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

The title of my film is “La Femme Rouge”, this flashes onto the screen after the woman is seen chopping the piece of meat in half. Translated from French La Femme Rouge means The Red Lady, this is what I wanted my film to come across as because that is all she is known as, The Scarlet Lady no one knows who she is or what she’s doing. I wanted my film to show this mystery as this is what the plot is.

The setting and location of my film opening uses the forms and conventions of real media products because it just looks like an ordinary and domestic kitchen but unbeknownst to anyone a serial killer lives there, fitting into everyday life everyone unaware of what she does. This is a common concept in thriller and horror films as the film makers want you to keep guessing about whom the killer is like in the “Scream” franchise.

Although my film is in black and white, I spent a long time choosing the costume, hair, make-up and props for my opening. I originally wanted some of the props in colour however, I could not accomplish this. I wanted my main character, la femme rouge, to be dressed sophisticatedly she is wearing a black dress and has red nails and lipstick. This is shown of the wine glasses when he takes a sip. The other character in my opening is the man at the door, as in many films where the woman seduces the “weaker” male she is more dominant than him as this is shown through her body language and costume. The male is also dressed smartly to give the impression he is dressing up for something, as he has long hair scrapped back this makes the audience believe that he is trying to make a good impression, it also alludes to the fact that it might be a date as he has flowers in his hand. This is shown in many films, the nervous guy waiting at the door to meet his date.

For my title sequence I used a simplistic font in bright red to make it stand out more, even more so with the red background.

The opening sets up the plot of my film as a mystery, you never see the woman’s face and you only see the man’s face in the picture of him with his face circled. This leads you to believe that something is going to happen to this man as there were other pictures of men however; their faces were circled then crossed out. This leaves the film open to go in many different directions. Many other films use this technique as well to keep the audience guessing what’s going to happen next.