Gabby Gordon evaluated their opening thriller sequence for a class project. Their group chose to do a psychological thriller and make it mysterious by not revealing who the antagonist chasing the protagonist is. They filmed at night using conventions like low-key lighting, quick cuts, and varied angles. Based on feedback, they added more shots to better explain what was happening. For research, Gordon watched thriller openers like Gone Girl to understand conventions. They looked at lighting, music, shot lengths. Their sequence was inspired by a scene from No Country For Old Men, using similar lighting, color grading, and quick cuts. They debated using voiceover vs. music. The sequence fits in Todorov's theory between disruption and repair. Their

1. HUNTED
Evaluation by Gaby Gordon

2. For my thriller opening sequence my group did a psychological thriller as it is one of the best types of sub-thrillers. My group also agreed on it being mysterious as the audience
aren't aware of who the letter is for and the antagonist who is chasing our protagonist. I have used, developed and challenged the forms and conventions of the real media. While
we filmed and during the process of planning we made sure we did meet the convention rules of thrillers by using low-key lighting, short, quick cuts, shadows and a range of angles
in the different shots. We adapted it a little as when we showed our first draft to the class, they didn't understand what was going on. This was due to the shots of the shot of the
feet under the door quickly changing to a shot of someone sitting in a chair and watching the door. Therefore from this feedback we, as a group, decided to add a few more shots in,
to allow the audience to engage fully and understand what was happening in the sequence.
In the research stage for the opening title sequence, I watched a few thriller openers (including Gone Girl) to get a feel of what a thriller film would involve and the conventions it
abides by. This helped overall with my research and ideas to put forward for my sequence. We intentionally didn’t obey all of the conventions as it was only the opening and certain
regulations did not work in the sequence. While watching thrillers, I looked closely at silhouettes, shadows, the different types of lighting used (mainly low-key), the type of music
used as a non-diegetic score and the length of the shots being quick, slow or mediocre. After doing the 10 Textual Analysis I became more confident in analysing the camera,
sound, editing and mise-en-scene.
As a group we looked at two specific scenes from two different thriller films. One of these is the intro to Gone Girl as we wanted to examine the effect of using a voice over instead
of tense music, as well as tense music or having it silent. This was one of the biggest debates in the group as we were unsure to what would be better for our sequence. The second
scene we looked at is a mid way scene from ‘No Country For Old Men’. This scene is where we got our idea for our sequence.
1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
My final opening has been laid out similar to
this as my group decided on having black bars
at the bottom and top to make it look more
professional and we also added a yellow
colour grade on top of all the shoots to make it
look and seem to the audience more realistic.
We had to darken the lighting in editing as if
we filmed at night, like the first draft, the shots
would be too grainy and look awful so we
changed our lighting to artificial.
The movie poster
created by Josie Coyle
my editor in the group.
This is just a
representation of what
happens in the
sequence which leads
into the rest of the film if
we carried on.

3. Todorov’s Theory
In Todorov’s theory of; Equilibrium, Disruption, Recognition, Repair and New Equilibrium , the five stages of
a film in his views, our sequence would be placed just in front of repair.
Our decision behind this was due to the intended stage of the film the sequence is set at, being unknown to
the audience what is going to happen to ‘Thomas’ and the actress. The assumption is that something has
disrupted their life, and has been recognised by the protagonist. The sequence then nicely allows the
audiences minds to wonder with the story not knowing what the big recovery is going to be and the peaceful
ending. These were our intentions as using this scene, if used correctly, can become very effective.
For example the movie ‘Don’t Breathe’ starts with a similarly placed title sequence, after the recognition and
before the repair. This is a great example as when I watched the title sequence, I was intrigued to find out
more about the film, what happens in it and what happens to recover the equilibrium.
Linking to Todorov’s theory, our film also follows the circular narrative. This type of theory describes how a
film is set out in a basic manner, having the beginning and end, and then the middle of this is where the
events occur. Our title sequence would fit nicely in here as the scene it is based upon is somewhere in the
middle, not to close to the either end, still being a mystery for the audience.

