The document provides an evaluation of Arif Uddin's opening sequence for a horror film called "The Lost Silence." It discusses the title, setting, costumes, props, camera work, editing, title font/style, story, and how it establishes the horror genre. It also reflects on what was learned from the process and how it impacted production decisions. The evaluator aimed to slowly build tension and fool the audience into thinking it wasn't a horror at first. Key lessons were around planning costumes better to develop characters, and spending more time on editing to improve the final product and better convey the genre.

1. EVALUATION
Arif Uddin

2. 1. IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR OPENING SEQUENCE
USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND
CONVENTIONS OF REAL OPENING SEQUENCES?
• The title of the film – The lost silence
We chose the title name ‘the lost silence’, from being inspired by many other
Horror Films. We used these specific words as many other successful Horror
Films use eerie words too. Such as ‘Nightmare on Elm Street, Sinister,
Psyscho etc.
Also our opening sequence doesn't have a lot of dialogue. Therefore we
believe that the verb ‘silence’ is very compatible with our opening sequence.
Our opening sequence tension is built through the use of music. Our title
therefore emphasises our opening sequence

3. SETTING AND LOCATION
• We shot our film at Sulham Woods as we feel that this is a perfect location for us to
film our opening sequence. It is not only is it easy for us to access, but it is a very
traditional setting where Horror Films are shot. This is because woods feel very
isolated from the public, giving it a spookier feel. The natural elements of the forest
make it easier for students like me without professional gear to be able to shoot a
respectable film. We can use the open space and natural environment to be able to
create realism in our film. An example would be the trees creating a shaded area, in
where very creative shots can be shot like the image bellow.

4. COSTUMES AND PROPS
• For our costumes we really had to take time and think about what each of characters should
wear in order for the audience to have a bond with our characters. This is as we don’t have any
dialogue in our film, and the audience need something to attached their thoughts on. Therefore
the characters appearance plays a huge role in this opening scene. We have Max who is a
masculine badboy teenager. Therefore we thought we would make him wear a black bomber
jacket with a white t-shirt. To follow the stereotypical badboy look of a leather jacket and a white t-
shirt. However due to some issues we wasn’t able to follow our plan. Tyler’s is a nerdy teen who
we planed on him wearing glasses, and a jumper with a an oversized shirt, however due to
issues we didn’t manage too. We feel that in our final production our characters were really hard
to understand in terms of personality. I think this ultimately comes down to us not being able to
supply our actors with the right clothing. However we did try to combat this, through the use of
their acting. We wanted their actions to be another way for us to represent their personally to our
audience. This did have an effect, however not a greater effect than the effect of having the right
outfit could of had.
• We had many props with us on the day of shooting (plastic skull, fake blood, plastic knife,
antagonist mask and tribal objects), and had shot some creative shots with them. However when
it come to editing, it didn’t fit in, therefore we left them out. We thought it made it too cheesy and
unrealistic, therefore we stuck to our gut feeling of leaving the shots out.

5. CAMERA WORK AND EDITING
• Due to our opening sequence not having any dialogue, we knew that our camera
work had to done to a high standard in order for our opening sequence to be
effective. For the film we had used an IPhone 6s, because the other camera were
unavailable. This benefited us, as we could be very mobile with the camera, but we
couldn’t use shots that we wanted to shoot that required a tripod. After watching
many opening sequence we found out that many shots the camera is not still when
shot, therefore using the IPhone allowed us to do the same. We feel that our shots
are very unique and straight away give the Horror Genre feel. Our shots were very
similar in style compared with other opening sequences, such as ‘Your Next’. We
shot many shots that are very Horror conventional. Example shots would be the
vertical shot of the tall trees.

6. The shot of
the long trees
was inspired
by the image
on the right
‘Witch Delivers’The lost silence
Thin branch's
hanging over
a lake. (trying
to escape)
Sinister 2

7. Shot of
woods, with
the antagonist
in the middle
The lost silence Unknown(2016)
Conjuring
Main character
glancing over
shoulder.
The lost silence

8. TITLE FONT AND STYLE
The font we used is very simple and basic, which we wouldn’t relate it to Horror Genre. This
fits very well with our the plot of our film. As we aimed to begin the opening sequence fooling
the audience making them not think that this is a Horror Movie. However the deeper the boys
get into the forest and the quicker the sun begins to fall, the mood changes. We show this
through the use of shots and a new soundtrack to set a new mood and tone.
Making the font colour white, challenges the Horror Genre convention as the colour white is
seen as an innocent colour, in which Angels would be represented with. However we decided
to use the colour white, because it is very inviting and bold especially when it is resting on the
black background. We feel that this is very appealing to the eye.

