When studying techniques of the genre, I noticed a common theme (in movies like Iron Man) that the title card was shown after a short introduction. It was bold, impactful, and normally accompanied by either a musical sting or abrupt stop in tension building music. This grabs the audience's attention, leaves an impression, and creates an effect of power and intensity. We wanted to replicate this with our own project, so we placed the title card at the end on the introduction with suspenseful music coming to an echoing stop. Upon showing our test audience, some expressed the concern that it made the intro feel more like a completed short film. In order to emphasize a cliffhanger aspect of an intro, we added a line of dialogue to imply that there was in fact a (hypothetical) full length movie after it. When the Agent character says, "I have a job for you." the screen cuts to black. During the black screen and absence of music, the protagonist can be heard saying, "I'm listening." After this, the title card fades in. We believe this helps express that it is not the end of the story.
Another convention of this type of film is that the introductions begin with a calm, slow pace. No one is in a rush, there is no danger. Slowly tension builds, and then a climax to the conflict. In Captain America the First Avenger, a group of men are in multiple long takes as they exchange causal dialogue, until the music changes and the camera pans to a massive ship that had been preserved in ice. In Iron Man, there are long shots of military vehicles, casual conversation, and then the sudden sound of gunfire and explosives. We wanted this effect of building tension in our film, beginning the scene with establishing shots and long takes of cars driving by and people walking by. Then the characters are shown walking lazily, window shopping. Slowly the tension builds to the Robber taking the purse, and the tension repeatedly rises and falls as the protagonist defeats the robber twice and is then cornered by the Agent.
When the Agent corners the protagonist, we follow a convention of all adventurer and hero stories. The Agent introduces the "call to action" portion of the story, the "job" they offer.
Unlike many other super hero franchises, however, we skip past the "origin story" portion of a hero's journey. When the audience meets the protagonist, she has already gotten the hang of her powers and has had them for a while. When she recognizes the Agent is watching her, she realizes she is being followed. This implies that she has had to deal with this before, running and hiding her super powers. When she fakes being injured, she remembers she has to act like she does not have super strength. This sort of head start is not normal to many hero movies.
Our hero also lacks a special code name or costume. Unlike "Bat Man" or "The Wasp", she has no famous second identity. She also lacks an elaborate suit or mask, as is characteristic of most crime fighting heroes.
A more obvious deviation from convention is the fact that our super hero lead is a woman. Nearly all super hero movies are led by male heroes, with rare exceptions such as "Cat Woman" or the recent "Wonder Woman".
Our film represents multiple woman in its cast, of different body types and personalities. So our film's primary social group is woman. By doing so the film is tackling the issue of a lack of relatable role models for younger girls. Our film would follow the lead of the recent "Wonder Woman" film, providing positive examples of strong woman and promoting diversity in film.
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