The document discusses the conventions of thriller film openings, emphasizing the importance of establishing tension and suspense through elements such as flashbacks, location choices, and soundtracks. It details the specific techniques used in the author's own film project, including carefully chosen settings, a custom production logo, and a strategic soundtrack to enhance the thriller experience. The author highlights how various camera shots and narrative content create intrigue and provoke audience questions regarding the plot and character dynamics.

1. In what ways does your media
product use, develop or
challenge forms and
conventions of real media
products?
By Mollie Ridgard

2. Conventions of opening sequence.
The reason for having an opening scene is to give the audience an idea for what the film is
about and to encourage them to carry on watching. Each opening scene should include the
main characters and show the audience what type of genre the movie is, for example if it is
a thriller then the opening scene should contain aspects of a thriller like a suspicious
character or a murder ect. In our opening scene i feel like we did create a lot of tension and
suspense throughout the 2 minute scene.
 Flashback
 Planning of landscape and location
 Narrations
 Action scene
 Production logos
 Title sequence
 Narrative content
 Soundtrack

3. Conventions of thrillers
A thriller usually includes a protagonist and a antagonist having conflict between each
other. Usually the protagonist is trying to complete a good deed and the antagonist is there
to destroy it. In almost all thriller movies there are always parts where the story builds
tension and suspense for the audience and it will include both characters.
 Quick cuts
 Shadows
 Tension music
 Black and white shots
 Changes in the angle of shots
 Diegetic sound (usually of breathing)
 Montage of shots
 Protagonist is in the mercy of the antagonist

4. Conventions we used in our
opening sequence.

5. Flashback
 This is a good convention to use at the start of each movie whether it is for a
couple of minutes or for the majority of the movie and it is a good way to set the
scene. We used a flash back at the very beginning when we see a shot of the house
and it tilts up then cuts inside the house. We used this because it goes with our
thriller narrative as when it cuts from the outside of the house to inside of the
house travelling up the stairs. This is so we can see what has happened in the scene
and then when the movie carries on after the opening scene we will see what has
actually happened.

6. Planning location
 We had to choose our location really carefully because we needed a detached
house which had a lot of space around the front with a big drive way to be able to
get a good shot of the whole house. We had 3 different houses to choose from but
in the end we chose the first one because it did match the criteria we was looking
for.

7. Production logos
 We created our own production logo in Adobe After Effects. We decided to make
our own production logo because we thought that it would give our video a sense
of individuality and make it seem modern with the types of colours we used as well
as the space effect. It look quite a long time for us to make but it got a lot easier to
make as time went on because Adobe After Effects is very confusing but we got the
hang of it. It also took a long time because we tried out a few different colours and
effects to make sure all 3 of us in our group liked it as well as it going with our
narrative.

8. Soundtrack
Big BoomLaughing Scary Horror
 In our sequence we used 3 different types of added sound to give off the thriller
feeling. We added in some music in called ‘Scary Horror’ for it to play throughout
the whole opening sequence to make it sound freaky and suspicious because it
went really well with our filming. At the end of our thriller we added both ‘Big
Boom’ and ‘Laughing’ to when the title comes on the screen, the big boom with
come on when the title begins to pop up to make the title seem dramatic and we
also added laughing once we see the title to makes the audience want to carry on
watching because it adds tension and mystery.

9.  When the main character (Lola) is inside her room getting ready for the day ahead
and the camera suddenly moves to the bed looking towards the body causes
suspense because at this point the audience doesn't know whether they are alive or
dead. Then the shots change again to the girl getting ready then back to the full
length shot of the body. By changing up the camera shots and what combination
we see them in builds tension because we see a quick glimpse of the body then
back at the girl and she is acting like nothing has happened, then suddenly back to
the body where we see it in more detail. This also creates a lot of questions for the
audience about the body and why this situation has occurred.

10.  The over the shoulder shot shows Lola looking blankly into the mirror with no facial
expression and then the camera pans across to the rest of the room and it shows
us the body under the sheets on the bed and this shocks the viewers into thinking
she has injured/killed this person and they want to know why.