Pitching the opening

My film opening is going to be very basic as I believe that the most basic film openings are the most effective. The genre of my film will be a thriller film, and in the opening I hope to make the audience uneasy and make them feel uncomfortable whilst watching. It will involve somebody sitting in a chair I a dark place, probably a forest, whilst a hooded figure circles them. The hooded figure will be holding multiple weapons, including a golf club and a knife. As the majority of thriller films do involve weapons I thought it would be suitable and would add to the verisimilitude if a weapon were included. I will use a variety of shot types, using extreme close ups, high and low angle shots, to show both of the characters. I am going to use creepy music to build suspense, with the music increasingly becoming higher pitched. I aim for my opening to be very basic, however I hope in doing this it comes across as very effective.

My opening will be a montage opening, showing lots of quick shots in my opening and having the credits over the top. I have decided to do this as I believe that it will be the most effective, rather than having an animated opening for example, as this type of opening wouldn’t be as effective for the type of film I am doing. My film opening isn’t going to be in the equilibrium stage of the narrative theory, as it is going to be set at a different part of the story. This will then allow me to do more in my opening. 

The Audience

From the research that I have conducted, I have decided to aim my film towards the 17-26 year-old audience, as they are the age group who watch the most thriller films and go to the cinema most frequently. I believe that this age group prefers thriller films more than any other age group as the story lines are more appealing to this age as they are more interesting to them and fulfill them with suspense which is something that this age group enjoy. I believe that thriller film aren’t as preferred by the other age groups, as people under the age of 17 typically find them too scary and people over the age of 26 find they are getting to old to watch film that aren’t comfortable to watch.

Thriller films are target to both males and females as both genders do enjoy thriller films, and all evidence shows both genders enjoy this genre as much as each other. The males are probably more interested in thriller films as they include a lot of action within them, whereas females probably prefer them as they ask psychological questions. 

Research

I conducted some research before I started my film so that I could identify what age group, and type of people my thriller film would and should be targeted to. This will then allow me to make a film that is tailored to these peoples wants, rather than a thriller film that would appeal to a different demographic audience. Knowing my target audience will also help me marketing my film, as I will be able to decide on the forms of advertising for my film, depending on what my target audience look at/watch the most.

First I conducted a survey and asked people various question about whether or not they watch thriller films, and if so how often they watched them. This is the survey that I handed out. After asking various people the data that I received was that younger people tend to watch more thriller film than older people. To be precise people aged 17-26 watch the most thriller films. However, there wasn’t an overall trend regarding the gender of thriller film watchers, and from my research and conducting some secondary research I found out that there wasn’t a trend about what gender watches more thriller films and it is down to pure preference of favourite genres. This therefore told me that my age group that I should target my film at would be both males and females aged between 17 and 26. Also from the research that I conducted I found out that it is the 17-26 year olds that go to the cinema most frequently which means that the cinema could be an ideal place to promote my film if I was actually going to launch it. It would also be a good idea to promote it using social media or YouTube as this age group are one of the highest users of technology and social media, meaning that an advert could be shown to a wider span of people.

The 2nd piece of research that I carried out was a focus group. This consisted of getting a number of people (from my target audience) and ask them questions regarding thriller films. The first question that I asked was regarding the age certificate of thriller films and which age category they prefer. The feedback that I received was mainly of the age of 15 and possibly the 18 rating as they felt a thriller film should keep you in suspense and should also show the audience some quite graphic scenes as well. This gives me some indication of what type of film the audience would like to see, and helps me decide on what BBFC age certificate my film should attempt to be. Another question that I asked my focus group was regarding the main characters. Generally, the main characters in thriller films, and the majority of films in general include both male protagonist and antagonist, and I asked whether or not that would be something that they expect to see in thriller films. The response that I received was that I should use both protagonist and antagonist as males as it helps the audience identify them, despite them wanting more female characters in films. The use of male character helps the audience decide who they are supporting, whereas if there is a female antagonist for example, the audience are more likely to find the story more confusing as they are so familiar with the dominance of the male characters. I also asked my target audience whether or not they like films that have a plot twist at the end of the film, and completely twists the way to watch the film. The response that I received was that they do enjoy films that have a plot twist, as it makes them think about the film after they have left the cinema, rather than just leaving and thinking nothing more about the film. This type of film then engages the audience and becomes more memorable due to the ending. In my film I am going to try and do something similar to this. As my opening is set at the end of the film, I am going to have a plot twist that makes the audience look at the opening in a different way. 

Marking previous work

I marked the following work out of ten based on their Material appropriate to the target audience, whether or not the title were conventional/appropriate, sound/images and technical editing, camera work/framing/mise en scene, editing and overall feel of the title sequence to give me an overall score out of 60.