9. STORY AND HOW THE OPENING
SETS IT UP – HOW ITS FIT THE
GENRE I CHOOSE
• My story is about 3 mates who are going to the woods to try out their new bikes. At
first the mood is set to be calm and relaxing through the use of high key lighting and
the choice of the soundtrack. However the as we get further into the opening
sequence, we gradually see the lighting become dimmer and the music become
slower and more eerie. The deeper the boys get into the woods, the mood slowly
begins to change and tension begins to rise. We show this through the use of shots
and soundtrack we use. We end our opening sequence on a cliff hanger, like many
Horror films have done recently. Our opening sequence fits the Horror Genre,
through the different types of shots we have used. It also fits the genre as we are
following the slasher horror genre of an antagonist chasing its victims.

10. GENRE AND HOW THE OPENING
SUGGESTS IT
Our opening scene doesn’t suggest our genre instantly, as we didn’t intend too. We
want to fool the audience, and slowly bring them into the fact that it’s a horror genre
film. This comes across eventually in our opening sequence and occurs when the
characters get deeper into the woods.
The reason in why we wanted to do this, is that we feel that this method increases the
fear of the audience as they the tension is slowly built. At first they are presented with
three young teens who look relatively innocent. The last thing the audience would
want is for them to get stalked by a creepy serial killer. Therefore slowly building their
fear as well as tension, allows our opening sequence to be very effective due to this
being very unexpected for the audience.

11. WHAT YOUR LEARNED, AND HOW IT
IMPACTED YOU DECISIONS OF
PRODUCTION.
When filming our film, I have learnt that planning is essential for the final product to be
done to high standard. You should plan what each of your character should wear very
carefully as you this is a great way for the producer to create a bond with his audience
and his characters. Making the final product even better as the audience would have
enjoyed it more. Unfortunately we as a group failed to this, and didn’t mange to create
the effect we potentially could off crated. I have also learnt that a lot of time should be
put into editing, as this is a great way for a producer to get his genre across to his
audience. Also a high quality editing will result in the final copy of the film to be twice
as good than the original. To have a high quality final production a lot of time must be
put into editing. This includes looking for the right sound tracks, effects, and what
shots go where.
My research on what shots Horror Genre films use I feel has impacted my production
very positively. The day of shooting, I had downloaded many shots that I liked onto
my phone, so I could watch for a bit of inspiration whenever I needed it. This helped
me a lot, and I feel that the final production shows that.

12. • I also learnt that you should repeat shots relatively as one will come out better than
the other. Which I did on the day of shooting. This impacted my production as I had
a selection of the shots I could use for my film, giving us a lot of freedom when
editing.
• I researched a lot of Horror Genre conventions and made sure to add them into my
work, in order for my audience to be able to know that our opening sequence is a
horror film. This is included what slasher horror genre normally require.

13. 2. HOW DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT
REPRESENT PARTICULAR SOCIAL
GROUPS?
The image on the top is a picture of character called ‘Sam; from
‘Kidulthood’. In the specific film he is presented as a trouble
maker, who is always involved in action. However Tyler is
presented as innocent. Both are young teenage from around the
same generation.
Race could be a stereotyped argument, as black characters are
often made to be trouble makers in many films, whereas the
young white character is often the innocent one. This is a clear
evidence of binary opposition.

14. • Lionsgate could be a possible media institution that could distribute my media
products as they have great success with slasher horrors. Some example would be
‘Your next(2011)’ which cost $1million to make and it made $26.9 million. Another
would be ‘The cabin in the woods(2011)’ which cost $30 million but made $66.5
million. These examples show us that there are very effective in marketing when it
comes to slasher horror movies.
• LIONSGATE is a $2 billion global entertainment corporation that produces feature
films and television shows, which they distribute worldwide. They have funds and
power to be able to make my film successful.
3. WHAT KIND OF MEDIA INSTITUTION
MIGHT DISTRIBUTE YOUR MEDIA
PRODUCT AND WHY?

15. 4. WHO WOULD BE THE AUDIENCE
FOR YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT?
• The usual age for someone watching a horror movie is between 15 and 25. During
young adulthood they are in the key stages of developing themselves and learning
about the world. At that age they want to try new things and experiment with
different emotions and feelings. They want to rush into life without being guided and
therefore seek all thrill they can get. Horror movies give this thrill and can excite the
young audience easier than an older one. The young audiences are also less
susceptible to being put off the film by violence or unnatural images which may
make older audience feel negative towards the film. However our film doesn't
include a lot of violence, therefore I feel that is suitable for a range of ages. 15 -35.

