The document provides details about the opening film for a thriller movie titled "The Damned Soul". Key elements of the opening include simple yet consistent titles in red font to set the tone, a dark opening church scene with ominous bells to foreshadow events, and a cryptic first scene showing a grave and hand emerging to intrigue audiences. Special effects like flashes are used to make audiences feel like unseen observers. The opening effectively establishes genres, characters, locations, and leaves audiences wanting answers to set the stage for the full movie.

1. Evaluation Post 1

3. In order for my title to look more professional and more easy to
read, we decided that the type of fonts and colour used for our
titles should be consistent throughout the opening film. We
didn’t want our titles to look confusing for the audiences. The
titles were moderately spread out throughout the opening so it
flows with the footages; it doesn't look like a story but more of
an opening. Although the titles have great importance, we made
them simple so it doesn’t be the centre of the show. However,
most thrillers use big and bold fonts to show that the movie is
very frightening. whereas we challenged that by using simple
fonts to create suspense; we made all titles in the same colour
which was red and this signifies rage, blood and vengeance.
These are key generics within my movie.

5. The opening went straight into a major scene which starts off dark.
This is a key generic and I used this opening shot as a foreshadowing
of upcoming events. The church scene is one of the main locations
used and the use of non diegetic sound: Church bells livens the
atmosphere and this is an effect I used to make my audience feel a
“chilling sensation down their spines”. As the scene jumps into action;
this makes my opening look less like a story. The first scene is an
enigma coding which shows someone has been killed or has died. This
scene shows the grave of the protagonists whom was murdered by a
gang of people . Throughout the video, it shows how the protagonist
was killed. The reason is not given as that would have been revealed
later on within the movie. The scene starts off slowly and I did this to
create a calm atmosphere for the audience but as the scene instantly
changes with the flashing effect and the hand coming out of the
ground. This would make my audience jump and increase their heart
rate as that would be unexpected and this is a key generic that was
important to include; this was the main thing that I have challenged.

7. We used varieties of props. However, the most significant prop is the
rope that is used to hang the protagonist. This prop is the main focus
within the movie; a rope may look like it is a useless type of method to
kill someone. However, the audience don’t know the potential dangers
of a rope and they don’t know the reason why the antagonist used the
rope. The ideology behind the rope is to use this type of method to kill
someone in a humiliating way but also to get away with the murder as
it looks like the protagonist killed himself. This creates dramatic irony
where the audience know the truth but the actors within the movie do
not . This creates a sense of frustration between the audiences as
they know they can’t do anything to warn the actors within the movie
but this is a method to engage the audiences which is key for any
movies as it makes it more interesting; this has been challenged as the
use of this prop creates many other problems within the movie and it
turns a harmless object into a method of killing someone.

9. We used varieties of camera movement; mainly pan and
track. Pan was used in one scene were the antagonists
kicks the protagonist down to the floor. This camera
movement made the scene flow and the shot looked
more smooth. For this particular shot we mainly used the
tripod so it was more steady and it was at the same level
throughout.
For the tracking scene, we used that camera movement
for the last scene were we shows the protagonist laying
down from head to toe. It made the shot look smooth;
when recording, we used our steady hands as we
couldn’t use the tripod for this low level shot.

11. Within in the film opening, there are only four characters. All were
wearing full tracksuits or hoodies. These type of clothing were used as
they relate to the young audiences because these are the modern type
of clothing that has become a trend within that generation.
However, the protagonist is the odd one out; he is wearing a lighter
coloured hoodies which suggests that he is not the bad one out of the
four characters. This is also supported by how the character is
introduced; is being strangled and held down from behind by one of the
gang members. The character is presented to look frightened and
frustrated; we challenged the normal perceptions of protagonists by
making the character look more stressed.
The other three characters are wearing darker clothing. This gives
them a bad approach and makes them look like ‘baddies’. We intended
to make them look intimidating as this will make the protagonist and
audience feel scared and intimidated. This is features of the generics
that we stuck by. The audience can already pick out who the baddies
are and who is the good one. The other two characters are standing up
with a straight posture which shows the superiorities of these baddies.

13. Although we have two main locations. The most used location is within
the forest; when the character is surrounded and there is no escape,
this creates a sense of fear and suspense; the audience would feel like
they are trapped and this a key generic convention of thriller that we
intended to include. The setting of the location is dark and that
darkness supports the characterization of the antagonists; they are
evil and have no moral. This is a key place for a murder scene. Also
people tend to go to quiet places to ‘commit suicide’ and that what
other characters in the movie would think. However, the audiences
know that the protagonist was murdered. So this location really
creates tension.
The second location is the church/cemetery. This locations are key
generics of thriller and they create a sense of suspense and fear. As
these locations are quite sinister and they would make the audiences
feel uncomfortable and scared. This was our intention and it really
shows that someone has died and the audience would realise that the
protagonist has come back alive from the dead to avenge himself.

15. This key scene shows the character being tortured and later
on killed. It is very significant because the audience knows
that protagonists is not a bad person and that he is innocent.
The audience know from the build up of the opening that later
on in the movie, something bad will happen like the character
coming back from the dead to avenge himself. However, we
have not given a reason why he was killed as that would be
revealed in the movie and it makes the audience want to know
why he was killed. This scene also includes generics of thriller
as no audience would want to be in that position but they
know that things like do happen in real life which also would
make them have more fear.

17. For the opening we have used varieties of special effects. These
include fading in and out of scenes, freezing frames and adding colour
to make the film opening look more like a action film as well. We also
used mainly fast forward and slow motion. This was used to build up
the film opening and to create more suspense. Everything was fast
paced to make it really feel like a thriller movie. The most important
effect used was the flashing to portray a camera taking pictures. This
effect engages the viewers by them looking at the film opening; it
makes them feel like they are the ones who are taking the pictures and
the actors don’t know about it. So someone is watching them in their
act and he/she has caught them. Later on in the movie audiences think
that the person will use the pictures for blackmail or revenge. As this
will be through the audiences perspective, this shows that this is their
mentality and it engages them to consider the choice that the person
makes within the movie.

19. The film is called ‘The Damned Soul’. This was decided as the
initial story of the movie is about a innocent person who is
killed and he comes back to life to avenge himself. As this
characters soul is damned because it comes back to life we
came up with the conclusion that the movie should be called
‘The Damned Soul’ and this plays a great significant. The title
itself includes key generic conventions of thriller. The title
layout is quite different but we did this to make the title stand
out. However, the fonts are the same because we wanted that
same constancy throughout the film opening to make it look
more professional.