The document provides an analysis of the opening to a student-created thriller film. It discusses how the opening borrows conventions from other thrillers, such as "Vacancy", including a couple stranded in a broken down car. It also uses stylistic shots like a close-up of a character reflected in a mirror to create tension and separation between the characters. The analysis then discusses how the opening establishes conventions of the thriller genre through its use of isolation, impending danger, questions raised, and a mysterious POV shot with a red filter.

1. Evaluation of Thriller Opening
By Richard Harrison
9070

2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Use & Develop
From viewing the film “Vacancy” we believed that the car braking
down was an appropriate fitting for an opening, but we didn’t
want to copy it so we made ours different. We changed ours by
having the car already broken down and then unable to start.
Some shots that they used where very effective to show a
tension between the couple. An example of this was when the
couple were speaking, and they used camera shots that only
showed one or the other character never both in a single shot.
We took on board these unique shots and developed them so
that they could fit in with our thriller opening. To show a
detachment to the characters we developed an idea from
“Vacancy” so it would fit in with our film. We used a close up shot
of the car mirror reflecting our female character, this is the first
appearance of her and being shown through a mirror gives the
sense of separation between the two characters.

3. Conventions
Our thriller opening follows a range of typical conventions, that are expected in a
thriller genre.
The opening is the first convention; there are scenes of wide open spaces and flat
lands with no visible life which indicates isolation. Another scene shows that change
is happening, this scene pans up to the sky showing the dark clouds covering the
sun, suggesting that danger is coming.
One thing that you notice is the red jumper, which the character Hope wears. This
shows that there is a romance or danger to her. I got this idea from the film “Lucky
Number Selvin”, at the ending all of the people are wearing black except Slevin’s
girlfriend, it makes her standout and shows there is a romantic involvement to the
two characters.
Another convention is of a POV shot which is done to show that someone is
watching them but to make it stand out we put in a red filter, this also gives a sense
that the thing that is watching them is dangerous. This POV shot indicates that the
sub-genre of the film is of horror, shown by the red filter.
The other conventions are the amount of questions that are raised in the opening of
the film: Where are they? Who are they? How did the car brake down? these are the
main questions that are asked during the opening.

4. How does your media product represent particular social
groups?
‘Our film represents a wide range of different social groups. Having teenagers act in
the film we open our representation to teenagers and by having them shown in
stressful situations we can relate to the teen social groups.
The main social group that we are aiming to represent is the lower middle class, we
have represented this class by having the characters wear cheap but stylish clothing
and by having a cheap car, showing they don’t have enough money to buy a flashy
car, this displays social realism.
In the film we also represent gender in a stereotypical way. In the opening we have
the character Hope say “I wanted to ask for directions” this is a generic sentence for
a female to say; as in films this is something that the female character says when they
are lost. Men are represented as the ‘fix it’ gender, this is shown at the opening when
we have our male character opening up the bonnet of the car and attempting to fix it
and eventually giving up.

5. What media institutions might distribute your media
product and why?
The institutions that might distribute my media product are Twentieth Century Fox Film
Corporation and Screen Gems. I choose these two institutions because they have
both distributed films that where in our selected genre.
I choose Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation because they distributed the “Alien
vs Predator” saga. I choose this one because it had a creature theme as did ours with
the red filtered POV shots. Also Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation has
distributed thousands of films so by having them do it to my thriller would increase the
amount of profit. I decided on Screen Gems because of their distribution of the film
“Vacancy” which is almost like our thriller. Furthermore Screen Gems has a link to their
distribution horror genre films, so horror fans will know the logo and make the link to it
being a horror film and should eventually bring in more profit.
I believe that this film would be released in the cinema first and then later on dvd, this
is because it will then build a bigger profit. It will also be released to the cinema
because I believe it has the potential to be an entertaining film with the suspense and
mystery.

6. Who would be the audience for your media product?
4. The audience that we were aiming to get to watch the film are the
people that normal view thrillers, but to widen up our audience we
wanted to add a section of horror and an action sub genre. Thus
aiming at the audiences who like horror, action and horror.
6. The key age we intended to get to view the film are for the ages of
16-24, we decided on this as this age group has a better interest in
action, horror and getting a thrill from viewing it. It will also intrigue
this age because of the young actors that take part in the film.

7. How did you attract / address your audience?
From doing the questionnaire previously I found that they liked thrillers with
intense and spooky music, so we added these suggestions. We also tried to
make the film audience friendly so that It could be enjoyed by large groups of
people, by building up the drama and suspense.
The part with the two characters fighting will attract the older age of the
intended audience because of it being like a drama. The suspense scenes will
bring in the younger people as they like horrors and thrillers.
I believe that the some of the intriguing camerashots will attract the audience,
as it will keep them fixed on the tv or cinema screen. One shot that I think the
audience will like is the reflection of the character Hope in the car mirror.

8. What have you learnt about technologies from the
process of constructing this product?
From creating the opening of a thriller I have found out that technology is as
unpredictable as the weather, sometimes the software dosen’t work properly, but
eventually it clears.
From creating the anamatic storyboard I found it to be easier to talk over and
generally quicker to put together. If it is saved as an MP4 it can be put on to an
iPod, which makes it more efficient to travel with.
When putting the parts together we had many problems, when we went to open up
the video through final cut express it didn’t show the timeline and the display screen,
so we could not edit the video. When it came time to exporting the video we choose
QuickTime and export video and sound, but it could only be viewed in the persons
area that it was edited in, but to overcome this you have to compress all the
information into one file (the video) to view it. With the camera you have to make
sure that it is filmed in the correct capturing setting e.g. widescreen, etc.

9. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel
you have learnt in the progression from it to the full
product?
From the preliminary task I have found out that it is always best to
film a scene more than twice in case there are any mistakes then
you have a back up. Another thing is that when recording a scene
do the whole scene in one place and then move to another place
and then restart, as this can help with the continuity when it comes
to editing. To capture the audiences attention you need to put in
interesting filming angles .i.e the car mirror shot.
I have also found that match on action shots are very effective in
shots that involve talking. Another shot that I find beneficial when
showing the landscape are panning shots, as it shows a vast area
in a simple movement and also looks interesting.