16. 5. HOW DID YOU ATTRACT/ADDRESS
YOUR AUDIENCE
• We tried to appeal to a certain target audience, which is really important to do in the very opening of the film that we made
as a group. To attract the audience, we had to make sure our key features were met. We aimed for a movie based on a
target audience of any gender from the age 15-35. Once we had figured out the targeted audience we had to think of the
different aspects that would attract this audience and how these would help to maintain the interest of the viewers.
• Sound- Use of piano, drums and bass• Music sets up the atmosphere, comes across as creepy and sinister• Silence – is
seen as one of the most effective tools, we used silence in the form of having no dialogue. This not only didn’t give to much
away but it also shows the disturbing atmosphere of the sequence.
• Our film has a twist in it, in where we aim to fool their audience, in order to make our opening sequence more effective. We
didn’t want to give away too much of the film so we kept the details to a bare minimum in the opening so that there would
be many questions that the audience would ask themselves when the mood shifts to. These question could be “Who's
chasing them”, “Why are attacking the young boys” and “what are they boys doing in the forest. Throughout the film, these
questions are no unravelled and questions are not answered, as we end our film on a cliff hanger. The last scene is a quick
snapchat of the antagonist, as this will be last thing the viewers remember, increasing the fear.
• But our audience needed to be attracted and drawn in at the very beginning of the film so that they would want to watch the
rest of it despite not knowing the full story behind the film. We wanted to make our film slightly confusing to the viewers so
they would want to know what happens.

17. We wanted to have key moments that would attract our audience to our film are moments such as: when our
characters rids past an abandoned shoe. This shoes that they is riding into danger, as the shoe could be the
belonging of a victim whom the antagonist as already deceased. Or the shot in where we briefly show the
antagonist standing in the background, to let the audience know that the killer is around.
The change in the mood of the opening sequence draws the audience in, as the change in mood is very
unexpected making them more curious on what is going to happen next.
Panning shots of the scenery(woods) at the beginning give the viewers a slight hint that this is horror film,
however the soundtrack shows otherwise. This will intrigue some viewers as they know that something horrible
is going to happen to these characters.
panning shots of celebrates - people might even want to see the filmbecause of the pictures on the wall. In a
way it is quite misleading as the audience could think these celebrities star in it, but it draws in a audience that
may like the celebrates shown.

18. 6. WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT ABOUT
TECHNOLOGIES FROM THE
PROCESS OF CONSTRUCTING THIS
PRODUCT
I’ve learnt a great deal about technologies and they have vastly helped, and improved, my media
product. To ensure the different shots in our film opening where affective we had to use a camera
which was clear. The IPhone 6s has a very good built in camera, that can process 720p. We tried
using the Sony camera but they were unavailable at the time. This did affect the overall
appearance of our sequence as it wasn’t clear of what was happening in the sequence however
the IPhone 6s did a good enough job. The problem we faced with the use of the IPhone for filming
was the quality of sound was very poor. We used a IPhone tripod accessory that I had for personal
use, and it worked a charm. This made our shots look more sleek and professional. We used a HP
laptop to do all the editing and special effects for our opening sequence on the software ‘lights
works’. This software enables us to cut/crop the unneeded frames. This would allow our sequence
to flow smoothly just like a normal opening film. As we had never used ‘lights works editing
software 'it was quite hard getting used to the different programmes. However i overcome this by
watching many YouTube tutorial online.
Taking a lot of time this was successful as the editing of the whole sequence was good as the
sequence flowed well.

19. • One of the main aspects that was good with this programme was that it allowed us
to edit our soundtrack by enabling us to create the mood we where looking for. We
used the site ‘free-soundtrack’ and It offered a wide range of sounds as it had nearly
all types of instruments. We also tried to adjust the lighting of our opening
sequence, as we needed to use low key lighting for the next half of our opening
sequence. The program was quite hard to use and we didn’t manage to use all the
effects we wanted too.
• I also uploaded my opening sequence on YouTube and shared the link to my friends
and family. This is so i could gain some feedback from users. This helped us to
make the sequence better and professional. We could then improve our sequence
to meet consumer needs.

20. 7. LOOKING BACK AT YOUR PRELIMINARY
TASK, WHAT DO YOU FEEL HAVE LEARNT IN
THE PROGRESSION FROM IT TO FULL
PRODUCT?
• Back when we did our preliminary task I felt that I had limited knowledge on editing,
filming, types of camera shots and Horror Genre conventions. However know I feel
that I have improved significantly on the main task. I feel that my time management,
organisation skills have improved. This is as before we went out filming, I made
sure that we had all the props that were needed for the specific shots we were
going to film, every actor had a copy of the script and I organised the whole team
days for the filming day. I also understand framing now and blocking better. I also
felt that my creativity has improved as I understand the subject even better. I feel
more confident in editing and filming due to repetitive practice. However I feel that I
could of considered the audience better for my main product. I have also learnt how
to work as a team more, and how to get work finished on time.