Research Genre

 My group and I have decided to create a film opening in the Action/Thriller genre. Here is my research into the codes and conventions used in openings of texts in this genre.

Typical conventions from the Action/Thriller genre:

Films from this genre usually include contrabands, explosions, martial arts fight scenes, and dramatic music that creates suspense for the audience. This film is likely to use a lot of different types of camera angles and they would likely try to develop new techniques of camera shots and angles. The narrative is normally about a hero fighting against high odds (the hero is always outnumbered by the villains). These movies are often in life-threatening situations where the hero always wins. The film opening is frequently used to introduce the main character and the villain by introducing the main problem of the film.

Film John Wick 2

Production: Summit Entertainment Thunder Road Films 87Eleven Entertainment

Distribution: Lions gate

Genre / Sub Genre: Action/thriller and their sub-genre is a mystery

What conventions does it conform to? A the beginning of the story, a city is shown at night, which usually thriller films have mostly dark lighting, then John Wick is shown chasing someone who is riding a motorbike that we don't know who he is and just like the sub-genre, which is mystery, then the city also has minimal lighting which makes the atmosphere even more frightening and increases the tension of the audience, then a violent or unusual scene is shown when a motorbike crashes into a car which is usually in action films and they both wear all black clothes.

What conventions does it subvert to? The subvert is seen at the beginning of the scene where a predominantly pink shop, where usually thrillers are dominated by black, but at the beginning the color pink is shown, then the subvert occurs when John manages to stop the motorcyclist, but only John Wick's legs are shown and where usually the main character or hero will be shown at the beginning to captivate the audience.

What representations are there? (people/places/events)The place is shown in the dark lighting and dark city at night.

What technical elements are used to give meaning to the representations? The first scene, it shows that it uses an establishing shot to show that the place used is in a big city in the nighttime, in a building it shows a clip of people falling off a motorbike, then followed by a guy who also fell off the motorbike in the road. Then it shows how John wicks car is chasing the guy in a motorbike using a cowboy shot that shows to the audience how intense and dangerous that was, and then it uses close of the motorbiker to show his expression and feeling of being chased by John wick and building suspense for the audience. And then a medium-long shot of the car and motorbike on the road making it to build the suspense. And then an establishing shot showing that they both went into different ways making confusion to the audience that make them more curious about it. Then the scene back to shows the biker's expression as confused because he doesn't know where the car by using a close-up. Then the scene starts to alternate between the two parties using close-ups showing that the expression of motorbike driver is very confused and the car continues to drive fast chasing the motorbike driver. By using a medium long shot it shows that the biker has crashed into the car which makes the biker faint and might be a jump scare for the audience. Then after making the crash, it shows contrapuntal, by not showing John Wick's face, but only showing his feet and using a high angle John Wick is taking the biker card by using a high angle which shows that John Wick is stronger than him. Then a close-up of the card that John Wick takes to show the audience what is because the card will appear again in the next scene and that will give the audience some information. Then using a low angle shows that John Wick is entering the car and then leaving the place meaning that his mission is complete.

Film: Kingsman The Golden Circle

Production: Marv Films Cloudy Productions TSG Entertainment

Distribution: 20th Century Fox

Genre / Sub Genre: Action/thriller/spy and their sub-genre is a mystery

What conventions does it conform to? It conforms by showing the time at night and the quiet surroundings which makes the atmosphere more tense which is indeed fitting with the thriller genre. Then it shows the villain who appears to fight the main character which is often shown in action films. Then it shows them starting the fight in the car which makes the scene cooler and looks professional which is identical to a skilled detective.

What conventions does it subvert to? Subvert because it immediately starts into a conflict without any clear reason and explanation at the beginning about what is happening, because usually in action films it starts from telling the conflict, for example when someone is killed then the conflict starts and they become the target.

What representations are there? (people/places/events)The place is shown in the dark lighting and dark city at night.

What technical elements are used to give meaning to the representations? The first scene shows the Kingsman headquarters using the zoom-out technique which also lets the audience know that it is a typical Kingsman headquarters followed by the luxurious sound. Then sounds stop and a close-up showing Eggsie's face confused by the presence of someone in the middle of the night, accompanied by the over-the-shoulder technique from behind the mysterious person makes the audience even more curious. Then there is a close-up showing the mysterious person who turned out to be the villain with the scary and thrilling sound to build suspense making it more nerve-wracking and making the audience also guess what will happen next. Then a long shot shows what they are doing to open the audience's vision. Then a pan close-up when entering the car followed by the big loud sounds indicates that the situation is tense which increases the audience's tension. And finally, a long shot shows the two of them leaving which makes the audience curious and will continue to watch.

Small Research

Name: John Wick 1

Year: 2014

Target Audience and How are they Appealed to?

The Target audience is an adult from the age of 18-24 because it shows a lot of fighting scenes showing blood and how brutal it was. And it scene there are a lot of guns used to kill people which is not good for kids to watch it.

What would you like to use in your opening from this?

I'd like to use how the lighting they use because it can be good lighting for the genre that I will use in my opening scene which is action, and thriller. Also how they take the camera angle is very good to improve our film opening scene to build more suspense in the film.

What would you like to avoid in your opening from this?

I would like to avoid the scene where they fight on the road, so we rather make the fight scene in a place that is quiet and nobody is there in the place, also we would like to avoid using or driving a car in the scene.

Name: Nobody

Year: 2021

Target Audience and How are they Appealed to?

The Target audience is an adult which we can see in the video there is a lot of blood and a gun used to kill the people or the villain. And then how they show the character's personality really appealed to adults by showing his steadfastness.

What would you like to use in your opening from this?

I would like to use how this film can build the suspense from a normal day of a family, then a conflict starts and the characters start fighting making the audience amazed at the film.

What would you like to avoid in your opening from this?

I would like to avoid a scene using a gun, I rather make the fight scene using a fist and our body without any weapon, with this, it can be cooler and have a different way to make the fight scene in the opening scene.

Name: The Raid

Year: 2011

Target Audience and How are they Appealed to?

The target audience is an adult because the film commonly shows blood and brutal fighting scenes using blades and guns and how they kill each other in the building. And on how they make the really dark lighting.

What would you like to use in your opening from this?

I would like to use the first scene where a guy is training alone using the punching bag in the gym with dark lighting which makes it more thrilling and really suit what we wanted to make in our film's opening scene.

What would you like to avoid in your opening from this?

I would like to avoid how they use a weapon such as a blade because we are going to focus our fight scene using empty hands and also using our how part of the body. And the use of the gun we will try to avoid it.

Name: Extraction

Year: 2020

Target Audience and How are they Appealed to?

The target audience is an adult because it shows a brutal action fight scene in the movie. Then it shows a lot of serious talking in the movie which is typical of an adult. And it shows time when it gets emotional which the kid doesn't really understand but the adult can understand.

What would you like to use in your opening from this?

We would like to use how they take the camera angle and how they fight using the gun and their fist. Because our film's opening scene will be about guns and using our fists and feet for the last fight scene. Also how they use the lighting in their film is really good and will suit our film's opening scene.

What would you like to avoid in your opening from this?

We will avoid buildings that are in extraction such as large buildings, but we will make the video in an empty place or empty land. And also by doing dangerous scenes in a place.

This is the video that will help me to make the film opening scene