Evaluation 1

These screen shots show the setting and location of my film opening. I believe that these screen shots follow the conventions of some other thriller films, as a number have been shot in a forest location. Typically thriller films are normally set in either an isolated place, such as a forest, or in an urban area such as a city. I have also included a location in a flashback of a fairground, as this adds to the creepy effect that the opening is hopeful portraying.

The costumes and props that were used in the opening and are shown in the screen shots follow the typical conventions of thriller films. I decided that I should include weapons in my opening, as this is something in which nearly all thriller films include. The use of these weapons in my opinion help establish the characters in the film, as the weapons are of those that the villain would typically hold in thriller films. They also should create tension as the villain is in total control of the other characters fate as these weapons could be considered and will give connotations with murder. The choice of costumes was that I should make the villain wear a black hoodie as it believe that this would make them look most like a murderer. I also made him wear a balaclava to hide his face as this would make him look more menacing and intimidating. I made the victim wear casual clothes as it would make him more relatable to the audience, making him wear something that looks like something the audience might wear. The majority of victims in thriller films are wearing casual clothes for the same reason and therefore my opening does follow conventions of general thriller films. The villain’s costume doesn’t exactly goes with conventional thriller villain costumes. Normally the villain would wear a scruffy suit for example, or a smart costume worn in a scruffy way. This makes them look like outcast to society and makes them look very psychopathic. I went against this as I believe that having him wearing a black hoodie with a balaclava would make him look just as menacing in this opening. I also didn’t want to show the villain’s whole face from the very beginning as I believe it would ruin the rest of the film.

The font that I have used generally follows the conventions of most thriller films. I purposely chose a font that looked like it was hand written as it is something that a lot of successful thriller films include. It makes the opening look a lot scarier as it looks as if the credits have just been scribbled in a poor handwriting over the top of the sequence.

The opening sequence’s aim is to suggest the genre of the film. I believe that my film does this as it involves the stereotypes that are commonly found in thriller films, such as a weapon, and an easily established villain. Having these in the opening help to establish the genre and is something that should be done in a film opening.

There are various ways that actual thriller films first show their characters, for example in Se7en they show the villain in the opening credits, however you don’t see his face, whereas in The Shinning you don’t actually see the character at all in the opening credits as they are driving in a car to the location of the film. This therefore means that I am showing my main characters to the audience in an unconventional way, by 2 of the main characters in my opening sequence.