Evaluation Question 1 by Jamie Sykes

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

Action films are one of the most saturated genres in the media industry. The audience of action films are grittier then many other genres, they prefer being immediately immersed in complex action sequences with imminent danger. Slower opening sequences that rely on initial narrative to set the tone of the film are less successful then those that meet the requirements of the audience in terms of exciting visuals and sequences.

The title sequence is a crucial point in any film. If a production fails to meet the conventions and expectations of its genres audience in the initial few minutes of screen time, the production does not succeed to its full potential as they lose audience interest from the beginning. It was important to me when creating our film that the audience are thrown straight in to an action-packed sequence that slowly calms allowing narrative to take over, which results in elements of the story being revealed.

The entirety of our opening sequence included tense dialogue between characters, action scenes involving gun fights and violence and a sense of foreboding danger throughout creating anxiousness in the audience as the story plays out. A key part of our film was our non-linear narrative style which helps differentiate it from other action films following more linear structures. Events do not occur in the correct order, for example, the opening sequence which in the full film would actually be the climax of the plot where out protagonists carry out the drug deal.

Our genre and sub-genre were action and crime. I took a lot of inspiration from American gang culture and applied it to the settings and characters we had at our disposal and built from there. In order to create the gang and crime register we were aiming for, we made use of fast editing and fluid shot movements to maintain pace throughout the sequence as well as low angle shots to create a sense of power in characters in the appropriate shots.

Other elements used to help create a tone of gangs, action and violence were our choices of character outfits, guns, and music. Our outfits and props were based heavily on prior research into our genre and similar films such as Pulp Fiction and the Fast and Furious franchise. The music we used in our film was based primarily on hip-hop as part of the gang culture inspiration but also more traditional action movie music like the track ‘Run’, a fast-paced non-diegetic track used to build tension in scenes with little action.