Captive:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93fH1fUQ-Lw

I felt that captive was a very good title sequence, I felt that the display of the titles were very appropriate as the titles flickered when coming onto to screen, which creates a sense of unease, which is usually what is created in the opening to (what I am assuming to be a) thriller film. This is effective as it might symbolise the flickering of a light for example in a rundown place, which is where a lot of thriller films are set. I also felt that the use of the camera was very effective. This opening displayed a wide range of different shot types, showing different angles shots, and a variety of ranges, ranging from extreme close ups to extreme long shots. The framing was also very good in this opening as the rule of 3rds was consistently being used and was always showing the character from different places, giving the connotations that he is being watched and is definitely in danger. I also felt the editing in this opening was very good having shots jump constantly between each other, and create a sense of disorientation. The sound I felt could have been improved, as I felt the music became too dramatic at the end for what little was going on, therefore marked it down for that. I also marked it down for the fact that I didn’t feel like there was enough going on in the scene. Overall I scored this piece of work 55/60 and felt that this was a very good piece of work, and very good opening title sequence. 

Cape Fear opening analysis

The opening to the film Cape Fear is very interesting as it shows the opening credits in a very unusual and unique way. It has the credits in the middle of the screen, over the top of a shot of some water which we find out and recognise at the end of the opening when a voice tells the audience that Cape Fear is actually a river. 

The opening also shows images of various things that look to be in the reflection of the water. The first thing that the audience see is a bird (possibly a hawk or eagle). This bird looks like a bird of prey and could resemble the character Max Cady who is a character who could be compared to a bird of prey, attacking other people, which is something that this bird looks like it is doing in the scene. It then also shows a reflection of an eye looking around which could also resemble something that this character would tend to do, giving the impression they are being watched. These images are then followed by images of a man’s unidentifiable face in the reflection of the water. All of this together gives the impression that this location isn’t safe and that they are being watched and are vulnerable. His then has importance later on in the film when the characters actually go to this place, and they aren’t safe and do get attacked. 

The water in this scene is also rippling which shows that there has been something that has disturbed it and that they are not alone. It gives the connotations that something is near and that it isn’t Max Cady is near, however there are clues. He is a man who will act natural despite actually wanting to do something worse than what at first is seen at first glance. 

The opening also shows blood dropping into the river. Blood in films will always resemble blood and death. The blood is dropping into the river which could resemble that there will be blood spilt in the river and there will be either somebody dyeing or seriously hurt in the lake. This opening helps set the genre and the tone for the rest of the film, and tells the audience what to expect from the rest of the film. With the showing of blood in the opening sequence and the age rating of an 18, it will tell the audience that this film is defiantly not suitable for young children, and tells the adult audience what type of film they are about to watch. 

The music to the opening to this film very sinister and makes the audience feel on edge with the high pitch music from the very beginning, which makes the audience fearful and uncomfortable from the start if the film. This alongside with the blood drop, eagle, and the face of an unrecognisable character, all makes the audience uncomfortable as soon as the film starts, and sets the tone for the rest of the film. 

Se7en opening analysis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEq-4fua3lM 

The opening to the film Se7en is a very good and successful opening to a thriller film. It shows the antagonist preparing for one of his murders; however the audience do not know this on the first time of watching. On the first time of watching the audience don’t know what they are watching, it is only once they have watched the whole film and find out what John Doe does to prepare for his murders (slicing the ends of his fingers etc.) that the audience realise that they have already been shown him doing this at the very beginning of the film, in the opening credits this is very successful as the audience only know what it is about until they watch it for the second time. 

The first scene in the opening sequence shows John Doe flicking through a book whilst flickering text is being shown. The fact that John is reading a book illustrates that he is very intelligent and may be more intelligent than the people trying to catch him. The book may also display that he is very methodical and isn’t a normal psychopath who kills people randomly without any reason.  This scene is not alone showing John being methodical in his work as there are various other shots of him also doing things that you wouldn’t expect a killer to do, including him writing, picking up and reading more books and binding paper together . All of this together conveys that he is possibly investigating the detectors and knows more about them than they know about him, which is the case of the film. 

The lighting in this title sequence is very dark and looks as if the light source is a single desk lamp. This adds to the atmosphere and as it makes the whole scene a lot more serious as the dark lighting gives connotations of danger and somebody in a dark setting should be scary and untrustworthy.

Other props are also used in this opening sequence are also used however the other props aren’t used to display intelligence or method but to keep the audience on edge by the use of having props such as razor, slicing fingertips, and the character handling with nail etc. The use of these make the audience feel uncomfortable watching, as they are ordinary household objects that the audience will own, however using them in a way that is dangerous and showing he is using them in the wrong and dangerous way. 

The credits shown are in a handwriting font which again looks like John Doe has written out the credits. The credits are also flickering which also makes them look more creepy than they would otherwise look. This could convey insecurity. 

The use of the camera shots is also significant in the opening to this film. The whole opening sequence consists of lots of extreme close ups. This doesn’t allow the audience to take a good look at anything, location, character or anything the character is doing properly. 

Mood boards