Convention of your chosen genre

.The conventions of an opening sequence are very important for a movie. This is because the opening sequence is where the titles appear and the logo and company name is introduced to the audience. It is very important because it also sets the mood on an audience for example a comedy movie may have fancy texts and bright colours with up beating non-digetic sound. In contrast a thriller movie may have slow titles appearing on the screen and slow background sound, with a black background, which sets the thriller mood. A opening sequence has many conventions such as

- Establishing shot to set the scene
* It must be exciting
*It must be able to draw the viewer in
* Must make the viewer want to see more
* Have good titles that draw in the viewer as soon as they start watching
* Make the viewer be curious and have questions
* Let the viewer be able to see the characters visually
* Lead the viewer into the story
* Do not give anything away
* Should be a good amount of time
* Create an atmosphere
* Good use of soundtrack that can set the tone/ mood


contact sheets to show the conventions of an opening sequence:
What does a title sequence look like?

I think that 'Dexter' is a very successful opening sequence as its quite cringe feeling when the character shaves as an audience I can actually hear the sound of it. This is called hyperbolic sound which has been used to create an atmosphere. It still uses all the connotations needed for the thriller genre, but adds everyday life activities to engage an audience and keep them interested. Red is a very prominate colour which is red and similar colours used as it expresses pain, death and anger. The contact sheet shows that each shot has been carefully thought about as it looks very artistic and presented well. Dexter has many of the above conventions, it is very good at pulling the audience in. As I watched Dexter I felt like I started to know what was happening, this character is the main character that is may be getting ready to go work. He is cooking up his food, cutting up his fruit. However the cinematography which is used shows it in a very different way, there are many close ups and extreme close ups which show the detail of each prop used in the frame.

Conventions of your chosen genre

The conventions of a title sequence are very important for a movie because this sequence sets the mood of the film. There is usually a black out first which indicates that it may be a thriller film.
These at the conventions of an opening sequence
• Variety of cinematography
• Short/long clips to build tension
• Quick shots
• Misty, dark rooms, woods, car parks, graveyard and derelict settings
• Blood and gore
• Thrilling scenes





- Dark lighting- low key lighting -shadows
- Opening sequence foreshadowing the ending of the film
- Match on action
- Psychological
- Clues throughout the film
- Twists in the plot
- use of Establishing shots and Close up/extreme close up shots- Low resonant sounding music
-Good use of special effects
- Bold, traditional font on titles, such as serif
- Use of quick, snappy cuts
-eery sound, which creates an unknown , mysterious mood with tension
-Objest/props that you don't expect to see in a carm film.
-Props to give the viewer an imagination.
-Strong colours such as red, black and dark colours.









I had chosen a series of shots from well known thriller films which are old and fairly new. I have created a contact sheet with some of the scenes in the film. I will be also discussing if I’m going to use or create something similar with my group. The first shot is taken from the film (Se7en, 1995, David Fincher, USA) this is a picture of a scilowet figure of a hand behind a piece of paper. On the paper there is writing which is unreadable, this may be because this character is writing in a type of code, because he is some sort of killer, his performance through this scene is very cringe feeling affect because of the action he does. He plays with very sharp tools like blades and cuts eyes out of pictures. In this persefic photo, the hand behind the paper indicates that he is unknown to the audience this shot also tells the audience that they won’t be able to gather out who he is and why he is doing what he is doing. The use of low-key lighting has connotations of a dark and dangerous theme within the shots. This shot in particular has shadow and low lighting, this may point out danger. As an audience they would certainly feel intrigued and anxious because they can’t figure out what is happening in the sequence. I feel very inspires from the opening sequence and title sequence for the movie’Se7en’ because of the strangeness in it , also the feeling I get when I watch it. This cringe and a fraid feeling is exactly how I want my audience to react and feel when I had finished creating my opening sequence. I believe I will be able to achieve this.

The second image is from the film (The Next Three Days, 2010, Paul Haggis, USA) this shot is very interesting because it can be seen in many ways. This still image shows happiness, a one united family who have no problems in life and are ok with the way things are at the moment. As a still image this is what can be seen by someone, due to the high key lighting and the performance on the actors in the frame. The mother seems very happy and so does the family as they are tacking a family picture with their still camera. However this atmosphere changes when it’s being played, as an audience when I am watching it feels like something wrong is going to happen. At this point the music is becoming tensed, this tenseness in the music hints that something very bad is going to happen later on the film, it hints that it may be the family splits apart from each other. This is because the female who seems to be the mother is tacking a photo very happily and joyfully, however the speed of the shot is also very quick which hints to the audience that this happiness isn’t going to last its going to change to a dis-equilibrium very soon.

The third image is taken from another thriller movie called (Panic Room, 2002, David Fincher, USA). I very much like this shot as it is a contrast to the actual genre of the movie this still image expresses happiness, joy and so on, however the movie is actually a thriller. Therefore these shot shows that something May very bad happen and change people’s lives. The cinematography used within this shot is a long shot, but it does also look a little like Point of View shot. This is a long shot because it shows the modern skyscrapers in the background of the park, there are nice well architecture buildings. Every person in this shot seems to be really happy and the whole setting looks quite family orientated. Within the frame there is the use of high key lighting. This shot hints and tells me as an audience that something very harsh and dangerous may come across to these happy people and it may even kill them or change their lives. They may end up fighting for their lives; I feel this may happen because I know it is a thriller so I am making a hypothesis about it.

New Storyboard SEIZED

This is my new story board for Seized, which is done by Donna,it is followed accuratley as I used it to think off perfect shots.My story board really helped me remeber what type of shot to use and when to use it.