Final Thriller Opening

I hope you have enjoyed reading my blog. Here is my final thriller opening. I hope you enjoy watching it!

Evaluation Question 7- Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

Preliminary task

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Evaluation Question 6- What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Evaluation Question 5- How did you attract/address your audience?

Evaluation Question 4- Who would be the audience for your media product?

Demographics of my target audience

Evaluation Question 3- What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Evaluation question 3

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Evaluation 3 by ChloeG

Evaluation Question 2-How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Question 2

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

These nine frames show screenshots I took from our final thriller opening. They are key in the parts that make our thriller opening so unique as well as fitting into the normal conventions of a normal title sequence.

The first shot shows the first thing that appears in our opening which shows our production companys name.We made sure that it turned as it entered so it ironically relates to our production companys name. We created it to appear differently to the rest of our titles as it shows the difference between a credit and our production company's name. 

The second shot shows the main victim within our film. She is the first character to be introduced to the audience so the audience can compare her to the next character and become sympathetic towards her. We used the night vision setting as this makes it clear that we are seeing the victim asleep without the shot becoming too dark. It also begins the story as we can see that the girl is having a bad dream or is confused as to why she is seen in this way giving the audience various enigmas on the storyline.

The third shot introduces our stalker to the film. We can straight away see the contrast in characters from the innocent looking girl sleeping in a distressed way to a male stalker in a busy place and standing out from the croud.Like real thriller films we had to consider the costumes for both characters, the white hoodie on the male stalker to stand out as different and the female victim wearing everyday clothes to fit in with normal teenage life and relate to our target audience more effeciently. We chose the busy park in contrast to the peaceful bedroom as the juxta position can help the audience understand our storyline better. At this point the film is fast forwarded so that we can see that time has gone by and creates a fast paced thrlling effect to our shot.

The fourth shot continues to follow the stalkers actions. The audience now identifies the stalker with following the victim as we see him looking at a picture of her online. This is a key part of our opening as before this shot the characters had not been seen together or as a part of each others lives. The opening conforms to the general conventions of a title sequence as it creates many questions for the audience like Why is he looking at pictures of her? Do they know each other? etc.

The fifth shot shows the stalker continuing to look at pictures of the girl again emphasising the fact that he is following her. We can see the pink background is not the stalkers house and this makes the audience question where he is. Through the music the opening suggests its a thriller as it is faced paced and thrilling and through this character hiding their eyes as if they don't want to be identified and without a smile it is clear that the film is not a comedy/romantic/family film.

The sixth shot shows the continuity of the storyline. It shows the female victim walking after previously seeing this character wake up we can see that she is on a journey. When filming we made sure that we took a variety of shots to show the continuity of her walking without following her the whole way there to keep the audience on edge and interested.

The seventh shot continues to show the girl walking and the stalker watching her from a distance again bringing the two characters together so we know the rest of the film will include both characters in some way relating to each other. We can now see the girl in the park where the stalker was previously shown waiting earlier. As the female victim is not walking towards the other character we get the sense that she doesn't know she is being followed relating back to our title 'The Unknown'.

The eigth shot shows the girl's phone whilst she is sitting on a bench in the park. We recorded this shot several times as we found that even with the tripod and focus on the camera it became slightly blurly. The audience knows that the stalker we have been introduced to has sent this message as this is the only other character that's been shown in our opening.

The ninth shot shows the title of our film shown at the end of our opening the way that the title enters is similar to the title of the film 'Se7en' and so creates the thriller effect that as a group were looking for. Through using after effects we were able to create it in this way enticing the audience to watch the rest of our film and wanting to find out what happens to both of the characters that have just been introduced.

 These are all clips from various thriller films in which I found inspiring. They are all examples of films from the thriller genre that have an effective storyline as well as an excellent title sequence.

The first shot shows the film 'Se7en' and its opening title. Our credits were produced with a smiliar typography, however we made sure that our production company logo was slightly different to our credits to show that our film company wasn't necessarily only focussed on thriller films. It would be shown on every film that our production company made so we wanted to create it suitable for all genres of films. Even though this title doesn't show the production title we still found it inspiring and only decided to change our production logo from a similar one in post production.

The second shot is from a clip in 'Paranormal Activity' which is a psychological thriller. We found this inspiring and it is very similar to our own films second shot. We also found that the night vision setting often used in paranormal activity very inspiring and used this when our female character was sleeping creating an almost psychological thrilling twist to our opening. The green colour of this night vision is also quite different to a lot of thrillers giving the audience a new unique opening.

