Opening subtitles appear individually on a black background, they should be staggered and written informally as this commonly reminds people of psychopathic characters. the conjuring of this thought may be enough to send a chill down the audience’s spine and make them feel suddenly nervous and uncomfortable.

a working class individual is carrying our everyday duties in his office/student in classroom after school working alone to finish incomplete work. camera views to show this include birds eye view, to immediately make the viewer feel vulnerable, a close up of the individual to allow the viewers to be able to empathise with them and close ups of the documents so the audience have a brief understanding of the initial storyline.

the following scene will involve unusual activity occurring suddenly in the room. silence may be used effectively here to create a more concerning atmosphere and sense of fear as the viewer watches it unfold (shelves displaced, paper thrown around, door opening). narration of the individual may be necessary to develop the storyline.

with doubts, they then upon completion of their work check cctv footage of what they have just witnessed. as they focus hard on the footage, tense music creates an unnerving atmosphere for the viewing before the individual is dramatically taken from their seat in a sudden change of tone in the soundtrack

the camera then proceeds to pan out of the scene and fade into darkness, this is when the film title is planned to be introduced with the black background. the aim is to make the viewers feel uncomfortable yet engage them in it so that they want to watch the rest of the film.

OUR INITIAL SUMMARISATION OF OUR OPENING THRILLER SEQUENCE:

Our target audience was decided to be teenagers/young adults between the ages of 13 and 18, and was largely influenced by the people who participated in our surveys. Here we can see that the vast majority of our target audience was 16/17 years of age, as this is the age range that we (The production team) are and it is considerably easier to ask people. One strength using this age range also ensured more accurate results for our target audience, however one limitation is that some may argue the results are slightly biased. We felt this would benefit us as having a young protagonist will enable the “young” target audience to empathise easier and understand the characters lifestyle choices and situations in comparison to someone of an older age. Also, the fact that we are very similar ages to our target audience means that we can accurately create what our target audience may want to see, as stereotypically, teenagers all share similar interest and similar mind sets.

HOW WE DECIDED UPON OUR TARGET AUDIENCE:

Here, we have included the table that was used as part of our target audience survey with the question “which films would you most like to watch?”. Our results were then used for us to watch over the most popular film opening sequences where we further identified techniques that would help create a successful opening sequence in a group discussion. The age and gender of each individual was included as we understand that sometimes stereotypically, gender and age can affect the interest an individual may take in the film. This was taken into account whilst discussing different conventions. Here, Seven proved one of the most popular films, hence why it became the first film that we analysed.

Participant name, age and gender:

 Most encouraged to watch/most enjoyed

         least encouraged to watch/least enjoyed

Zac, 16, male, Seven Silence of the lambs 

Shutter island  taken  The dark knight  jaws 

Alex, 16, male, taken The dark knight  seven  jaws  Silence of the lambs 

Shutter island 

Milly, 16, female, seven  shutter island taken jaws silence of the lambs

the dark knight

Michelle, 16, female,

seven silence of the lambs

jaws shutter island taken the dark knight

John, 17, male,  jaws seven silence of the lambs

 taken shutter island the dark knight

Hattie, 17, female, The dark knight Shutter island taken jaws  seven  Silence of the lambs 

Emma, 16, female, taken The dark knight  seven  Shutter island  Silence of the lambs 

jaws 

Alicia, 16, female, taken jaws  Silence of the lambs 

Shutter island  seven  The dark knight 

Lewis, 16, male, Seven The dark knight  taken  seven  Silence of the lambs 

jaws 

Maddy, 16, female, Shutter island seven  The dark knight  Silence of the lambs 

taken  jaws 

Shannon, 16, female,

Shutter island The dark knight  seven  taken  jaws  Silence of the lambs 

Daniel, 16, Male, Shutter island seven  taken  The dark knight  jaws  Silence of the lambs 

Feroz, 16, male, The dark knight taken seven  shutter island silence of the lambs

 jaws

Izabela 17, female, the dark knight taken seven jaws shutter island silence of the lambs

Jake, 16, male, seven  silence of the lambs

 the dark knight jaws shutter island  taken

Sophie, 16, female, seven  silence of the lambs

jaws taken the dark knight seven

Zain, 16, male, Shutter island Silence of the lambs jaws taken The dark knight seven

Caleah, 16, female,  the dark knight shutter island taken jaws seven Silence of the lambs

James, 16, male taken The dark knight jaws seven silence of the lambs Shutter island

Josh, 16, male taken jaws The dark knight Shutter island Seven Silence of the lambs

HOW WE DECIDED UPON OUR TARGET AUDIENCE:

CONVENTIONS AND THEIR USE:Conventions are common because they are so instrumental to the success of an opening thriller sequence. Below are some we intend to use to enhance our opening sequence.

