Star Wars is a well known Sci-Fi Movie (Science Fiction). In this opening taken from Episode 3 i can notice many conventions which show it as a Sci-Fi Movie.
- The use of a light blue font colour on the opening text gives an alien feel to the film.
- The font design of the Star Wars label itself looks like its "futuristic".
- The background being black gives the impression of outer space in all its blackness.
Superbad is a Comedy Movie. Looking from the opening titles i can see the conventions which make it out to look comedic.
- The one thing that i notice first is the use of an old film reel effect. This type of effect would not be used in a serious film so in essense this has to have some comedic activity inside it.
- The use of upbeat average paced music adds to this "not so serious" effect.
- Next we see a sillouette in dark blue with a yellow background, this is intresting as usual sillouettes are black and white to give the impression of shadows.
- Aside from the colour's of the sillouette it is what the sillouette is doing which tells the viewer it is a comedy, and that is dancing. If it were a thriller or an action movie it is unlikely that it would begin with bright coloured sillouettes dancing to the beat of the music.
- Looking closer at the sillouettes we can tell that they are not being produced by grown men but are instead being made by what appears to be guys that are mid-late teenager's or at a push, in their early 20's.
- The way these guys interact with each others sillouettes and dance to the music along side different coloured shapes pulsing out from the center tells me it may have some kind of party theme to it.
Toy Story is a Disney Animated Feature aimed specifically at younger children, there are a number of conventions present in this clip which show it is a Childrens film.
- The first point is seeing Woody on the floor. Woody is a Cowboy Toy which shows its based around a child and his toy.
- The use of two other toy parts falling to the ground like a really young child has been playing with a toy and pulled some of its body parts off shows the innocence children have when playing with toys.
- The use of a basic, simple white font appears the audience as very soft and child like, not like that of other harsher titles such as on Inception.
- Wide and bright colour palet used in the clip (And for the Titles) to attract younger children to it.
- The cloud wallpaper could represent how children always have their heads in the clouds, dreaming. Or on the other hand it could be to show softness.
- Next we see a slightly high angled shot of Woody and Andy playing, this puts the audience in the perspective of the toy, looking up at their owner.
- The crayon drawings on the cardboard boxes have obviously been drawn by the child so this just shows the creativity behind a childs mind.
- Most of the shots are very long letting the audience take in this massive array of colour in the room.
- The music (You've got a friend in me, Randy Newman) is very happy and "light-hearted" again to attract young minds. As well as this it also sets the storyline in the sense that Andy and his Toy feel as if they will always be together.
- We see at another point in the clip a shot from Woody's point of view as he spins around on the chair to put the audience into the right perspective for the story. This already hints at whats to come as the rest of the story does in fact revolve around the toys.
- Aside from the shots taken from a toys perspective there are also many taken from a childs height, again putting the audience into this mind set of being a child or a toy.
I've learned about other Genres and how they have very different conventions in comparison to Thrillers.
The use of colours in the opening sequence set the scene for many films such as, Superbad and Toy Story.
Camera Angles put the Audience in the perspective of the characters.
What I have learnt that will make me a better film-maker?
Make sure to put extra effort in the construction of opening sequences as it sets the audience up for what is to come, if the opening is badly made, the audience is likely to have a poor view of the film.
When producing a film of a specific genre try to keep everything according to that genre so not to run the risk of straying into too many different genres.
How will what I've learnt make my final film better?
As i said i my previous paragraph, we must pay due care and attention when filming and editing our opening sequence so that it makes the cut.
On top of this we also need to take care in how we design and present our title so that it fits the concept.
How do I follow up this research? What is my next step?
Now that i have looked at Genres, Sub-Genres and Conventions in a range of different films i will turn my attention back to our final film idea and compile a brain storm of what we are going to produce.