The third shot is from the teenage thriller 'Kidulthood'. It shows a stalker like the one we created of a younger age wearing a hoodie and with a baseball bat connoting that he is violent. As a group we found this very inspiring as it shows the character we were hoping to portray through our thriller opening also representing the issue of gang culture which is a topic heavily raised by our target audience. This shot is very similar to the third shot in the main clips I took from my film opening.

The fourth shot is from the thriller 'The Ring' I chose this not only because this film was very inspiring but the shot type is very similar to the fourth shot shown in mine. We can see what appears to be the victim a young female with long straight hair which is often seen as the stereotypical victim in most thriller films, this is very similar to ours. This shot creates various enigmas about the character in the background that we can't see as clearly and I found it very effective when watching this film as well as my own.

The fifth shot is from the thriller 'Mimic' it shows many innocent victim on the wall. The way that the camera blurs and then becomes clear creates a scary effect. The way the pictures of victims are shown and then exploited inspired us to show pictures of happy memories from the victim's life to be taken away and ruined almost reflecting what the stalker wants to do to our victims life in reality. We decided not to put this in black and white in post production as the rest of our opening is in colour apart from the shots with a green night vision effect and this would make it lack consistency.

The sixth shot is also from the film 'The Ring' which portrays a girl walking away in the same way we made our character walk to show a journey which also gave us a chance to show the character in another setting.Although this is not typical of all thriller openings to show a journey we thought it would add a better storyline to our opening as it isn't in just one place making our opening seem less repetitive.

The seventh shot shows a man following another man, in the same way our character is watching the other. This creates tension and mystery as you feel sympathetic and helpless for the person being followed. Whilst filming we had to make sure that the camera went slightly out of focus when the character was walking in the background so that we can focus on the stalker and that characters intentions and ambitions involving the victim.

The eighth shot is from the film 'The Caller' which shows a phone showing an unknown number has called. We found the whole idea of new technology being used to stalk people with the computer and the phone inspiring as it shows that our film is very relevant and our target audience can again relate more to it. We also decided to take an extreme close up of this as it emphasises this an important part of our film opening.

The ninth shot is also from the film 'Se7en' showing the way the credit appears. Ours also flash and blur on a blank background as through watching this opening the titles really stuck out to me. When making the music I found that the titles came in very effectively with it.

Our Final Film Reveiw

Updated Treatment

Our film opening is based around an unknown stalker, the changing of our plot to this instead of a group of girls being stalked changed our title to 'The Unknown'. Even though this plot may seem cliché our opening will be edited together in a unique way through not only the stalker following our main character but looking at pictures of her and single shots of the stalker by themselves.

The aim of our opening is to entice the audience into watching the rest of the film. It will raise various issues of possible revenge, fear and confinement. It should make the audience feel scared and keep them sympathetic to the victim throughout the opening.

The opening is set in different time slots and is edited using different parts particularly in the first half of the opening. It cuts between the character sleeping and the camera focussing on the stalker creating a juxta position as well as tension. The second half shows the present and would be continued in the present after the main title appears at the end of the opening. Instead of a continous sequence we decided on using the technique of cross cutting as this is less likely to lose our audience's attention. As a group we have decided not to include dialogue as we found this was hard to record clearly whilst filming and may become unclear. Through researching various thriller openings like Seven, Mimic etc we thought that having a non diegetic self created music clip over our footage would create more tension and would be easier to make it seem more thriller like.

Our original idea was to have four characters and one stalker, however we reconsidered after deciding that too many characters were in our opening. We found that it seems more thriller like to have more focus on two characters, a victim and a stalker. They are both acted by females, however the stalker appears to be male as from our questionnaire we found that male stalkers were more scary. We often stereotype males to be more aggressive, violent, scary and generally bigger in size than women which I think is the main reason males are generally stalkers as opposed to women. This picture is from the film 'Silence of the Lambs' in which this shot shows a male stalking/ watching the woman.

We chose to set our opening in two different locations. As we don't have a budget of where we can film, we couldn't hire out a hall, corridor or anywhere else as this would've cost too much. So we decided to film in a group members house. This includes the scene where the victim is sleeping, where the stalker is taking down pictures and when the girl walks out of the house. We also decided to film in the local park as this was easily accessible, free and even made our thriller film more captivating as the fact it's set in a public place makes our opening seem more realistic and part of every day life with a twist.

