we decided to use editing to make this scene more lively. Through editing we made two large changes; the first of these was to place slow motion on to a shot of Fergal flicking a poker chip in to the air. Although this did slow down the piece even more, it added a much greater effect to the scene by focusing on certain points. Secondly, we also used editing to fast forward and then rewind Fergal throwing his cards on to the table. This was effective as it added contrast to the slow motion shot before, it also flowed better with the music we added to the piece making it look more like a flash back/ dream rather then something that was happening at present.  

Similar to the scene with the briefcase this shot again includes large sums of money. We attempted to develop this usual convention through our filming and camera angles. We started with the basic scene of Fergal throwing a large amount of money in to the air.We made adaptions to the camera angle by using a low camera angle, thus increasing his status making him look more superior and mighty as well as exaggerating the amount of money being thrown into the air. Editing also allowed us to slow the speed down adding greater effect as the money slowly floated to the ground.

The shot at the desk was again taken to represent our main characters wealth.  He is filmed buying shares on the stock market whilst looking at a magazine advertising a new Porsche 911. When deciding this scene we looked at how other action thriller films represented a characters wealth.  Although we had not seen anything exactly similar to the scene we filmed, we were aware of films where characters demonstrated their wealth by buying expensive items like cars. Instead of copying exact scenes from other  action thriller films we decided to be creative and plan our own. We took inspiration from other action thriller films and so  this does use some conventions of the action thriller, however by developing this in to a way we could easily film whilst keeping the shot looking proffesional alowed us to slightly develop and change the conventions of the genre.

The scene filmed in the main characters flat is placed in to our film opening after the sequence of flashbacks and the title sayinvg '3 weeks previously'. This is when our character begins to be properly introduced to the audience. The scene begins with an alarm clock going off. Our main character moans to show he does not want to get out of bed. His room is intentionally made in to a tip as well as him sleeping on a basic mattress. This was intended to show the audience that this character is living a very poor and chaotic lifestyle with no routine.  Location and scene setting was very important in this shot as it is in this part of the opening that the story begins to be told properly, it needed to be clear to the audience what lifestyle this character was living in.

Finally this freeze frame represents the last scene of our opening, the main title of the film. When we were deciding on where we were going to place the title and where our opening sequence was going to end we made a few decisions early on. What was important to us was that the main character was outside and was positioned in a place which clearly set the location for the rest of our film. The shot you can see on the freeze frame is of Guildford, the town we all live in. This is the view from Fergal's house which is on a steep hill giving a great panoramic view of the town. After deciding we would film the ending there we realised we could quite easily fit the title in to the sky as our main character walks down the hill in to town. This was very effective as it looked natural due to the font we used and the transition of fading it in to the shot. The name of our film 'Tainted Money' sounds like an action thriller film so the audience should know what to expect. I feel this title is very unconventional of an action thriller film due to the fact that it is very basic and simple. Most titles in our genre are large, bold and colourful. I feel this title really questions the conventions of our genre due to the fact that it gives such an impact yet it is very basic and simple.