THRILLER OPENING EVALUATION

Q1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real

media products?

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INTRODUCTION Typical conventions of a thriller opening:

The most crucial elements in a thriller opening are titles/storyline/ camera angles and shots/ music/ lighting & colouring/ locations/ props/ body language/ montage editing.

The following factors are immensely important, individually they contribute, and then they fixate together forming a remarkable film. The film opening seven is an example of this which was one of our inspirations; it had features every factor listed which made an impressive film.

SAVANNAH GRACE

TITLING/ OPENING CREDIT SEQUENCES

I feel that titling and credit opening sequences to a film are immensely important which requires time/ thinking/ effort to produce. The viewers have to see more than just a title or name, a deeper meaning needs to be embedded, for example some of my recent analysis of title sequences such as seven and insidious had explicit/ memorable title sequences which related immensely to what the film is about. In some sense titling creates mood and atmosphere or even connotes something. Me and my group decided and selected a font style named ... This denotes a newspaper font connotation of some sort news report since Savannah Grace had disappeared and is known to be abducted. Some of our inspirations relating to the storyline came from news reports in reality so we thought using a newspaper looking font/ type writer would relate to the past of when she was abducted. We also applied a transition to the titles which initially changes the way the titles enter the sequence as well as exiting the screen. I thought a fade would work well since it symbolizes a deeper meaning of Savannah Grace’s disappearance as it fades in and out, as a group we agreed and initiated the transition. Additionally the font colour was selected to white which is associated with innocence/ light/ goodness/ purity which strongly relates to the victim Savannah Grace who is a young teenage girl who gets everything snatched away and has disappeared into thin air without any tracks to finding her, the white also resembles a ghost effect as it appears in and then out as if she is a ghost as her family wonder whether she is alive or dead.

SAVANNAH GRACE

STORYLINE

The storyline to a thriller film is probably the most important part. The opening needs to entice your viewers and grab their attention, this is where the judgement of the film lies, and this would determine whether to watch the film or not. The director has an important role which requires him/ her to meet the needs of the audience’s expectations. In addition the director should limit themselves by not revealing too much and not giving the whole story away, it is just a taste for the viewers which they then make a quick judgement of the film in the duration of the 2 minute opening, if it makes the audience urge for more after the opening sequence, your film a success!

SAVANNAH GRACE

CAMERA ANGLES & SHOTS Camera angles and shots are another important

element that contributes towards the construction of a film opening, different camera shots have different impacts and help convey or tell different genres/ sub-genres. For example in our thriller we used over the shoulder shots which helped build suspense and intrigued the viewers as if something or someone was watching from behind. At one point we revealed a quick shot of the antagonist as he approaches savannah by grabbing her which was captured at a close up shot of the antagonists hands, he wore black gloves which connotations of a crime taking place preventing himself from leaving any evidence, also the gloves were black which have strong connotations leaning towards negatives responses, in connotes death, evilness, mystery and is associated with fear and the unknown, this creates enigmas.

SAVANNAH GRACE

MUSIC Music is highly significant which contributes to

the mood and atmosphere. It is essential since it helps create story, realism and heightens the audience’s suspense levels. Occasionally uncomfortable, sharp tones are played at scenes where trouble is sensed which intrigues the audience and initiates awareness that a threat is being detected which is presented in our thriller opening Savannah Grace when the antagonist approaches Savannah as she makes her way home from school. Voice over’s usually prompted when the narrative fills in the viewers about what has just happened and had taken place making it clear to the viewers. Music box sound...

SAVANNAH GRACE

LIGHTING AND COLOUR

Low key lighting as well as grey scale colouring is reminiscent to a thriller film. Our thriller opening contains a huge amount of low key lighting which helps set mystery, the majority of thrillers have low key lighting such as seven/ taken. This is a common factor used in thrillers. Grains appear on footage which wasn’t ideal however it does create an effect...

SAVANNAH GRACE

CRIME The majority of thriller films that I have watched

are believed to involve some form of crime, burning photo depicting a crime scene, suggesting the genre. The burning photograph mounts up many questions from the audience and concludes in a logical explanation, the girl in the photograph is the victim and the person who set it alight could be the antagonist, enigmas have been set up involving mystery and puzzle solving to her disappearance. Women are usually seen as victims to these types of crimes and men are usually seen as the antagonist who is committing the crime, and this is another thriller convention that we had used.

SAVANNAH GRACE