Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Genre and Conventions

The primary genre of ‘Exceptional’ is Action/Adventure but the sub-genre and most dominant genre of the film is Superhero. The film also fits into a number of other genres including romance and comedy, mainly due to the hero and the love interest.

Our main inspirations for the opening sequence include the Spiderman trilogy (Sam Raimi – 2002, 2004, 2007) and Kick Ass (Matthew Vaughan – 2010).

Conventions of Superhero films and how we followed them:

• Unpopular, Nerdy Superhero
• Popular, pretty girl as the hero's love interest
• Hidden Powers
• Orientated around a school setting in a large city
• Idea of morality and good triumphing over evil
• Special Effects
• Epic Soundtrack and Voiceover Introduction

Spiderman Vs. Exceptional

How we broke conventions:

• Angus is more socially awkward and isolated compared to Peter Parker
• He doesn't have a latex costume or mask
• He doesn’t have a special superhero name, i.e. ‘Spiderman’ , ‘Batman’, ‘Superman’
• The concept of showing how he discovered his superpowers in the opening titles is not normal especially as this is not a sequel

Narrative Structure

Our film consists of conventional character types that are found in nearly all superhero films.

• Hero - Angus Archer
• Love Interest (who becomes the damsel-in-distress) - Jessica Butler
• Nemesis - Fame Hungry presenter/journalist
• Helpless citizens

Jessica follows the stereotypical
love interest role

Todorov's theory of equilibrium

Todorov's theory states that the narrative in every film will follow the sequence of: equilibrium (the norm.), disruption (an event to disturb normality), journey (the hero has to find a solution) and a resolution/new equilibrium (a new normal is found). When constructing the plot of 'Exceptional' we kept this in mind and ensured that we followed the theory.

Binary Opposites

In order to form conflict within the film, we used the following binary opposites:

• Good vs Evil
• Outcast vs Popular
• Hero vs Villain
• Female vs Male

Barthes' Codes

We incorporated Roland Barthes' theory that a narrative can be broken down into Action, Enigma, Semiotic, Cultural and Symbolic Codes into the opening sequence in order to intrigue and assist the audience while they are piecing together their ideas about who the characters are and what events will follow.

The main codes that we used were:

Action Codes

• When the bullies throw the paper ball at Angus, we know instantly that they are his enemies at school and that at some point in the film they will be defeated/humiliated.
• When Jessica tells the bullies to stop picking on Angus we know that she is not the 'snobby' type of popular girl and is most likely going to be involved with Angus at a later time

Enigma Codes

• Why does Angus not reveal his powers to anyone?
• How and why does Angus have superpowers?

Cultural Codes

• The School Bell - the audience would understand that they are in a school

Continuity Editing

In order to ensure that the narrative was seamless for the audience, we had to follow a number of rules relating to continuity including the match-on-match, 180 degrees, eyeline match and shot-reverse-shot. Most of our sequence follows the rules but we did have a few errors that we spotted in post-production. These include the bright pink coat being folded over the chair differently and a seat being down in one shot and then being stored up in another. Below is a video of some of the continuity errors made in Spiderman.



Form

Conventions of Opening Sequences and how we followed them:

• Introduction of main characters
• Opening credits displaying the names of the main actors, director and producer
• Establishing locations
• Use of continuity editing through match-on-match action, shot/reverse/shot and following the 180-degree rule

The majority of inspiration for the opening sequence, especially the graphics came from the opening credits of Spiderman 2 (see the video above). This allowed us to establish the brief story behind Angus' powers without having to spend time on that in the film. In a way this was also a way in which we challenged conventions because our film is not a sequel, whereas Spiderman was. Therefore in Spiderman it was merely a refresher for the audience, whereas we are telling the story for the first time.

Style

We decided to incorporate the comic book aspect into the film by applying comic book freeze frames on certain shots in order to establish characters or highlight changes in scene. Kick Ass did this to some extent with the rectangle detailing location, etc. Although this is mostly associated with Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, as their USP was the gaming special effects that were applied.