Throughout filming it is vital that the mise en scene is constantly being thought about and altered. We used a white hoodie for the stalker to wear contrasting with the background particularly in the park so that the audience is clear on the key character and focus on the importance of the character. When shooting at first we found a lot of our footage was dark and we had to make sure we constantly kept enough light whilst keeping to the thriller genre. We used one of our group members bedroom as the colour pink is often associated with an innocent girl and this was the character type we want our audience to feel.

Our target audience is still the same as the original treatment. Even though we decided to change the overall plot of the film, we made sure that this was done through sticking to the same target audience as this is who we wanted to appeal to and as a group we feel as if we can relate more to this audience.

Rough Cut

Below is the rough cut of our film opening. After weve recieved feedback from our target audience we will analyse it and make any changes to make it more suitable and engaging for our audience.

Conventions of our title sequence

There are many things our group have to consider before our footage can be edited together in order for it to meet the conventions of the thriller genre as well as the conventions of our title sequence. We've made sure that the titles enter in a spooky way similar to seven as this will fit into the thriller genre that we are aiming for. Through this we can make sure that the details of the cast and crew are given to the audience as well as adding a more thriller like effect to our opening. At the end of our opening we are planning of having the title of our film 'The Unknown' to appear showing our audience that the film has just started and the storyline will continue.

As a whole openings are key to any film as they give the audience their first perceptions to the main character/s, this is key so that the audience can differenciate that character from others after the opening. In our opening we are showing two characters, a stalker and a victim in which the beggining of the storyline is portrayed through the opening introducing them and setting the thriller genre from the start. You will be able to tell straight away that the girl is being stalked through the various scenes for example the stalker watching her from the park, the computer, the girls house etc. The fact that the stalker is wearing a hoody shows that the film is modern as current fashion trends are shown as well as a mobile phone indicating that the film is set in the present and not in the past or future.

Through the face paced music and lots of shorter clips pasted together as well as the titles entering it will be clear that we have produced an opening title sequence because during any film there is not usually music throughout the whole duration and titles don't appear half way through the film. The opening title sequence is important for keeping the audience intrigued and interested in watching the rest of the film. To keep our audience interested our scenes show many enigmas which may make the audience question why is this particular girl being stalked? Who is the stalker? Why are they following her? etc.

When the character recieves a text message at the end of the opening, the mise en scene of some of the film will continue in the park as this is where the stalker will also be. Music may be played in later parts of the film however this would not be constant throughout. The characters will last through the majority of the rest of the film if it were to be made and storyline would be made more complicated and unravelled throughout.

Other student openings

From analysing the strengths and weaknesses I have learnt that I need to critically analyse and evaluate my rough cut in the same way so I can improve it. I will do this through showing some members of the target audience and getting their opinions and suggestions to make it more appealing and of a better quality.

Preliminary Task

I created a short film of around two minutes to show a job interview between two people involving a variety of shots. I made sure I stuck to the 180 degree rule by keeping the camera on the same side of the characters so that the camera never suddenly changed sides without another establishing shot. I took a match on action shot of the character walking into the room and shooting from different angles, we don’t see all the full shots of the character walking in and sitting down but we see a quick long shot from the door cutting to a mid shot of the character sitting down which also shows the continuity of the situation through the shot. I included a shot reverse shot of the two characters during their conversation to show the reactions of both characters in a dramatic way through using a close up.


Continuity editing is when shots are pasted together so that it follows through a sequence/ story and is easy to work out the situation. A montage of shots would be the opposite of this as it usually creates various enigmas through a wide variety of clips within films. Continuity editing is often used to follow characters situations and for the audience to understand or clearly see the storyline.


My preliminary task gave me a chance to get used to the editing software on the Mac’s and work out how to add transitions and other effects. I prefer using final cut pro on the Mac computers as opposed to windows movie maker at home as final cut pro is a lot quicker and you can view a clip in sections or as a whole or both at the same time, it also comes with a wider variety of editing effects to add and it is easier to organise clips and paste them together.


Below is my preliminary task.

