I Can See You - Final Opening Sequence Thriller

Here is the final opening sequence that my group and I have edited, directed and produced. Enjoy!

Preliminary task

In the task we used various camera angles and editing techniques such as match on action, shot reverse shot, 180 degree rule, mid-shots, panning, dolly trolley, zoom ins and zoom outs, close ups and fades. For the lift scene we chose to use heavy metal music as elevator music to make it absurd, as the music is not expected.

Evaluation on 'I can see you'

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

Question two: How does your media product represent particular social groups? (Part One)

Question two: How does your media product represent particular social groups? (Part Two) 

Question 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media project and why?

For this answer I voice recorded myself answering this question. I have also provided a script beneath the voice recording.

Script:

When Making the production company logo I thought to make it similar to the credits that Georgina had produced; I done this by using the same colour scheme and similar text; in my opinion I thought to do this so that the audience would recognise and have a sense of familiarity in the film;

 I thought to add a slight effect to the production company logo to make it more interesting as the colour scheme is black and white. As a group we came up with the idea of calling our production company GGD productions simply because the members of our group are named ‘Gianni, Georgina and D’mee’.

A production company is the company responsible for how the type of media is developed and produced physically such as a film or television programme. The production company may also be responsible for rising funding for the production itself.

A distributer is a person or company that you can rely on to publicise your film to make it popular amounts particular audiences, for my type of opening sequence Miramax films would be the perfect distributer as they have distributed films such as Kill Bill and Pulp fiction which are successful thriller type films which are influences for our opening sequence.

The money for creating a film such as mine could come from loans that my group and I would take out, the national lottery or Government grants that the UK film council offer to fund for British films under certain circumstances.

Various people are named within opening sequences; this is to inform the audience took part in the film. Job titles such as director, actor, producer and editor are generally put in the film, the reasons for this being is to allow the audience to recognise names for other upcoming films if the film is successful.

 As a group we have reflected this within our opening sequence; we have done this by putting the production logo at the start of the opening sequence, when the filming has finished we have shown the directors, producers and lastly the actors; most film makers do this, to firstly give credit to the directors, the producers and so on

Our opening sequence is similar institutionally to the film Kill Bill Volume 2. Because our opening is diverse from most romantic-thriller films we do not have a lot of similar films to compare to, apart from Kill Bill. The film Kill Bill is based on the main character getting revenge on the antagonist character,

 She does this by using stalker like uses such as leaving Bill voicemail messages indicting that she will in fact kill him. This film has influenced us mainly because the main character is a female who goes out of her way to stalk and find her victims. In comparison to our opening sequence our main female character stalks her victim which is not portrayed in most stalker roles as the typical stereotype for this role is an aggressive, creepy male character.

 Therefore the main character in Kill Bill does in fact relate to our main character in our opening sequence.

Question 4: Who would be the audience for your media product? (Part One)

Question 4: Who would be the audience for your media product? (Part Two) 

   

Question 5: How did you attract/address your audience (Part One)

Question 5: How did you attract/address your audience (Part Two)

This 'Youtube' clips shows annotations that I had made to show how the opening sequence compares to other opening sequences and how I have attracted the target audience.

Question 6: What have you learnt about technologies technologies from the process from of constructing this product?

For this answer I videoed myself answering this question. I have also provided guidelines beneath the voiceover which I used when recording script below, so that I could elaborate on them when filming.

Script:

·         In the following I will be answering ‘What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product’

·         We used the Mac computers which firstly seemed highly difficult and complex.

·         We soon got the hang of the Mac computers when using fireworks adobe logo , after effects for the logo, final cut to edit our opening sequence, fades, add sounds increased our editing skills.

·         We used a camera which our college provided for us, which was simple to use, we also used a tripod

·         The main key decisions we made as a group about the technology used within the pre production and post production were to: video ourselves interviewing people that enjoy watching thriller films to get a feel on what they would expect in a thriller film.

·         The decisions were made to show that we are using a different technique of evidence that we have asked people. 

Question 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the project?

  

Changes that we have made within our opening scene

Opening sequence Analysis

'Days of atonement'


The lighting within the opening sequence is dark which allows the atmosphere to appear gloomy and to give off an obsecure setting, this is effective on the audience as they will become intrigued and aware of the genre. Bright lighting is also used in some parts of the film to capture a certain shot or angle which draws the audiences attention. The sound used at the start of the clip is of school children participating in a sports day run, children are usually used in dark thrillers to allow the audience to question what their purpose is in the thriller, whether they are the victims or villian, the sound used after is of a man that sounds as if he is a radio broadcater for the 1960s as it is of low quality, lastly there is some form of background music which gradually becomes louder as the sequence is played, this is to create suspense and tension within the film. Text is used to present the film, there is minimal use of this as the text is not needed, which allows to leave more to the audiences more imagination rather than feeding it to them. The camera angles used in the clip are close ups, extreme close ups, mid shots, over the head shots and longshots all to show the importance of the only actor and his actions.

