The document summarizes the opening sequence of a student film project. It describes 8 frames or shots used in the sequence. Each shot is described in terms of how it establishes characters, tone, setting and genre conventions of a supernatural thriller. Effects like lighting, sound, editing and visual effects are discussed in terms of how they build tension, mystery and engage the audience like other films in the genre. The overall sequence uses techniques from real thriller films to set up characters, location and develop an eerie, mysterious tone from the beginning.

1. Evaluation Question 1
In what way does your media product use,
develop or challenge forms and conventions of
real media products?

2. 9 frame analysis

3. Our first frame used shows our company ident “Thriller City Productions”, we started our
sequence with this to give it a sense of professionalism as nearly all films start with a company
ident or animation this makes the product recognisable from the beginning that it is an opening
sequence. We decided to keep our ident simple in black and white and felt that is was important
to not overcomplicate it to ensure viewers aren't confused by our production company. The word
“thriller” tells the audience what type of genre that our production company specialise in.
Furthermore, a “city” is also typically busy much like a thriller film with action going on keeping
the audience on the edge of their seat. The duration of the company ident is around 5 seconds,
this gives enough time for the viewer to take in the ident. The word “productions” is animated and
changes from blurry to clear, this represents how often a thriller film can be unclear at the
beginning however as the duration of the film goes on things begin to unfold and make sense.

4. Our second frame fades from the company ident and introduces the two main characters in our film.
Most importantly it gives the audience their first sight of the main character “Evelyn” and what she
sounds like. This shot also introduces her carer called Tracy. We felt that it was important to show the
characters early on to give the audience an idea of the people that feature from the beginning. This
short range of clips at the beginning also sets the tone for the film to help establish the genre of the
film. We also made it clear that Evelyn is the main character and protagonist in the film by focusing
the lighting onto her while keeping Tracy in the dark and not showing her face during the section of
speech. Instead we filmed a P.O.V shot from Tracy’s perspective while she questions Evelyn, it is
evident straight away that something is wrong with Evelyn shown by her uncomfortable body
language and the way she stares at the camera, however at this point it is unclear about what it is
which is causing Evelyn to act this way. The section of speech in the beginning clips also sets up the
narrative through the use of speech and background whispering that we implemented in to give a
creepy feel to what otherwise looks like a normal living room. Our main character “Evelyn” is inspired
by the main character “Carrie” in the supernatural thriller film Carrie. This short sequence of clips
uses continuity editing which is an aspect like a real feature film.

5. The third shot we used establishes the location of which the film is based around. A grave yard is
very typical of a supernatural thriller film, we decided to use this location to give the sequence an
eerie feel as well as the emotions that are attached to a grave yard which make it clear which genre
the film belongs to. During these beginning shots the editing speed is fairly slow to give the
audience enough time to take in the surroundings, we also don't want the beginning to have a
rushed feel in order for the sequence to have enough time to build up its tempo into more action
filled shots. The use of the close up of a grave stone makes the viewer question what Evelyn’s
connection with the grave yard is and whether she has lost someone in the past. The sound used
during this shot quite minimal with a constant deep droning noise, it gives a slightly uneasy feel to it
but nothing too extreme or shocking to the viewer. The lighting is quite grey and dull in areas which
adds to the feel of the sequence oppose to if the colours were bright and vibrant it would look very
out of place compared to the setting and choice of sound.

6. The fourth frame used shows a close up of a wooden gate swinging closed, this is quite a dramatic shot
as it is the first shot which has a fast pace about it. This marks the point in the sequence where the
tempo begins to pic up. The shot leaves a mystery of who it is going through/slamming the gate as the
person is not shown. After doing research on thriller films this shot of a gate shutting is a reoccurring
theme not just visually but sometimes just the creaking sound of the gate hinge. The editing of this shot
is fast paced and begins more of a montage style of editing with lots of shorter clips instead of the
previous continuity style. The montage style of editing is something that we had previously seen in the
opening sequence of Arlington Road another thriller film. This shot continues the location theme of the
grave yard so maintains the narrative of where it is based which causes minimum disruption to the
viewer while being able to increase the tempo of the sequence. The sound used from this point in the
sequence is the key to building tension which is what we found in other thriller films that often it is a
sound that marks the point where tension begins to increase and create more suspense.