Se7en opening title sequence timeline

Above shows the main titles that appear within the opening to Se7en. Below is a timeline of when all the titles enter the screen and in what order, this is useful as it helps our group to plan the most effective way our titles can enter and leave the screen and creating the thriller effect we are hoping to achieve.I labelled each title as T1, T2 etc so that you can see the order clearly and I wrote what happens before and during the sequence of when the titles enter.

Second Storyboard

As a group we changed the entire plot after vewing our previous footage. Above is a second storyboard to show the key scenes in our opening.

Filming

As a group we all had to meet up to film our opening. It took a long time to film but we had to make sure the lighting was correct. The camera we were using wasn't the best quality and after looking back on our footage we began to rethink the whole storyline as well as the settings. We ended up changing it to one girl being stalked instead of all four of us as we felt that too many people were in the shots and this was easier to film. This meant we had to use a better quality camera and meet up again, however, I was unable to attend this session. This shows a key benefit with working with a group because filming was still able to take place. Through the new plan we had of what to film we all decided that the setting should change to a park where there are lots of people making it look more realistic and show a girl on a journey. We have just looked back on our footage and are very pleased with the wider variety of shots taken. After a rough cut has been made using final cut pro we will start to work on our music peice on garage band to fit with the music.

Below is part of our old footage that we thought was too dark and looked very grainy:

Creating production logo

Through using after effects me and my group have come up with an animated production logo. At first the programme was hard to understand but after creating samples we soon got the hang of how to use it effeciently. Through using several key frames on different perameters we have finally finished our logo. We used a variety of text layers, camera layers and light layers in order to come up with our logo.

To make a layer you simply Go to text layer then click transfer and click on theh stop watch to insert key frames. When you've done thuis you can change different factors at the key frames for example text size, light size, camera angle, font etc.


These screenshots show some of the processes we went through as a group when using after effects.

Filming Tasks

Whilst filming our thriller opening there were many things we had to think about including items within the shot. We found a sofa and a large cardboard box that we had to remove because they would've ruined our shot as they wouldn't fit in to the thriller genre.

We also only had a limited time to film as it gets dark verty quickly and so we needed to ensure there was enough light outside when filming.

Timeline

Media Timeline

Video of feedback on filming

Production Logo

Our group is currently working on our production logo by using after effects on the school mac computer. We have been looking at various production logos for inspiration.
The one beneath is one I think is particularly effective. I like the way it's different to other production logos that focus more on the title of the production company. This companys title is made effective through the background image. Through deciding how our production logo will enter we are considering various effects that seem scary or thriller like to get the audience in the mood for our thriller opening.

Video Editing

I also wanted to test out a programme (Windows Movie Maker) I had on my laptop at home even though it's not what I will be using to edit my thriller opening. I decided to remake a famous music video and make it as similar as possible. I found that from recreating this enabled me to think and use different lighting techniques as well as teaching me how to edit clips together and placing sound over them. Even though these videos aren't of the thriller genre I found them useful as they helped me understand the different aspects of film making and increased my knowledge of the techniques you can use through editing software.




This is the video I made, you can see the similarities more when played at the same time as the original music video:



I also remade another music video by the same artist:





These projects took a lot more time editing than filming itself which I am taking into consideration for my thriller opening as I now know that we should spend more time editing whilst making sure we have enough footage.

Music Editing

I stayed behind after school to learn how to use the music programme on the mac laptops garageband. I managed to understand how to use it and created a sample peice. I learnt how to play a peice on the keyboard on this programme and add it in to the sample. For my thriller opening our group have decided to create our own peice of music that fits in with our video clips.
Sample Garageband by kerrythompson24

Moodboard

I made a moodboard with the thriller genre as it shows the inspiration I had for my groups opening. I chose items from different resources that stood out and inspired me. I chose to use dark colours as they creat mystery, teenage models to represent our characters within our opening and everyday items. I chose to present it on an A3 peice of cardboard as it allowed me to stick down more than an A4 peice.

Props

There will be many props within our settings as these will help give the audience a better understanding of our opening without giving too much of the storyline away. Our props will include:

• A variety of outfits( Pyjamas, every day clothes)
• A torch for extreme and close up shots
• A spy hole
• Different decorations for different rooms e.g pink items for the bedroom scene

Storyboard

This is the storyboard that Emily made for our group. We all decided on what she should draw in each box and we will probably make modifications before we actually shoot these clips. Storyboards are very useful as they help when filming to get the right actions and shots taken. Without these parts of our opening would be forgotton or filmed to a poor standard for example you might end up only taking long shots.

