Opening sequence evaluation

overall:
looked like a thriller but wasn't very clear on what was happening, who was the antagonist and protagonist.
A bit confusing what was the plot how does it all fit together.
Cutting was abrupt, some of the shots could of been cut down to get rid of camera shake.
Some more sound could of been used fill a blank.
More transitions were necessary to link it all together to make more sense of what is going on.
The train track scene was well used but could of done with more shots to establish what was going on.
The panning/establishing shot was well used with all of the colours of the sky and the steadiness of the camera.
Could of done with more "takes" on most of the shots because you could see the actors smiling and some shots felt as if they weren't as serious as they could have been.
The screaming sounded a bit extreem but worked well with the train in the background.

Evaluative commentary Zaki Dowd

Evaluative report of AS coursework - Zaki Dowd

Section 1) 

The task we were set was to create an opening sequence for a thriller film. In groups of 4 we were to choose a typical thriller sub-genre for the production and then individually come up with ideas for the film. We also had to draw a detailed storyboard that showed camera movement and clear director instructions. The opening sequence had to be three minutes long, include the film title and credits, positively establish the chosen genre and target audience, and clearly show common conventions of the chosen thriller film. We chose to do a psychological thriller. We also did research into our chosen sub genre, we evaluated psychological thriller openings. I evaluated the opening for the movie 'se7en' which is a very we'll known psychological crime thriller. I chose this films opening sequence as it includes many typical psychological thriller conventions. The purpose of this research was to identify common thriller conventions e.g. certain shot types, camera angles, film noir and to be able to identify them when watching a film. In my research I also identified the target audience for my thriller, aged between 15 and 60. This is because, to understand a good thriller the viewer must engage in the story and keep interested in it. The viewer must be old enough and mature enough to understand the film and also young enough to not get bored and not bother with the film. The target audience for many psychological thrillers are 18, this is because they include a lot of violence and some psychological issues which can be disturbing for many younger viewers. My thriller however, will only be aged from 15 as it will not include any content which will disturb the viewer. The gender of the viewer is not very important as it depends on the persons personal preference, regardless of their gender. However, in my thriller, the viewer will have to put up with a bit of blood and fighting, which typically men prefer and women do not. Because of this the movie may be slightly more appealing to men. However it is more to do with the persons personal preference of film, whether they are male or female. The viewer must also have an interest in the sub genre of the film (psychological thriller) so they can engage and relate with things in the movie and follow clues and hints hidden in the story. overall my target audience which i am aiming to attract are 15+ males or females interested in psychological thrillers. The movie will have a age rating of 15+ as it will contain aspects of violence, death and a character with psychological problems. However i am not rating it an 18+ as the content is not overly explicit and teenager will enjoy the movie§ as adults. Psychological thrillers with similar target audiences include ‘Memento’ - directed by Christopher Nolan, ‘Se7en’ - directed by David Fincher and ‘Silence of the Lambs’ - Directed by Jonathon Demme.

Section 2) 

From the research i carried out i learned how to identify thriller sub genres. A way of doing this is using Lacey’s Repertoire of Elements, this is a useful framework to follow when analysing genre. Lacey breaks a texts down into these five areas to identify the elements in each:

• Narrative - (a spoken or written account of connected events)
• Iconography - (symbolic representation, especially the conventional meanings attached to an image, images or an object)
• Characters - (The characters in the film)
• Setting - (The position, direction, or way in which something, such as an automatic control, is set.
• Style - (The way in which something is said, done, expressed, or performed e.g. camerawork, editing)

From doing my research i have added certain things into my opening which i would not have thought of before. For example, from watching the opening scene from ‘Memento’ it gave me the idea of playing the opening scene backwards. This was interesting because i had never seen this before and made it very memorable. Another example was watching the opening scene for ‘Heat’ gave me the idea to have an establishing shot of a busy road in a city to open the first scene. I asked 4 people from the age group i had selected (15-60) what aspects of psychological thrillers they most enjoy. I asked one 16 year old boy, one 16 year old girl, one middle aged man, and another 16 year old boy. The two 16 year old boys and the 16 year old girl all said that “the best aspect of psychological thrillers are the plot twists and changes in the film”. However the middle aged man i asked said that “a psychological thriller must have a solid storyline and not have too much going on so it is hard to understand.” This showed that it is obviously much easier to engage in a film if you are younger than older, it also showed me the different aspects of a psychological thriller which people most enjoy, this helped me plan my opening by giving me guidelines of what people want to see in a psychological thriller and helped me think of ideas to use.  

 section 3:

Overall the opening sequence did meet the expectations of a psychological thriller. As the director i believe that it is a clear representation of what i wanted to show and also shows very clearly and effectively the chosen sub genre. I wanted to have a variety of camera angles and shots in the opening sequence and i believe the camera shots which were used, were very effective and looked very professional. For example the establishing shot shows a overview of cambridge from the top of a car park. While the camera pans, the film name is faded in one letter at a time. As this happens, a piano tune is played in the background. This is effective as the piano tune juxtaposes the films sub genre as it is a happy, relaxing melody and not a eery, dark sound commonly used in psychological thrillers. Another shot which is very effective is the second establishing shot which is shown in reverse. This idea is used in the opening sequence for the film “memento” which inspired me to used it in this. The shot is a POV shot of a person being thrown off the side of a building, from their point of view, being hung upside down, very dazed and confused. We used this shot to show the credits fading in one at a time. The reason the shot is shown in reverse is because i used the same shot later on in the opening but not in reverse, to make continuity. 

However there are certain aspects of the opening that on reflection, i would have done differently. For example, between the second point of view shot of being held off the building and the elevator shot, i would have added another shot of the victim being taken from the roof to the elevator. This would have made the sequence flow better and easier to understand for the audience. Also the only dialogue in the opening is shouting “help” and there is no real dialogue e.g conversation. If i had more time i would have included some dialogue between the characters and possibly a narrative, from the point of view of the persons mind. This would have been effective as it would have made the story easier to follow and also made it clearer what the sub genre is, as a narrative from the persons mind is a very common convention found in psychological thrillers.

My finished product includes aspects which are similar than those of other thriller films. For example, the second establishing shot is in reverse, i got the idea of this shot from watching the film “memento” which also has the establishing shot in reverse. “memento” is also a psychological thriller. 

The original storyboard idea was changed a lot as it was not as easy as expected, because of this we virtually changed the whole opening. However we did include certain aspects from my original storyboard. For example, we included the same psychological idea that the person believes he is killing someone else when in fact he is killing himself. We also included certain shots which were used in the original storyboard e.g. the establishing shot as an overview of cambridge.

Zaki Dowd