The document discusses the opening sequence of a student film project titled "Dementia's Gates". It summarizes the key creative decisions made regarding the title, setting, costumes/props, camerawork/editing, title font/style, story, genre, character introductions, and use of low-level lighting. The opening sequence aims to immediately engage the audience with mystery and confusion typical of the psychological thriller genre through an armed criminal on the run and an ambiguous character encounter in a dark tunnel. Both conventional and unconventional thriller elements are employed to generate intrigue and questions about what will unfold in the film.

2. Title of the Film
The title of our film is “Dementia’s Gates” as can be seen in the first screenshot.
We thought this was a suitable name and used thriller conventions. We called it
this because the genre of our film is a psychological thriller where a key element
is confusion, hence the “dementia” part. The “gates” part of the title implies that
this only the start of the journey for the unknown person entering this “dementia”
state. This creates a mysterious, suspenseful and slightly confused tone within
the audience which again is a key convention of a thriller film, and even more so
a psychological thriller. The colour scheme of the film title is black and white,
which is often used amongst the thriller film industry as seen below, this is
because it helps to connote mystery, and almost plays with the stereotypical idea
of not giving too much information away.

3. Setting/Location
The setting or location of an opening sequence to a thriller film can differ, for
example Limitless is set in a very busy city on top of a skyscraper, whereas Flight
Plan is set in a train station with only a couple of characters introduced. We
decided to challenge the way in which Limitless approached the opening
sequence and instead adapted more of a Flight Plan approach. We did this
because we thought a remote place, with lots of vegetation and few people better
creates a feeling of mystery, as a significant event within the film could happen,
and only the characters involved and the audience will know about it, opposed to
a lot of people., we believed this would an attachment straight away between the
characters and the audience. We also thought a remote location better suited the
title of our film, as dementia sufferers often feel alone.

4. Costumes/Props
A key convention of a thriller film is having the antagonist dressed in dark colours,
as can be seen in the picture below we decided to use this convention. When this
character is seen, the audience can instantly tell that he is the antagonist. The
fact he is holding a gun and wearing a balaclava further connotes that he is a
person of danger and creates mystery as to what he has or what he is going to
do. After watching Usual Suspects, we decided to stick with this convention so
the audience can clearly identify which character is which, because although
confusion is a convention of psychological thrillers, too much confusion is a bad
thing and the audience simply won’t understand what is going on.
A shot out of Usual
Suspects opening
sequence

5. Camerawork/Editing
We have challenged the stereotypical way in which the antagonist is normally
portrayed as person who is in control of a situation. The use of an aerial shot
suggests that the character is in a position of vulnerability, this is further backed
up by the fact the character is running, police sirens and a news report informing
the audience an armed robbery has occurred, can be heard. The camerawork
mixed with the aforesaid sounds create a desired split second of confusion as to
whether this person is the protagonist (running away, vulnerable, weak) or the
antagonist (dressed darkly, running from police, criminal). So by challenging one
convention, we have helped to consolidate another.

6. Title Font and Style
The font that we decided to use was called “Victorian LET” and was on the editing
software Sony Vegas Pro 10.0. We decided to use this font because we felt its
old fashioned look created an eerie sort of tone similar to that in “Lord of War”.
We also felt this font worked well with the stereotypical white coloured text and
stood out against a darkened background.

7. Story and how the opening sets it up
The story is of a criminal who has just committed an armed robbery and is on the
run, from the very first shot (the one below) the audience should be instantly
gripped as there is a lot for them to take in. Police sirens can be heard and so
can a news report, this should make the audience deliberately confused and they
should be asking questions. Moments later a mid shot of a tunnel is seen and the
audience should have gathered that there has been a robbery somewhere near to
this location, however as no characters have yet been introduced the audience
should wonder what this location has to do with that. Immediately an air of
mystery is created which is a key convention of a thriller film and the confusion
surrounding what's going on fits in perfectly with the psychological thriller sub
genre. The criminal is later seen and runs into a tunnel where there is a feeling of
him becoming a victim when a mysterious hand appears on his shoulder, this plot
twist is another convention of a thriller film and although not all questions have
been answered, some certainly should have after the opening sequence.

8. Genre and how the opening suggests it
The sub genre of our film is a psychological thriller. This should immediately be
known after just 10 seconds of the opening sequence after watching the first
ident. This is because the ident is a rubix cube, and this suggests the film is going
to have a puzzling side to it. As mentioned in the slide before about the
immediate air of confusion with all of the sounds going on and wondering what
the location has to do with the robbery, the audience should be picking up on the
key conventions of a psychological thriller. The ident is also rather dark and has a
contrast of black and white further suggesting this is a thriller genre film much like
the ident of Syncopy. Finally the music used on the ident is quite eerie, and the
music used in the tunnel leading onto the titles is suspenseful, so I think our film
is successful is suggesting that this is not just a thriller film but a psychological
thriller.

9. How characters are introduced
There are two characters in the opening sequence and we have both used and
challenged stereotypical conventions of a thriller film in introducing them. Firstly
we have used conventions of a thriller film by introducing the antagonist in a fast
paced mood whilst wearing dark clothes and seemingly trying to hide evidence of
a bank robbery, however we have challenged conventions of a thriller film
because when the antagonist enters the tunnel he sort of becomes the victim to
an unknown character in there, this is anti-stereotypical however we thought it
would work well in creating mystery. The character that puts its hand on the
antagonist is not revealed enough to let the audience know whether this is
another antagonist or whether it is a protagonist, this confuses the audience but
in a deliberate way and would engage them to watch the rest of the film for their
unanswered questions.

10. Low level lighting
The final screenshot shows the last convention I'm going to analyse and that is
low-level lighting. This is a convention in many thriller films as it is a very good
way to create mystery. The audience can see enough to know what is going on
but not too much information is given away. In our film we use the low-level
lighting to our advantage to help create a plot twist whilst in the tunnel. Some
opening sequences are done in all low level lighting, for example Usual Suspects,
however we decided against this because we felt the opening sequence would
become repetitive and tedious to watch .