Location Research

As a group we decided to film/shoot the film In one of our group members Emily's house. We decided on Emily's house as we knew when she described it to us that the scenes of our opening would fit really well. Her bedroom is very girly and teenage like perfect for the "sleepover" part of our opening. We also decided that Emily's house would be easy to film at as it is near to where the rest of our group lives so it's easy to meet up and film.

We also found these brilliant location shots near Emily's house which create tension and mystery just by the way the roads and trees are set out. We thought that this would be a brilliant place to film any part of our film opening particularly the part where the characters are being stalked as this angle gives the impression that no one knows you are looking down at the road of through the trees.

Our Typical Audience

Our Typical Audience

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Character Profile

Character's

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Target audience

Target audience

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Proposal

This is our proposal for the film opening we will be making. As a group we made this and presented it to our class.

Proposal

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Original Treatment

Genre- We have been set the task to create a thriller opening so we decided easily that we should make our opening of the thriller horror genre. We decided that from the results from our questionnaires that this would keep the audience interested and entice them to watch the rest of our film if we were to make one. To make sure our audience know it is of the thriller horror genre we will add scary music, effects and camera shots and make costumes and makeup scary by using various dark colours and different uses of lighting.

Camera And Lighting- We have decided that for many parts of our opening we will need to use a lot of dark lighting so that we can get a spooky effect, however we will be taking into consideration how we will show places are dark as well as the fact that the scene must be well lit so the audience can see what is taking place within the scene. We have chosen different settings to film in so we get the opportunity to combine natural light with artificial light. We decided as a group that Lauren would be the main decider and leader in choosing lighting techniques and angles as she has the most experience in this than the rest of us. As a group we will all be contributing on how we think the lighting should be positioned etc but Lauren will be in charge of making sure that it looks suitable and fits in to our scenes.

Music- For the first part of our opening we have decided as a group to record a home video which turns out wrong so no music will be in the first part of our opening. The reason why we decided to be a group of four was because we wanted to portray an opening showing the friendship between four girls and we wanted ourselves to be in the opening as we auditioned others to be in the opening, however as a group of four we would be able to film exactly how we intended it to be and not an actor’s interpretation of our storyline. In the rest of the opening we will be creating our own music so that our film can be more original than copying another person’s music. Also it is very hard to find an artist’s music that doesn’t have copyright and this would involve asking for music that we might not be able to use. We have decided to put Chloe in charge for this part as well as working on the music as a group so that we can get the best music effect for our opening.

Art Direction- This is a very important aspect to any opening of a film as it shows the audience the types of characters within the rest of the film and their personalities. Art direction involves costume design, makeup, storyboarding etc. We have decided that Emily will be put in charge of art direction as all the members of the group have noticed her artistic ability. As a group we will all give our ideas to Emily so that she can come up with the best designs. She has chosen that the first part of our film will include the characters in the home video wearing pyjamas as this will show the relaxed mood at the beginning of the film setting the scene for the rest of the film.

Special Effects- These are used in nearly every film that is made nowadays. Without effects films can become boring and less exciting to watch losing the audience interest. I have been put in charge of deciding and creating the special effects within our opening but again as a group we will decide what we think the best effects will be to use. My role will include editing the effects using apple software and effects on the camera we use.

These things will all be essential for our opening without good organisation of them our opening will not be productive or work very well. It is also essential that we all stick to our main leadership roles by working individually but helping each other to work as part of a team to ensure that our opening is successful and captivating.

Action Thrillers

Just like the films Heat and Collateral made by Michael Mann there are also many more action thrillers. This genre of film combines action faced paced films with a thriller to make films more exciting so they appear to a wider audience therefore making more money.

Some of the most famous films are action thrillers like the James Bond films and the Bourne films. Not only are they full of action but also thriller and in parts theres comedy and romance making these films some of the most successful widely watched films accross the world.

Michael Mann

Michael Mann is a very famous American film director as well as a producer and screenwriter. Even though he is American he has worked on various British films and has one various awards for his work. He won an Emmy in 1979 and 2000 as well as a BAFTA.