4. Order of Titles
My group researched the ordering of our titles and this was the final outcome.
1. Immerse cinematics
2. A Klein Shelton Production
3. A Gaby Gordon Film
4. Starring Lauren Gulliford Brown
5. Hunted
6. Cinematography By Tash Ward
7. Music and Editing By Josie Coyle
8. Six Weeks Earlier
This is the typical ordering of titles and we therefore stuck by it as we tried to make it as
professional as possible.

5. Preliminary Task
For my continuity task our assignment was to get someone walking
through a door, sit down and have a conversation with someone. My
group decided to think out of the box and film our task in black park.
Our idea was influenced by ‘Up’ when Carl and Ellie first meet in the
abandoned house. Ellie is shown playing make believe by herself
and Carl comes across her and starts to listen in. Our idea was
based around this after doing some research into different ways of
completing our task.
We wanted our audience to get lost in our filming with our character
‘Lucy’ as she wanders around the woods and hears an interesting
conversation of make believe by the ‘Den Girl’. As she follows the
voice so do the audience, both intrigued to find out what it is and
where it's coming from.
When we got feedback on our task, there were only two
improvements being add sound that was needed, which we
completed and improved to fit it, and that it didn’t quite fit the
specifications of walking through a door. However, we spoke to the
class and the teacher so it was improved and they understood our
idea.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAHdl_SCJOw

6. Test shots
This is a shot of our location in
the dark. The quality was too
grainy for our final edit, so we
went back and refilmed in the
light so we could get a better
quality of the shots.
We also tried out some
silhouette shots on one of our
group to see what kind of
lighting we needed for it incase
we would use it in the final thing.
My group also got some CU and
ECU shots of one of the group
members to see how they would
show up on camera and if they
were appropriate for our
sequence.

7. Camera and Lighting Editing
● For camera, we decided we wanted to convey
danger and tension through the protagonists
opinions and eyes. This was met by the different
angles and shot types. Including CU, MS on the
protagonist and wide angles and LS on the room
to set the scene and get the ongoing establishing
shot.
● Camera shots and angles were influenced by ‘No
Country For Old Men’ in the ‘Motel Showdown’
scene as zooms and CU’s are used on the
protagonist and the door similar to ours. This film
was our main influence
● Lighting starts off bright and synthetic from the
light inside the room, but changes to low-key after
the light is dimmed for filming and purposes and
to meet general thriller conventions on lighting
being dark.
● Our lighting decisions were also influenced by ‘No
Country For Old Men’ as in particular scenes,
including the Motel scene, the lighting is low-key
with a colour grade edited on top to make it look
like it was set in the 80’s.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnJ0-Ts6gh4
● Duration of shots throughout are generally
short with quick cuts between each,
keeping in line with the conventions of
editing for thriller movies specifically. We
used zoom and pans a couple of times but
mainly straightforward static shots to keep
the audiences focus on the frame of shot
instead of the shot type. Screentime is
predominantly on the protagonist the
actions they do and expressions they
show as reactions to the current events.
● The ‘Skyfall lodge’ scene in ‘Skyfall’ when
it is under attack is where my group got
the inspiration for quick cuts, and a range
of durations for the different shots. For
example in this scene the camera cuts
rapidly in certain aspects yet also endures
longer shots for different sections of the
scene.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbtdUOmAPbo

8. Mise En Scene Sound
● We asked our actress to wear old clothes and
have no makeup on when she got to the
location as we wanted to make it look like she
has been on the run for a while. When we did
the makeup, we created bruises and cuts and
scuffed her hair up to create the right look for
our protagonist and make the two fit together.
● The location was an important part of our
research as it had to look like it had the bare
minimum in it, just the chair and the
protagonists weapon. This worked considerably
well as our DOP offered her room and moved
everything out of shot so we could get the
correct feel to the location to work with the
sequence.
● ‘Die Hard with a Vengeance’ is the influence for
our protagonists clothing as Bruce Willis is also
wearing ragged clothes even though he is a
police officer. We thought this was an
appropriate clothing decision as our protagonist
needs to look like they haven't got much left.
● The sound in our sequence consists
of a voice over throughout the whole
2 minutes (approximately). My group
chose to use a voice over after
researching openings and finding
‘Gone Girl’ a good reference for the
script.
● We also added in white noise to
make it sound more realistic and the
sound of the banging at the door at
the end of the sequence before the
door bursts open and floods light in.
● We got the inspiration for our voice
over from Gone Girl when the
husband is giving a monologue on
his wife in the opening of the movie.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyYkttbnPK0

