1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media proucts?

'Glitch' uses, and develops many stereotypical forms of real media products while challenging many of the same and other forms at the same time. I have split this answer into four sections in order to describe each clearly; genre, narrative structure, form and style.

Genre

The genre of our film 'Glitch' would be Sci-Fi Action with a strong element of computer hacking. We first decided that we wanted to create a film focusing on hacking and we have generally stuck with this throughout the past three months.

In order to follow the stereotype of a hacker we created the teenage male hacker protagonist who is a fan of computer games, fantasy novels, technology, similar to the main character seen in the 1997 film, 'Masterminds'. In order to show this we set up a room that we would expect him to live in, laying piles of books, magazines, dvds, positioning the odd quirky gadget such as a lava lamp or a rubik cube. To challenge the typical image of hackers we purposely chose a few actors who did not fit the teen male nerd image to play the hackers who he is communication with. For example, the hackers shown in our film are comprised of a just as many female as males, instantly opposing the common depiction of hackers in media products.

Part of the selling point of 'Glitch' is that it is recognisable, feeding off the success of previous hacking films such as the ones from the 'Matrix' triology to drive its own growth. Although our opening sequence does not have physical action which frequently appears in so many action films (apart from the clip of the main hacker being attacked) it does employ the basics of the genre; suspense, a clear divide betwen the "good" and the "bad", a strong, upbeat soundtrack and rapid camera movement.

Narrative Structure

Todorov: The plot of our film complies with Todorov's narrative structure of equilibrium that many media products use. Equilibrium; a standard day for the group, everyone is online and following the boss' orders. Disruption; the main hacker gets taken out causing panic within the team. Resolution; rookie hacker works together with his crush and friends in order to find the boss and everything reverts back to normal. In the opening sequence we are introduced to the equilibrium and the disruption, the rest of the film is working towards the resolution.

Vladimir Propp: Propp's character theory can be applied to several of our characters in the film, some of whom we do not see in the opening sequence.

• The hero, our rookie hacker. Despite the fact he is a nerdy teenager, we see much development of this character during the film. He becomes a young man capable of leading others in order to save the main hacker.
• The villain, the soldier who has attacked the main hacker.
• The victim is the lead hacker. He seems to dependable and authorative in the opening sequence, but by making him the victim, we have challenged the form of real media products who often place archetypical weak characters in the victim role .

Levi-Strauss: My selection of the most pronouced binary opposites to be found in 'Glitche's' opening sequence:

• noisy music vs. silence 
• silence vs. loud knocking
• male vs. female
• leader vs. subordinate
• confidence vs. uncertainty

Barthe: Our opening sequence incorporates many of Barthe's enigma codes which grabs the audience's attention, who will then continue watching the film as they would want to know the answer to the questions. Some of questions which the opening sequence places; what were they trying to hack into? Who was the masked man? What was his motive for attacking the main hacker? What will they do now? Who is at the door?

Jay Blumler & Elihu Katz: The audience would seek out media products for gratification purposes, such as enhancing knowledge, social interactions and simply for entertainment. 'Glitch' could easily fill these three categories, the hacking seen in our sequence could familiarise people with the concept of hacking, be a popular topic of conversation within our target audience and entertain. Aspects of the film could provide voeuristic pleasures for the people watching, such as the violence of the knockout, the shock of the knocking, the story's development.

Form

Typical function and features of an opening sequence:

• Introduces main characters.
• Captures the audience's attention, making them want to continue watching.
• States name of the film, production company, director, actors, etc. using titles.
• Establishes a genre.

Characters: The main character, known as "Noob" to his fellow hackers, is introduced, fulfilling one of the typical functions of an opening sequence. The audience also sees some of his online friends, all hackers, however, we do not see anyone seperate from the virtual world, therefore, not completely following the opening sequence function of introducing the main characters.


Attention: After our preview screening, our audience would exit asking us "Was the lead hacker alive?", "What happens next?", "Who was at the door?". This shows us that the sequence was able to catch their attention and they were eager to know what happens next.

Titles: We begin with the title of the film 'Glitch; on a plain black background. It is obvious that this is the name of the film as it is the first title and it uses a different animation from the other titles and is the only one that is not superimposed. Other titles such as 'Synapse Productions', 'Touchstone Pictures', 'A Raef Commissar Film', 'Nico Socratous' are spread throughout the opening sequence, superimposed onto appropiate shots.

Genre: Although our opening sequence does not have physical action which frequently appears in so many action films (apart from the clip of the main hacker being attacked) it does employ the basics of the genre; suspense, a clear divide betwen the "good" and the "bad", a strong, upbeat soundtrack and rapid camera movement. 

Style

Camera work: The scene that we researched in 'Masterminds' ,after we had planned much of our camera work, where the young hacker is pirating a new game, had good examples of camera angles and movement, such as tilted shots, focus pulls, pans, close ups which we noticed matched many of the shots in our own media product. Many of our shots were close ups so we often had to hand hold our camera in order to get the framing correct, although we couldn't use the tripod at multiple points because of the lack of space in the room. With shots that were mid shots, such as the shot of typing from behind from 0:27 and the shot at 0:59, we filmed while on the tripod. All the webcam shots are also from a tripod as we would expect a webcam to be stationary in reality. Comparing shots from 'Mastermind' and 'Glitch':

Soundtrack/ Dialogue: The soundtrack is uncopyrighted music. It is upbeat with a distinctive technologic style. The dialogue that plays alongside the music is spoken by the main hacker, it allows us to show the audience who is in charge and it gives them a general idea of what is going on, as the audience's understanding is very important in media products, if the audience understands then they are more likely to enjoy the film.

Graphics: One of the other clips we researched was from 'Matrix Reloaded' (2003), specifically the scene in which Trinity hacks into and destroys the backup station while contacting Link in the "real world". We took inspiration from the graphics that are on the computer that Trinity hacks. Link is sitting in front of many screens, some with the trademark matrix scrolling screen code with wires hanging everywhere. We researched 'Matrix Reloaded' in order to create and develop a similar effect and design, instead of choosing to challenge the style.

Titles: The titles that we used in the opening sequence were chosen because they harmonize with the sci-fi aspect of the film. Here are some of the titles are seen within the opening sequence:

Colours: A blue tinge was given to the sequence as we wanted to create a distinctive sci-fi technological atmosphere within the rookie hacker's bedroom.

Pace: Purposely rapidly paced as we wanted to create an action style sequence, despite it just being a "boy typing in his bedroom". It needed to be gripping, something that would make the audience see the protagonist as "a genius young hacker breaking into top security files" instead of just a "boy typing in his bedroom". By editing the clip so that the pace builds up and slows down such as real media products do, we were able to manipulate the way the audience perceive the sequence.