Throughout his career he has made a high number of films. His most recognised being Heat and Collateral. The film Heat is set in Los Angeles and is based on a detective and a criminal. As the film was made in 1995 it is quite old fashioned in the sense that the quality isn't as good as the quality of cameras and recording equipment we have today. Its the type of film you would think of when the subject of a detective or action film comes up. Michael Mann became very well known for his film Heat as it appealed to such a wide audience.

His film Collateral was made in 2004 and had many famous people as actors in for example Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx. This film is about a cab driver who finds himself hostage. Again another detective film with a lot of action thriller is portayed. You can tell that Michael Mann enjoys making this genre of film as his films tend to sell well with this genre. The fact that this film was made in 2004 shows that technology has become more advanced with time. The cameras used in Collateral are a lot more advanced as well as the editing software to that of 1995. The use of very famous actors within this film also posits the success that Michael has had from the films he has made as he is able to have celebrities in his films.

Michael is a very exciting director to study because of his success and his gradual increase of what in my opinion are better films. I think that as time has passed his films have become not only better visualy but because of the actors more interesting.

Specific Questionnaire

Chloé took a Specific questionnaire to find out more about our target audience and their interest in the thriller genre. She recorded a few people being interviewed and asked them questions about thriller films, what they found effective and what they think of our ideas for our production.                                                

This questionnaire will help us with creating our thriller film opening as we now know what our target audience is looking for in a thriller opening. Below is the video of the interview and list of questions asked.          

                                           

The results we got from this interview were quite interesting and very helpful to us. Chloé found out that not everyone likes the thriller genre but for the people who do, some prefer the horror thrillers that involve murder, violence and creepy and gruesome scenes. She found that people are kept engaged when there is a twist to the film, and when theres a lot of action. Also the audience like it when the film is very tensed however one person she interveiwed said they didn't like the thriller genre. Chloé also found out that the audience find it more effective when there is music in the opening as it creates tension and suspense and that it can sometimes be effective if another voice is used at somepoint in the opening.

From this questionnaire our group learnt that most people do like the thriller genre and the people that do are more or less round the same age, it is mostly teenagers and young adults who watch thriller films. This questionnaire will help us in our production as we have now got useful information about our target audience, we know what elements we need to include to make our thriller opening appealing and effective. Without one to one interveiws it's hard to get specific information to improve our opening ideas.

Thriller Film Openings

Se7en
I chose to study the opening of the film Se7en because of the different conventions and effects used. From watching this opening you can tell straight away that it is a Thriller film. It was filled with Enigma’s, false paths and on the beat editing. The music used in this opening fits well into the Thriller genre because it was quite mysterious and eerie creating a scary and mysterious effect. The colours used within the opening were dark and miserable reflecting the fear and unknown element that you find in a Thriller film making you feel quite scared or anxious whereas a romantic film might have bright and feel good colours used.

There were also several different camera angles throughout which made it seem more exciting and as if there is more than one story line for example there was a close up of a newspaper article with some words being crossed out and a long shot of photographs being stuck into a book. The part that stood out most to me were the effects used in the film as this kept me interested and made me want to continue watching the rest of the film, the fact that some parts were shown only for a few seconds kept me intrigued as well as some clips being shown in a negative effect like some credits.

I liked that different parts of the opening were edited in quite a choppy way meaning that only a few seconds were shown for example when the photographs displaying torture were shown as this creates tension and makes the audience feel inclined to find out what happens in the rest of the film this also adds to the scary element of the Thriller as you don’t know why they are shown with no explanation.

I like this opening as not too much is given away about the storyline but it gives you an insight to what genre the film is. You can see from the way different pictures were shown of people being tortured and crossed out that it isn’t a comedy or family type film as these images make you feel slightly uncomfortable or frightened. Parts of the opening were very original like when the skin was scraped off using the metal tool giving the effect of inflicting or feeling pain or when the book was being sewn together with a needle and thread which represents extraordinary events happening through ordinary situations.

I think that the way the opening of this film was set out was really clever through using the book pages being turned. This is because at different parts of the opening the pages were shown being turned over showing photographs being stuck onto it and being written onto giving the impression that the protagonist was writing or using this book giving you a little insight to his actions that we don’t yet know of being written down.

