Evaluation - Question 1

For our coursework, we have had to blog our research for Thriller openings. We had to post every detail of our process in making our own thriller opening along with analysing different conventions.

Here is one screen shot of one part of our blog:

Question 1 -

Conventions of film openings:

The main part of a film is the opening. The opening gives the audience a hint of what the film is about. Some examples of conventions of film openings is that they set the location. Usually, film openings either pan the location or area where the climax of the film will take place. 

One example of an opening setting a location is Donnie Darko:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnivC-0g1uI

Another example of a film opening is introducing the characters. The first person introduced in the opening of The Taking of Pelham 123 is the protagonist; played by Denzel Washington.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8TtjRlX_3E

There are three types of ways which an opening can be edited. One way is stylised editing. Stylised editing is when the opening of a film is 'amazingly' edited. They are openings which stand out because the editing is so sophisticated. An example of a stylised opening is the opening of Mesrine.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ychi2zIYvGg

Another type is discreet opening. Discrete openings is when a discrete hint is given at different aspects of the film. This sets the atmosphere of the film but it does not make it clear what the film is about. Jump cuts are used to create a feel of the film but it does not let out what the film is really trying to show. One example where this is used is in Arlington Road.

The final type is the traditional, narrative opening. This is where the opening of a film does not over use edits by using normal cuts and shots.


Conventions of thriller genre films:

In a thriller film, the things we expect to see are:

-Things that relate to the sub-genre. For example, if the film is a gory-thriller, blood and other gory things will be expected to show.This is shown in the film Se7en.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-k2gsEI34CE

-A protagonist; mainly portrayed as an everyday, 'real' person. This happens in most thrillers, here is an example from the film Collateral.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPbG9uU7BiI

-Builds tension

-A lot of use of jump cuts which create suspension.

-Over the shoulder shots, point of view shots, high and low angles.

For our own thriller opening, our sub-genre was psychological thriller. Conventions of a psychological thriller opening is mysterious events, tense situations which grab the audience's attention. One film which inspired us to do a psychological thriller was Black Swan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEKRU_3Uaog

Conventions of title sequences

What we expect to see in a title sequence is of course, the titles or the opening credits. Here is the order in which the titles come in:

Usually, the titles on the screen are shown for at least three seconds.

We expect to see the main title of the film as the seventh title to appear on the screen.

In our own thriller opening, the titles faded out to introduce the next title. The use of the fades suited to the sound we used, which was a quiet, slow type of music. It also matched our shots as our shots were simple jump cuts of different types of scenery.

There are different types of fonts which can be used depending on the genre. For example, in our opening we used the font Central Gothic, which was really simple. This suited with our genre, which was psychological thriller as psychological thrillers are quite simple with hidden messages, allowing the audience to decide for themselves what reality is.

How does our media compare to real media?

Our thriller opening uses the traditional way to open a film.