Taks 2: Research into Existing Products

In media productions there are many genres. These genres have generic conventions that signify to us what we are watching and what to expect. The most important time to use genre conventions is in the opening credits. The first few minutes of a production let the audience gain a quick understanding of things to come and decide if it is worth watching.

A romantic comedy or rom-com, usually starts with the male and female being introduce in their everyday lives before they meet. They usually at a turning point in their lives such as a break up and the story of the characters getting back together. Also the scenes usually consist of boy meets girl, boy cant get girl, heroic act, boy gets girl, happy ending.
Those are the typical generic conventions of a rom-com which most directors use. These scenes that are used in the opening scenes and trailers let the audience know what they are about to wacth and what to expect.
There is also a new branch from rom-com called bromance, these films follow the same princibles. friend meets friend, doesnt like friend, heroic act, better friends then ever, happy ending.

A Thriller film usually starts with a crime, victim, or the police, then the movie tells us the story of how the crime or tragic event happened and why. The most popular thrilles are police based or have police goverment theme, with crime or murder displayed and political bias. There is usually death and the crime is not always solved without and casualties. The suspence occurs when someone faces death like horrors. However there is more suspence in the plot itself and if the characters can figure things out in time, normally containing a lot of twists.

My chosen genre for my opening scene is horror. The conventions of horror are usually dark lighting, intense music, blood, a sense of solidarity and helplessness. All these are designed to scare you in a safe way knowing that after the production you can go home and everything is fine, but for the few hours of watching your heart is racing and you are on edge.
Horrors normally set the scene in the way in which they want to scare you, picking a fear for the audience. They can use anything from isolation, insanity, gore, phobias, etc.
A horror usually is set in isolated locations such as the suburbs, woods, an abandonned house. This gives a sense of helplessness for the characters and starts to get you on the edge of your seat, making you think don't go in there.
Typical horrors have a killer who is hunting the characters, the killer could be a mad man with a chainsaw or killer spiders but they are hunting the characters in the film. Therefore the theme usually is stay alive and this can be making it through the night, or surviving a masscre over a long period of time.
The camera work also plays a role in conventions of horror. There are a lot of distorted shots switching to close ups of terrified characters, or shakey hand held camera use to display intensity, fear and a making us feel like we are there.
All of this is heavily hinted in the opening scenes of a horror with generic signifiers to let the audience know what to expect and make them panic a little.