An opening of a film is very important as it gets the audience into the mood to watch the rest of it and keeps the audience interested and lets the audience know the actors that will be in it without this the first scene can’t be set properly as there would be no introduction. I think that the opening to se7en was created really well as it made me want to watch the rest of the film because of the effects and editing used



 Mimic

I’ve chosen to analyse mimic because the opening really captivated me. It made me feel nervous because of the on the beat editing that took place. The music made my heart become fast paced and the constant flashing images of dead butterflies and pictures of young children gave me the illusion that the film has something to do with crime or murder. I thought that the voice message that was heard in the opening was particularly captivating as I heard the words “Pandemic” which made me feel anxious as if the police force was out of control.


This really fitted the thriller genre well as the lighting was dark and mysterious and the negative effect used on the computer made the butterflies really stand out. I thought that the use of dead butterflies was clever as it showed what is considered a “pretty” and “happy” creature to be scary and dead. The fact that this opening kept me guessing at what the storyline was about really made me intrigued to watch the rest of the film.

The music used was quite slow at first but it became fast paced and there were parts where the music became really loud and sharp to hear.  Also the use of diegetic sound through the telephone or walkie talkie helped get the audience to feel as if they are now a part of the film.

I thought the way the titles entered the scene helped continue the fact it was a thriller film. The names often appeared when the music became suddenly loud or when a flashing image happened with the use of on the beat editing so that the names really stand out to the audience.

Dexter


I have chosen to analyse the opening of the film Dexter as it is very different from most thriller film openings. The use of everyday objects representing different methods of torture is a very unique idea that works. The music was not faced paced or scary but almost comical. This was used to represent every day life for example the orange being squished and squeezed dennotes a person being squeezed to death. Also the t-shirt being put on and for a second looking as if it had suffocated the character shows another method of torture. In fact throughout the whole opening of the film you get the sense that someone is being tortured but not in a scary or shocking way.

Without the editing the effect that it has on the audience wouldn't work.This is because it needed to have different parts shown quickly for you to understand that everyday objects were shown as a representative of torture. I also found that the titles/credits didnt appear throughout the whole opening which posits that the opening was a very important part for the rest of the film. This could be because this comical morning routine relates to the characters personality and that maybe the main character enjoys torture. By not showing credits at the beginning of the film also makes the audience intrigued to watch the rest of the film to find out about what happens.

A lot of close ups were used within the scene to really make you question why this was done. I think that the director wanted the audience to wonder what the significance of the close up of the objects were. There wasn't much diegetic sound in this opening, however some objects you heard as the character would hear it for example when the character is shaving at the beginnign of the opening you can hear the blades scrape accross the skin.

The main part of the opening which creates interest for the audience is the fact that you can tell it is a thriller film from ordinary situations and day to day routines. This ineterests the audience and makes people question to why the film has started this way. You can tell straight away that the main character is the one in the opening as he is the only person in each clip shown you can also tell this from the way that he walks out with a smirk on his face.

This film opening made me want to watch the rest of the film more so than Se7en or Mimic because of the fact that it was set out so differently from all other thriller films that I've seen. I also felt inclined to watch it because of the way so many enigmas were created.

Conventions of Thriller films

There are various elements to a thriller film which makes you almost automatically recognise the genre. For example at the openings to thriller films there tends to be faced paced music to help the audience create different scenarios in their heads. Music is key to relate to the audiences feelings for example at the sad part of any film there tends to be classical slow music to help the audience engage with the characters involved. Without music it almost becomes harder to get the audience's interaction with the films content.

Another key convention to thriller films is a dark or mysterious setting. This tends to give the audience a scare because if a character is shown in the dark like this one for example it becomes unknown and unpredictable. I think that if this scene shown in the picture was set in the countryside in broad daylight it wouldn't seem anywhere near as scary and it would not fit in to the thriller genre. When creating my film I must make sure there is a scary and mysterious element to the setting to ensure my audiences recognition that my opening is for the thriller genre.

Personally I think that a Thriller film should have these elements within them so that they make the film stand out from any other genre :

• Music that creates tension
• Enigma's
• Various computer effects/techniques
• Dark settings
• Crime

One to one Interveiws

As part of my group Lauren found out about the one to one interviews she wrote out 12 questions to do with the thriller genre and asked three people to answer each question. Lauren's original idea was to film everyones answers, however nobody wanted to be put in front of a camera so she changed her idea to writing the answers down to get the questions answered by asking her peers. Lauren interviewed three people who came from different age groups; one from the elderly, one from middle age and lastly a teenager, from doing this our group can see the age group who are mostly intrested in thrillers and who we should base our target audience on.