7. Our fifth frame used shows the main character Evelyn looking into a mirror surrounded by darkness
with the only lighting hitting her back. The fact that her face is not visible makes the shot very dramatic
and causes the audience to ask the question why is she doing that? Inspiration for this shot came from
Paranormal Activity which features the protagonist appearing in a mirror when light shines into the
bathroom from the living room opposite. The editing at this point is fast paced which means that this
shot is only shown for a short time and furthermore catches the viewer off-guard. This shot again make
sit obvious to the audience that something is wrong with Evelyn causing her to do these strange
unnatural things. We kept our titles fairly minimal with a typewriter font, we did this to avoid the titles
becoming the main attraction of the clips as we wanted viewers to focus on the actual clips themselves.
This decision on font was done after research of other opening sequence titles in supernatural thrillers
such as Insidious. This style of font also suits the time frame that our film is placed in, this helps to give
it more of an old fashioned feel due to its appearance. We put the titles in a similar order to other
supernatural thriller films with the most important production roles such as director last and names of
actors at the beginning, we based the order of the titles from the thriller film “Arlington Road”.

8. Our sixth frame used shows Evelyn sitting in front of a grave stone, this makes the audience question
what her association with that grave stone is? This shot also has a very eerie feel to it accompanied
with bell chiming noises and the use of negative lighting gives it a very unnatural/supernatural feel.
With many of the shots of Evelyn she is looking the other way from the camera which questions what
she is trying to hide and what is it that is different about her. The location she is in could be possible
quite unnerving for other people being surrounded by gravestones however Evelyn is shown sitting
cross legged as if this is the place where she feels most at ease. During this montage sequence of
shots clips are cut on the noise of the bells chiming which adds to dramatic effect. The negative
lighting that flashes up at various points during the sequence gives a supernatural and ghost like feel
to Evelyn, the negative lighting is something that we had previously seen in other supernatural thriller
films. The lighting also reflects the personality of the protagonist as she is not a character that has
positive connotations surrounding her.

9. The seventh frame used was a close up showing Evelyn’s hand brushing against a brick wall covered
in blood, leaving a trail behind. We thought this would be the most effective way of using the fake
blood props available. This shot was designed to create an alarming effect on the audience and
causes them to wonder what situation has Evelyn got in that has caused her to get that amount of
blood on her hands. The use of blood would provoke emotions in the audience such as fear and
curiosity on what has caused the situation, creating these emotions are common conventions of
thriller films that we had looked at and are important to keep the audience constantly alert and
wondering what has caused this situation. We used sounds during this scene such as howling wind
and sharp crashing noises, these are both sounds which create an unnerving atmosphere amongst
the audience, this is a key convention of a thriller film to keep the viewers unsettled. The mixture of
blood used and sound makes the shot very unsettling for the viewer whilst also building up suspense
for what follows this shot.

10. Our eighth frame used showed the supernatural side of our protagonist, we used effects through
changing the opacity and layering two clips over each other to create a ghost like appearance. We felt
it was important to feature something supernatural like this in the opening sequence to fit our genre
of a supernatural thriller. The clip shows Evelyn sitting up however the effect makes it look as if she is
sitting up and rising out of her body. We focused the light onto Evelyn during this scene in a dark
room so that the only thing that the audience focuses on is her, this also adds for dramatic effect.
While Evelyn’s “soul” rises out of her body we used a mixture of sound effects called “electrical
noise” and “appear crystal” from final cut pro which helped to add to the eerie and mysterious effect.
This effect someone's ghost/soul rising out of them is something that we had seen in other
supernatural thrillers where characters had become possessed and thought it would fit our own
product well if we could create it. This shot featured during the high tempo montage area of our
opening sequence and worked well with the sudden movement of Evelyn sitting upwards. We used
the contrast of dark and bright lighting in the scene to create a mysterious effect and leave her
surroundings unknown to the audience.

11. Our ninth frame used is a long shot of Evelyn standing in an alley way with her head down. Throughout
the sequence it has been made clear to the audience that Evelyn’s face has been hidden and rarely fully
shown, this is done to show that as Evelyn’s situation escalates her identity is beginning to disappear
and she is no longer the same person that she once was. The setting of an alley way is something that is
traditionally seen as a negative and scary place to be especially in films, this is why we chose to film this
shot in this location. The audience will be able to relate to emotions felt when being in a dark alley,
provoking a sense of worry and mistrust from being in those surroundings. This shot is repeated
throughout the sequence but with Evelyn standing at different distances from the camera creating the
effect that she is jumping forward closer and closer to the camera. This creates panic amongst the
audience as she rapidly moves forward and leaves the audience with an adrenaline rush as the
sequences ends into the start of the film.