9. 2) How does your media product represent particular social groups?
In our product we have gone against traditional stereotypes and have used a girl as our protagonist. We originally tried with a male
protagonist, but after audience feedback we changed our actor to a female. This has represented the atypical protagonist being a female as
generally, males are the heros in all situations and the females are victims. Throughout the opening sequence we have supported the
atypical women role as the protagonist by connoting her being the main character.
In the beginning, the protagonist bolts a door, walks over to the window and spies a figure standing outside. She then goes to place a chair
down, returns to the window and notices the figure has gone, causing her to pick up the hand gone from the window sill. This goes against
typical conventions of films, as women don’t generally prepare themselves with weapons. However, due to our protagonist being a women,
this is expected.
The protagonist is portrayed as someone on the run. This is implied by the voice over and her actions, not taking her eyes off the door and
gripping the gun firmly to be prepared for the worst. When it came down to the antagonist (figure outside), we wanted to indicate mystery by
zooming in on the person outside with cuts in between to make it a jolting shot. Also the disappearing of him and the quick movement by
the protagonist to turn of the light. Our title also implicates the story of why the protagonist is running as it’s called “Hunted”.
The protagonist is conveyed as scared by her facial reactions and body language. This was intentional as my group decided it to be better if
she wasn’t a strong, brave typical hero but a more realistic one. This goes with the fact it’s a women as women are seen as weak and
frightened, yet our protagonist is slightly risen but can still pull the trigger when it comes down to it. Atypically, girls don’t get the main part of
thriller/action movies because it's down to the males to save the females, but once again we wanted to prove this stereotype wrong and use
a female as our protagonist. This supports our audience feedback as well.
The protagonist has most screen time as her expressions where a main part of the sequence. However, we wanted the audience to focus
on the door as that’s her focus. Intentionally most shots are between the protagonist and the door as that’s where the audience’s main
attention is drawn to.

10. How we addressed age and ethnicity
Age
In our sequence our protagonist is a 26
year old female. In the film she would be
in danger and on the run. Being a 26
year old women, naturally this wouldn't
be the case, but my group went against
typical stereotypes of age and
specifically made our character to be 26.
We wanted to use a-typical age
references as it’s unlikely a young adult,
female adult to be the protagonist in a
thriller film. Not only is it unusual a
women is the protagonist, but she is the
one who is being hunted, whereas
normally a male is hunted.
Ethnicity
Our protagonist is a white, english
female. This isn’t seen as the most
powerful and strong mankind yet, it is
what my group decided to do. We
wanted to show people that not only
white men are the bravest and
strongest, but women can also be that
strong and brave.
We originally started with a male
protagonist who was the typical strong
male, but after our feedback from the
audience we changed our protagonist to
a female as our audience preferred an
atypical role to play the main character.

11. Lucy and Kill Bill
Lucy is a thriller/action film about a girl who delivers a synthetic drug to a drug lord but it gets
released into her system and she becomes surgically implanted. This film is distributed by
Universal Pictures. The main character in this film is a female like ours.
Kill Bill also has a female as the main character. This film is distributed by Miramax Films. Kill
bill is about a former assassin called The Bride who seeks revenge on her jealous ex-lover Bill
after he puts her in a coma on her wedding day.
Both of these films have something in common with our film which is they both have females
as main characters. I looked at both of these for my improvements as they are similar to my
sequence being both thrillers and involving action or being psychological.
What I noticed about these two posters was that
because the female characters were the main
characters, they are both the front covers of the
films. They are also centre of the posters indicating
their importance in the film is superior.

12. Hunted film poster
My groups editor created a poster for our film. As you can
see it is a shot of the protagonist holding a gun and pointing
and the bright light that was revealed by the door being
smashed open.
We wanted a monochrome effect on the poster to make it
seem like the film was going to be basic and predicted.
However, this is just a trick that my group wanted to play on
the audience.
The use of a white light covering most of the poster is used
to display a hidden meaning and unawareness of what to
come. The brightness hides everything apart from the
protagonists arm, the gun and the window. These objects
have significance to be found out in the opening and
potentially the rest of the film if it was ever finished.

