The document discusses the progression from the author's preliminary task to their full thriller opening sequence. They felt they learned to use sound, lighting, editing, and camerawork more effectively to create tension, portray emotions, and conform to genre conventions. Specifically, they introduced background noise and emphasized diegetic sounds to create an eerie atmosphere. They used chiaroscuro lighting to generate suspense. Their editing in the thriller created tension through fast cuts and overlays, whereas the preliminary task focused on smooth continuity. Camera angles in the thriller projected deeper meanings about characters rather than just showing dialogue. Overall, the thriller opening provided more detail and meaning to the audience through its improved use of these film techniques.

1. Thriller opening sequence – Evaluation: Question 7
‘Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the
progression from it to the full product?’
Sound:
In my preliminary task I didn’t really use sound as much as I should’ve,
believe that if I did then I would have created more tension and
improved the film overall. However, apart from dialogue the only sound
we used was a small underscore which had an eerie tone and was used
to build suspense. Compared to my thriller opening, it made nowhere
near the impact that it had made it did. Having learnt this from my
preliminary task, we decided to use sound to our advantage. We
introduced white noise into the background, which like the sound in the preliminary task, was there to
create tension with its eerie atmosphere. We also emphasised diegetic sound in the thriller opening to
portray how the character was feeling. For example, the emphasised diegetic sound of Joe Blaxall’s
character’s breathing creates tension and shows the audience that he is fearful. I think this shows the
development in how we used sound to portray emotions and create conventions that conform to the
genre itself.
Lighting:
In my preliminary task I didn’t take lighting into consideration when trying to project ideas and create
emotions as well as create a level of suspense etc. In my preliminary task I only focused on filming on a
gloomy day, so the dialogue scene wasn’t bright and gave off the wrong impression to the audience. This
just shows that I lacked any knowledge in terms of using lighting to its fullest potential. In my thriller, like
sound I used as many different types of lighting to create different emotions and to create different
representations. Instead of one specific example from the opening, I’m going to talk about the first half of
the film as one. In the first half of it the lighting is
chiaroscuro, this allowed me to create tension and suspense
as the connotations to the darkness for the audience would
be a sense of being unaware of where you are, a sense of
disorientation and a sense of vulnerability. This again, shows
the progression I have made since the preliminary task. I
have learnt that light is one of the best ways to create a
visual representation of an idea or a belief or an emotion.
Editing:
In terms of editing I would say that the progression from the preliminary task in terms of continuity editing
is significant. The progression that I have made is just generally making the continuity a lot smoother,
which helped to allow the film flow. In the thriller task, during the dialogue, the continuity of it was not of
a very high standard. There was an awkward pause every time the shot switched, and when editing and
filming the thriller we took this into consideration. In terms of editing the prelim task, there were no real
connote any ideas or project any emotions etc. However, in the thriller we used editing to create tension
and disorientation. During the flashback we used an overlay effect and very fast paced cross-cuts. This
showed the audience the emotions of the character as well as creating a sense of disillusion. The editing,
when compared, in both tasks are almost completely different. The preliminary task focused on having a
smooth edit rather than connotations from the editing, whereas the thriller focused on creating

2. connotations and reflecting different ideas and making the audience feel in a different way for a specific
reason.
Camerawork/ Cinematography:
In terms of camera work in my preliminary task it had a lot more of a meaning and projected different
ideas, when compared so sound and editing. For example, when one of the characters receives the phone
call we used an extreme close-up, this meant that the audience could read the character emotions as the
dialogue progresses and the fear and scarce can be easily read. However, in my preliminary task there
wasn’t as much of a variety of shot types when compared to my thriller. In my thriller, I used many
different camera angles, low-angles and high angles are a couple of examples of this would be the shots
behind Joe Blaxall and Harry Ames’ characters, these both were visual representations of the power that
each character has. The low angle connotes the idea Joe is looking up at Harry as he is far more superior.
Overall, when compared the thriller opening’s camerawork possessed a deeper meaning and projected
conventions of the thriller genre, whereas the preliminary task’s camerawork didn’t have as much of a
deeper meaning/ really give the audience much detail.
Overall, when comparing the two tasks I would conclude that the thriller task’s aspects contain more of a
deeper meaning that gives the audience extra detail about the storyline and characters. Whereas the
preliminary task relies on the dialogue to tell the story and there aren’t really many deep meanings
projected.