• Low Key lighting• Mystery• Introduction of narrative• Introduction of main character• A score that adds tension

These will be used to attract the audience’s attention and retain their intrigue throughout the films duration.

Our mood boards to the left are an examples of how we explored key themes and genres:

ESTABLISHING CHARACTER:

We plan to establish character following the opening credits. An establishing shot will become a birds eye view from a black background displaying an individual working at a desk with some documents. The editing technique of making it look as if it is live footage on camera may be used here. Editing techniques will also be used to create the “weird” events that the individual appears to witness. Close up shots of the individual and their work will be evident allowing the audience to become emotionally closer to the protagonist and be able to empathise with them. The close ups of their documents will provide the audience an insight into what the character is doing, allowing them to interpret suggestions about what they are doing and what the theme of the film is (documents usually refer to crime/psychopathic films).We will be representing our protagonist in a dark lighting initially. This makes sense when we consider that to the audience they are only a stranger and could potentially be dangerous. We plan to only use the excess light from laptops and desk lamps to light our character and their setting to ensure the eerie atmosphere is captured.

OPENING SEQUENCE CONVENTIONS:

• We need to use lots of opening sequence conventions in an effective and successful way. The opening sequence should introduce either the narrative or character, whilst not revealing the plotline of the film in too much detail. Our film introduces character and narrative in minimal detail using different camera angles and editing techniques to ensure the viewer’s interest is retained throughout the duration of the film. The genre of the film is thriller. We know different genres of films use different conventions in significantly differently ways to become effective in their genre. Thrillers typically rely on conventions such as; music to create a tense atmosphere, camera techniques such as close ups and over the shoulder shots to begin establishing character and creating emotional connections between the character and the audience and editing techniques such as fast paced editing to maintain a smooth flow of scenes throughout the film.

VISUAL ELEMENTS:

Camera Editing Soundtrack Mise en SceneClose Up shots allow the audience to empathise with the character amongst the tense atmosphere

The use of CCTV very much limits what the audience can see, which keeps them in suspense as they do not know what to expect

The sound of silence allows suspense to be effectively maintained throughout the opening sequence

The suit of the character allows the audience to understand the characters social status in society

A birds eye view after the establishing shot may make the character look vulnerable therefore making the audience feel vulnerable with them.

The juddering and shaking of the opening credits may create a nervous atmosphere for the audience.

A gentle build up in tense music may be used instead to help create tension, however this may give away that something dramatic is going to happen to the audience.

The dark lighting creates a sense of mystery and ominous atmosphere.

WHAT IS YOUR UNIQUE SELLING POINT? WHY IS THE AUDIENCE GOING TO LIKE YOUR FILM OVER OTHERS?

• Our unique selling point of our opening scene includes the way we have videoed the scene. For example, the intense scene is presented through the use of a CCTV camera. Other films have not used this feature which puts our video in a good position as it is different and stands out from the other videos that were made. This means that our opening scene should stand out from the rest of the clips due to our opening scene is unique and therefore has a unique selling point.

• The audience will like our film because its unique, good quality acting and the opening scene is tense, scary but not too scary that it puts people off the film. The opening scene also leaves on a cliff hanger. We have done this so it could leave the audience asking questions. For example, “what happened next?” This could lead the audience wanting to know the answers to the questions that they have asked themselves. (Purely for self-satisfaction) Therefore they would go and see the film to receive the answers to these questions. The main reason why the audience will watch the film over the other film clips is purely based on its unique selling point which includes the CCTV camera being used to present the action.

• In conclusion, the film is going to be successful because of its unique selling point and the use of the cliff hanger that we have used. From this, we should get a big audience and therefore make our film successful.