13. No Country For Old Men
We liked “No Country For Old Men” as it has a similar styled
scene in the film to our title sequence which makes it a good
inspiration to look upon and get ideas. The clip has a range of
camera angles and close ups which emphasize on certain
movements and actions. Furthermore, there is a wide variety of
editing techniques that my group have looked upon to get a feel for
our thriller and some ideas on how to complete the final title
sequence.
Mise En Scene is also similar to ours as the lighting is low-key,
there’s a colour grade on top to make it seem retro and old-
fashioned to fit in with the time it is set being the 1980’s. One
difference for the Mise En Scene is the protagonist in our thriller is
a girl, going against all stereotypes.
In the one particular scene we as a group looked at for our
sequence, there is no sound apart from sound effects from the
light, door, window smashing and guns. Whereas, our thriller
opening has a voice over to create suspense.
This scene was picked after one of my group suggested us
watching it to get some ideas. In the end we managed to mindmap
and bullet point how we wanted to set out the sequence and what
inspiration we wanted to include in it from this film and also Gone
Girl.
We looked a Gone Girl for one reason in particular, and that was to
get ideas for the voice over and how we could layout the script,
what to include, how it should be read and who by being a man or
a woman. This also was decided by who the protagonist would be
so the voices matched.

14. Gone Girl
Gone Girl’s production company was 20th Century Fox. My
group researched about this company and watched the opening
of Gone Girl to get some ideas for our opening.
Our focus was the voice over. We wanted to find out if it was
juxtaposing with the film, what tone of voice was used (being
calm or agitated), if it was a males or females voice and the type
of story it conveyed.
As a group we looked over it many times to get an understanding
of how we should set out our script and the type of conventions
to follow including who was going to say it and the tone.
We decided after going against other conventions of thrillers, that
we should stick to the A-typical structure we were obeying and
have a female saying the voice over to match our protagonist.
Our script is not addressing anyone in particular, unlike Gone Girl
which is about his wife, as we deliberately don’t mention ‘I love
you’ which generally implies it’s to a partner, but we left the
audience wondering who she is talking to and who Thomas is.
This causes the audience to want to know what the rest of the
film is about and who is being addressed by our protagonist and
the reason she is giving him a task to complete.

15. Script

16. 3) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
● Our product has the possibility of being distributed by different media
institutions if it became a full movie as it is a low age rated movie and is
quite a popular genre of films. Our film would be a sub-genre of Thriller
Action. Thrillers are distributed by many different institutions including
online sites; Netflix, Amazon Prime, Film 4 etc. and film productions like;
Universal, 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. If potentially our film was
distributed Warner Bros would be the most likely candidate as their forte
is thriller and horror films.
● All of these institutions distribute thriller films as they are one of the most
popular genres in the film industry. However Warner Bros are one of the
most likely distributer of our product. They don’t have many Thriller
movies in particular but they do a lot of action films. This is useful as our
thriller film will include action due to its mystery sub-genre of thriller. They
distributed ‘Inception’ a psychological-thriller, ‘The Accountant’ a crime-
thriller and ‘Lethal Weapon’ an action-crime-drama.
● The other main distributer for our product would be 20th Century Fox. The
reason for this is because it has done a lot of thriller films including Gone
Girl which, along with No Country For Old Men, was a main film we got
inspiration from.
● Our group also researched Film 4 movies as some of their credits are
similar to ours and the effects they have used. This was therefore our
third inspiration as we searched around trying to find good ideas for
certain aspects of our sequence which included the credits and titles.
● If our film was low budgeted, the most likely distributer for us would be
Film4 as they distribute quite new films that don't go to cinemas. Whereas
if the film was high budgeted a more likely distributer would be Warner
Bros or 20th Century Fox.

17. These are two institutions that could potentially distribute our
product if it became anything as they are well known brands and
have a good reputation for films.

