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

Conventions of the action genre openings:
My initial research found that, although my chosen openings were quite different from each other, they all had an element of mystery, followed typical genre conventions and created enigma.

Genre
Stock settings
The setting for my opening was a school; this is quite a change from the typical action settings, which are often cities/urban areas and warehouses - this was the case in Spectre, for example.

Stock characters
Action films typically have a male lead and a sinister villain at the centre of their narratives and was found in al the films I researched - we challenged this convention by having a female as one of the leads, which is uncommon in the genre - she was the only character in the opening.


Stock Themes
The stock themes in typical action genres include suspense, violence and deaths - this was what I found in the Spectre opening (when Bond is shown taking out a gun towards the end of the scene). However, my opening only featured suspense regarding the lead character and what she was going to do, before and after she took the memory stick.

Iconography
For action films, particularly spy ones, iconography often includes weapons and gadgets. The 'gadgets' that can be found in the opening are computers and a USB stick that the lead character takes.


Openings
Creation of enigma

In the beginning of the opening, we are shown scenes in a school and a noticeboard with exam notices on it, which would lead the audience to wonder what the film will be about and how exams will be involved in the story. This would be followed by the lead character walking down the corridor , wearing a hood and black coat; as she doesn't speak at any time for the duration of the opening and we don't see her face, the audience starts wondering: who is she?


Introduction to characters
We are introduced to our lead character after the establishing shots of the school setting; we are shown her walking down a corridor, panning from left to right - this establishes her journey and the direction that she is heading in.

Setting up plot
Throughout the opening, we are shown shots of the lead character walking down corridors and stairs to an ICT room; she then goes in, takes the memory stick and leaves, the opening ending when she turns a corner. This introduces the main plot of the story and foreshadows what will happen (that a pupil has to find and get the memory stick back so that the school won't have to push the exams back by a year).