We have studied two genres as a group, these are Fantasy and Adventure, both of which contrast greatly in the conventions shown in children’s opening sequences, The fantasy genre includes use of magical/ambiguous characters and events that could not exist in real life. When studying fantasy we focused on one particular film “Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone”, the opening sequence to the film consists of very limited title credits but still manages to establish the target genre of “Fantasy” early on in the sequence, it does this by showing magical activity within the narrative (Transformation of cat into woman) and (Stealing of light), in addition to this the opening sequence delays the use of the main film title until after they have used a 4 minute clip to grab the viewers attention and instil a sense of mystery.
The second movie we studied was “Madagascar” which is an animation by the DreamWorks Company and fits the genre of adventure, the adventure genre conventions differ highly that of fantasy, in this particular films opening sequence the viewer is placed in a characters point of view (Dream) and the title sequences are shown throughout the beginning of the clip, this sequence is more conventional of a children’s film because it has the opening credits and establishment of character at the very start, where fantasy delays this, to create a hook for the viewer they have used a comical introduction based around the main characters dream of adventure and release into the natural environment from which his originated.
In conclusion, both films conventions differ highly throughout their opening sequences, fantasy focuses on the use of a large opening sequence and magic to instil mystery in the viewer and keeps title sequences short in order to reduce alienation to the viewer while adventure uses a shorter adventure based sequence to establish characters and/or plot/setting.
Joe Scott, Laura Gill, George Tibbett
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