To the left, Lauren took a picture of the questions in which she asked; as they are not clear they are:
1. Name?
2. How old are you?
3. Do you enjoy watching films?
4. What do you think of the thriller genre?
5. When you watch thrillers do you understand the storyline?
6. What types of thrillers do you enjoy more, action or horror?
7. In thrillers, stalkers and murders are usually men, would you find a film more intresting if it was a woman?
8. My idea is (i then explained) what do you think of this idea?
9. Would you be intrested to go to the cinema to see this film?

10. What part of a film captures your most attention, beginning, middle or end?
11. If a thriller is set in a dark environment do you find this more intense?
12. Do you like films which are mysterious and leave you guessing?

The first person who Lauren interviewed was Tracy who is 43 years old. From Tracy's interview Lauren found out that she enjoys watching films and that Thriller is her favourite genre so was intrested to hear my idea of a storyline. Tracy prefers to watch horror thrillers rather than actions as they intrest her more, and says that she will only understand the storyline depending on how good it has been directed. From this our group will have to take into consideration of how we are going to direct our film so that everyone will understand our storyline.

When Lauren asked Tracy the idea which we have in mind for our film she found it very intresting as she said it leaves her with questions which she wants answered that would make her carry on watching the film. Lauren found out that it would be best to set a thriller in a dark environment as it sets up more tension.

Secondly she interviewed someone from the older age group of 63. From interviewing this person, Lauren found out that elderly people do not really enjoy watching up to date films which in our case means that it wouldnt be a good idea to base our target audience on elderly people as most do not like to watch thrillers.
Pat was interested in the idea which we have in mind for our thriller opening as she said that she would be interested to see the outcome, however she also said that the way we film it would have to grab her attention to make her want to carry on watching as she doesnt usually watch many thrillers.

Pat commented that the most intresting part of a film which captures her attention the most is the ending  as it concludes the story, in this case we would not have to take this into consideration as we are only filming the opening sequence.

Lastly Lauren interviewed Keeley, who is a teenager of our age group. Keeley is 14 years old and is very interested in films which are only aimed at her age group. This shows that it would be a very good idea to aim our opening of our films at teenagers as we would mainly know what they would be intrested in.
Keeley likes the thirller genre as she likes films which make her jump alot, this could be taken into consideration when we make our opening as we should make it heart racing and jumpy to keep the audience engaged. Keeley didn't like the idea of us having a stalker as a woman as she is use to watching a man commiting a crime so she therefore thinks that the woman would just be 'crazy.'

When she asked Keeley what she thought of our idea she replied 'I think it sounds very good and interesting, i would pay to watch the film. I also think that your setting sounds good, scary and dark.'

When Lauren asked if she likes films which are mysterious and leave you guessing, she replied no because she would like to know whats going on and doesnt like cliff hangers. When making our opening sequence however I think that it would be a good idea to leave a cliff hanger as it will make the audience want to watch the rest of the film.

General Questionnaire

I took a general questionnaire to explore the audiences veiws on film and music so that I can improve and think about my thriller opening. By taking this questionnaire I have now developed a helpful audience profile. It will help me when creating my opening as it means that I have more knowledge on the type of music and films people prefer and how to capture their attention when watching my thriller opening. The results show that different age ranges and genders influence peoples likes and dislikes. Below shows the questions I asked in my questionnaire.
                                                                                 

General Questionnaire.



1.)What film genre do you prefer?  

2.) What age bracket do you fall into?

3.) Do you buy films online?

4.) How often do you go to the cinema?

5.) Are you male or female?

6.)What is your favourite film?

7.)Who is your favourite actor?

8.) Do you own more than five  DVD's?

9.) What genre of music do you listen to most?

10.) What was the last film you saw?

 From completing this questionaire I found that the younger people I surveyed prefered rock and pop music and owned more DVD's and brought more films online. Whereas the older people I surveyed went to the cinema more and prefered more romantic and comedy films. I gave out my questionnaore to 15 people and received a variety of results, however I found similar results to those of similar ages. This could show that nowadays the media around us has changed and influenced us differently. I have learnt that when creating my film I need to take into consideration my target audience because if I dont refer to what they want to watch it wont appeal to them. This task has helped me to understand that I need to make sure my film will captivate my target audience. From these results I will develop this further into a specific questionnaire as well as a one to one interveiw.