18. 4) What would be the audience for your media product?
● Due to it being a psychological thriller, our group decided
on it being a 15 as it would be too graphic and disturbing
for young children. However our main audience focus is
late teenagers being 15-40 year olds as it is more their
style of films. This is implied by our feedback for the
opening as 75% of responses were done by 16 year
olds. Thanks to our audience research we came to the
conclusion of how to set out the sequence, who the
protagonist would be and what would be seen, not giving
too much away.
● My group chose this age rating after our inspiration “No
Country For Old Men” as our sequence is loosely based
off a scene in that film. This is a good rating as after my
research of the film and similar films none are younger
than 15. The films I looked at included; Gone Girl(18),
Oldboy(18), The Machinist(15), Identity(15) and
Inception(12).
● Looking at all of these films, rating our movie as 15 was
the correct choice as it wouldn’t be as innocent as
Inception, but equally not as gory and morbid as Gone
Girl. Therefore, it was placed in the middle of these two
ratings which is where it seemed to fit.
● BBFC says that to be a 15 it requires; bad language,
discrimination, drugs, bad behaviour, nudity, threats and
violence. Our film would include most of these, meaning
that 15 is the correct age rating for it.

19. 5) How did you attract/address your audience?
To attract our audience we had to go through series of audience feedback after our different drafts. This included if
our protagonist was female or male, which showed to go against general stereotypes of a male main character but
a female instead. A reshoot of our filming due to our poor lighting as we filmed at night instead of just dimming the
light when we edited it like the second time of filming/editing. If it included diegetic sound of sound effects from the
door being locked, gun being picked up and the bangiing on the door. If it included non-diegetic sound of a voice
over and a background score to create the ambiance and create a thriller feel to the sequence. As I mentioned
previously, our target audience is 16 year olds because we are close to that age bracket only being one year older.
When screening we realised that the most significant points of our sequence is the middle when a figure is standing
underneath the street lamp and the knocking at the door. Without the figure outside, our audience wouldn’t
understand what was happening and get confused. This was pointed out to us after showing the sequence to one
of our classmates and him getting confused with what was going on. He thought that the knocking at the door was
the protagonist. After this realisation, my group understood where he was coming from, resulting in us reshooting
and adding in the shots of the person outside to allow our audience to understand what was going on. Our voice
over, once added in, is simple but in an effective way as it still adds to the suspense and puts the viewer on the
edge of their seats wanting to know more. The music is eery but not overwhelming and overpowering to cancel
everything else out that is going on in the sequence. This was our intention as we wanted the audience to listen to it
and pay attention but keep most focus on what the protagonist is doing. This allows the viewer to feel as if they are
there and are the person being hunted. My group decided to conduct the research as we wanted our audience to
be as happy as possible, We got feedback after every edit to keep making improvements until our audience liked
and were happy with our final sequence. We therefore adapted as a group and our sequence to work together
more so we could understand what our audience want and create a good final opening sequence. Overall, we
attracted our audience by following most conventions of thrillers which met our audience's expectations. This was
also achieved by the use of techniques of POV shots to make the audience understand how the protagonist feels
and the setting of the scene being at night in the dark to reach out to those certain viewers who are affraid of the
dark.

20. This is our feedback on
lighting in the sequence
after the audience
feedback. As you can
see every one of our
viewers prefer dark and
low-key lighting for a
thriller opening
sequence compared to
bright and light lighting.
We also asked about
shadows formed in the
sequence and if our
target audience like it or
disapprove of it. Luckily,
they all agreed on the
use of shadows and
liked the effect it had on
the scene.
This feedback was a mix
but most of our audience
prefer having a voice
over. Apart from two
people everyone
prefered to have some
kind of dialogue in the
sequence instead of
none at all.
Similar to the
dialogue question that
we asked our
audience, the majority
voted for sinister
music in the
background, but a
couple also opted for
contrasting music.
Also, one didn’t have
an opinion and was
mediocre with either.

21. Our audience that
responded to the
feedback ranged
mainly from 15-17.
This is helpful as our
target audience is
range from 15-40 year
olds. There was only
one person above 19
implying it’s not there
kind of film.
Including the other two
feedback questions linking
to sound, we wanted to
ask one more question
and that was about the
timing of it. 85% of the
responses are supporting
music being in sync
instead of out of sync.
However, a couple did put
this as their answer and
one said they didn’t mind.
This specific feedback
shows most of our
audience didn’t have an
opinion on who played the
main character, and the
second most popular was
a male. However, when
we had a discussion in
class with some of our
classmates they said they
would have prefered to
see a female protagonist,
therefore we changed it to
suit the audience's needs.
Finally we asked our
audience what kind of
thriller movie they
prefer. As you can see
50% prefer
psychological-thrillers.
This is what we based
our opening title
sequence on as my
group wanted to do
this type of thriller
anyway, but we
needed to meet our
audiences requests
before our own.