'Blitz'


The lighting within this opening sequence is fairly dark, which does not give too much away, because of the lighting what the audience sees is minimal, the audience catches glimpses of the room and what it contains. Bright lighting is used to capture some aspects such as food rations and children toys. The sound used is of a radio broadcaster possibly within the 1930s period where the actual Blitz occured this ofcourse gives the audience an understanding of the time period that this took place. Minimal text usage is in the scene the only importance of the text used is showing the time period that has changed (60 years later) this allows the audience to grasp an understanding of what is happening. The camera angles used is of closeups and longshots, there is not alot of camera shots in this scene because the filming has taken place in a small, compact room. 

'One'


The lighting for this opening sequence shows daylight and casual lighting that the audience most likely experience when they wake up this allows the audience to relate to the actors. The sound is also of casual and genural sound of the actress walking around the house, the toaster popping up and the fire alarm going off, the sound of the baby moniter going off is a regular sound but the sounds that are made is unexpected as you would become frightful if you heard random noises coming from the baby monitor, the audience also becomes aware of this. There is a minimum use of text within the opening sequence, this is because the only text usage is of the credits, as the film tells the story itself. The camera angles such as mid-shot, close-ups, long-shots and low angle shots, to show the importance of the characters. 

In conclusion all three lighting uses are similar, to give off a thriller atmosphere, all the sound uses are similar there is hardly any dialuge and a lot of background music is used in all three videos, minimal text usage is used in the three different films because thrillers genuinely tell the story itself and does not need a written introduction, camera angles used are all similar as they need to show various similar camera angles that all focus on the characters. 

Storyboard

 The story board is the original idea of the opening sequence, it is how we pictured and imagined our opening sequence to be. 


Scene one is of a black screen to create suspence which then fades into shot two which is of the couple walking in a park whilst the stalker is observing from a far, the audience sees this with an over the shoulder shot. Shot three is of the stalker on 'Facebook' stalking the couples profile, this allows her to come across as psychotic and demented. 

Shot four is of the stalker closely examining an image of the couple, she starts to dismantle and to scribble over the photographs out of anger and jealousy. Shot five is of a black screen, text comes up with the words "WHEN JEALOUSY GETS OUT OF CONTROL". Shot six is an over the head shot of the stalker studying the images of the couple that she has prepared on her wall herself.

Shot seven is of a black screen with the words "AND IT BECOMES AN OBSESSION" displayed. Shot eight is of a jump-cut of the stalker watching a video of the couple together on 'Youtube', this is shown with an over the shoulder shot. Shot nine is of the stalker rewinding the video again and again to emphasise how obsessed she is with the couple.

Pre- production

Locations of a thriller 

The only location that our group films in is one of our group members bedrooms/ We used this location because it is most likely where a stalker would investigate and spy on their victims as they are in their own comfort and isolated by everyone and everything else. 

Prop List 

Shot analysis

This covers all the shots that we used within our filming.

 This is the risk assessment about on our opening sequence.

This is the production schedule that we stuck to, in our opening sequence.

Genre Conventions

Thriller genres usually consists of frightful like elements. Thriller usually involve some form of crime or espionage, which makes for a brilliant ending plot or cliff hanger. Thrillers are usually compared to horrors as they are both intended for trepidation on the audience, however horrors typically involve gore and blood whereas thrillers involve mystery and suspense to unveil an exciting story.  Thrillers usually densely stimulates the audiences mood as they start to come up with assumptions and expectations about the story line and plot, they begin to feel uncertainty, anxiety and uneasy, they begin to feel high levels of anticipation and involve villains, red herrings and cliffhangers.

Sub-genres allow the film to have more than one genre element to the film. Thriller sub-genres are used a lot in films to make their film more exciting and interesting rather than having just one genre. Films such as ‘Obsessed’; which carries a romance sub genre and ‘Limitless’; which carries a sci-fi sub genre to it, are highly successful films mainly because they show different genre elements rather than keeping the film as just a thriller. Obsessed portrays various emotions and feelings such as love, jealousy and anger, which makes the audience intrigued and interested. Limitless portrays emotions such as fear, excitement and anxiety which makes the audience feel as if they are in the characters position.

Characters make the film become real and alive. The characters make the storyline realistic, this is because the audience can relate to the characters by their ethnicity, situation, age, gender etc. The antagonist character is usually the main character within thriller genres that stalks or aims to kill the victim, followed by the victim or protagonist character that aims to save the day, unveils the mystery or gets murdered.


Locations are important in thrillers as they create a scenery and atmosphere that allows the audience to grasp an idea and understanding of the plot. Usually locations in thriller have a dark environment that makes the audience start becoming fearful and wary. Locations is a major way to create tension, suspense and mystery. 


Dialogue within thrillers are used to make the audience understand the characters personalities, relationships with other characters and to know what is happening within the plot. Dialogue makes the audience start to use their imagination and therefore start to think about the overall story and what character is the villain/hero etc.


Mise-en-scene is most important in thrillers as the majority of thrillers them use such high quality and good uses of this. Successful and popular thrillers draw their audience into the story. Mise-en-scene includes props, dialogue, characters, locations, sound, lighting, and costume. Thillers use music to create suspense and causes a more dramatic scene in the thriller. The props used is to create a sense of realism and a sense of familiarity toward the audience, as some props used maybe similar to the audiences and therefore can relate to these similarities with the scene.  The costume used allow audience to be drawn to the character and to therefore they grasp a feel of the characters personality, financial situation, style, age, hobbies and interests.