22. 6) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Throughout the making of our final title sequence of ‘Hunted’, I have had to do a lot
of research of how to layout the documents properly and work together as a group
to create professional script, storyboards, shot list and the credits in the sequence
itself. I searched on google to find examples of these documents and youtubed
examples to understand what the layout is and why it is laid out like it. These greatly
helped with our documents as it made me and the rest of my group feel comfortable
in the set out of our documents in knowing they look professional and correct.
When filming we used a Nikon 3200, provided by our editor. The quality was great
apart from when it came to doing dimmed shots. This is where we had a problem
with the first draft as the shots came out grainy and made it look bad quality.
However, after our feedback we refilmed with the light on and edited it darker so it
looked like it was the night. We shot most of the sequence handheld, unfortunately
meaning some of the shots were shaky, but we could cut that out. We also bought a
tripod for our second shoot so we could film the pans easily without movement so it
came out as better quality.
Doing this task helped me understand how we set up mise en scene of location and
actors, camera quality, lighting being low-key or high-key depending on what time
we shoot and what time we want the audience to believe it is. With help from our
DOP Tash, she helped me understand the different types of shots and angles we
could use for different scenes to get the best shot possible which I trusted her with
as she was able to understand and map out how we should film it, and the help
from both Josie, editor, and Klein, producer on different ways we can edit the final
sequence with non-diegetic sound effects, duration of shots and cuts and the
finishing touches including fades and credits.

23. 6) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this
product?
Along with the
camera and editing
skills I have learnt, I
have also learnt to
use an online app
and web browser
called wordpress
which is what my
blog is on and where
I update all of my
group work and own
research.
I also started using
survey monkey with my
group to make surveys
for our classmates to
give us back feedback
on our drafts we screen
for them. This is a good
app to use as it’s an
easy way to get
responses.
Google classroom is an
online group were out
teacher would give us
links to help with
research and
homework for us to
complete. Also a way
of showing our
classmates the work
we have produced and
give them questions to
answer for feedback
With camera and
editing, I also learnt
how to use premiere.
By adding in the
different shots and
cutting them to
create our sequence
I watched over the
editor to understand
what they do and
how they do it.

24. 7) Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the
progression from it to the full project?
Our preliminary task went well, the editing was good, our camera quality was great, but the idea was
found a by boring by our audience. Most of our audience said it was a good story, but not everyone
agreed. They also didn’t think we followed the task of a character walking through a door, sitting down
and having a conversation. From the progression of the beginning of our preliminary task to the final
opening sequence, I have learnt about the importance of correct filming and effects. When we filmed
the preliminary task, we mistakenly left some objects in the background of the shots, so when it came
to the final task we made sure there was nothing in the background that shouldn’t be. Therefore, it
took a few of the same shots to get them right not only to have the right angle but to make sure the
background is the same. This is by not breaking the 180 degree rule, which we didn’t completely
follow in the continuity task. Lighting however was a big issue for us with the final sequence, as half of
our clip is filmed at night time. To resolve this issue we filmed all of it with the light on and in editing
Josie dimmed the shots that were at ‘night’. We also added a yellow colour grade on top. Our DOP
struggled with a zoom in shot after many retakes, so we edited it so the shot was cut into lots of shots
and made a blinking effect over it to hide the shakiness. After all of this and the research, I now have
a better understanding of camera, editing, sound and mise en scene and how they are all equally
important in filming. If you don’t get one correct it could mess the whole thing up.
Overall, I think the preliminary task could’ve been better, but it did help us understand how to plan for
our main task. The main task turned out well, the quality was much better when we finished it and our
audience all liked it when we screened it in class and it is clear that it was a thriller and meets the
expectations we set for ourselves.

25. Thank you for reading!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGmW-ExxM5s