Final Evaluative Report

Section 1
For my project the brief was to film an opening sequence to a thriller which will last around 3 minutes and will include film titles and an ident at the beginning. This will be done in a small group of 3 people and the thriller will be specified to a sub-genre of our choice. As part of my pre-production task, I chose a sub-genre of crime thriller and carried out some primary and secondary research to establish the conventions of this sub-genre and what kind of audience this sub-genre will appeal to.

In class we carried out various exercises into looking at thrillers and thriller subgenres before starting our project. At first we made a list of all of the characteristics of a thriller which included suspense, mystery, film noir, tension and a hero with a flaw or secret past. We also looked at the iconography used in thrillers and created a short storyboard for a thriller opening sequence to help us practice for our project. As a class we watched L.A confidential as this is a well-known thriller which includes many typical thriller conventions as well as the use of film noir including femme fatale within the main female character.

As part of my secondary research, I watched the opening sequences of two crime thrillers to see how they meet or contrast the expected conventions of this sub-genre. I chose to look at The Godfather as it was a highly successful film in its time, winning a great amount of awards such as 3 Academy awards and 5 Golden Globe awards such as Best Motion Picture and Best Director. I also used Heat as an example as it is another classic crime thriller which was released 20 years later than the Godfather so I thought it would be interesting to look at two opening sequences from different eras to see how they compared and contrasted. I carried out this secondary research to look at the uses of crime thriller conventions to see how well they represented the genre and to help me decide what elements I should use in my product which will represent my sub-genre well.

For my primary research, I asked 5 people from my target market which aspects of crime thrillers they most enjoy. I carried out this to gain some understanding of what kind of features appeal to my target market in a crime thriller as well as what they will hope for in my product and which elements I should use to ensure that my product is as successful as possible. I decided that my target audience should be people aged 15 years and above as this allows my group to use more thrilling elements in our product which will enable our product to excite the audience as it will not be restricted to the themes only suitable for young children, however it will still be suitable for most teenagers.

Section 2
I think that watching L.A confidential was very useful for my research as it allowed me to discover popular conventions used in a highly successful thriller, which I can consider using when creating ideas for my project. Finding out what aspects of crime thrillers my target audience enjoy the most was also very useful in informing the pre-production process of my thriller opening. This is because it allowed me to work out which elements I will need to include in my final product in order for it to be as successful as possible and in order for it to appeal to my target audience. Also, looking at all of the different features and conventions used in the opening sequences of two different successful crime thrillers was useful as it helped me to have an understanding of what kind of conventions I will need to include for my product to represent my sub-genre well.

I received useful feedback from my market testing as my target audience identified specific features of crime thrillers in which they enjoy the most and so this allowed me to discover what interests and excites my target audience and what attracts their attention the most. From this research I learned that my target market enjoy interesting storylines with a surprising twist, the build-up of tension, the amount of action which is used in the film, a hidden story between characters and they also enjoy the way the scenes excite them and draw their attention. From this research I gathered a variety of responses and so this gives me a range of elements which I should consider when creating ideas for my product. I can use this reliable evidence to make a successful opening scene which will intrigue my target audience and it will draw them in and so they will want to know what will happen next.

The research which I carried out influenced the development to my ideas by allowing me to create ideas of an opening scene involving a victim of a young girl which follows the conventions of a lot of thrillers of involving a young, vulnerable victim. When thinking of ideas to use for my product, I followed the feedback which I received from my market testing and decided that my opening sequence should involve the disappearance of this victim as this will create suspense and should draw the attention of my audience into wanting to find out where and how she disappeared. I decided that I should also use the typical convention specifically used in Heat and The Godfather of dark lighting to create an uneasy atmosphere and this should represent a crime thriller well. My ideas also involve using flashbacks to the scenes of the events which led to the disappearance of the young girl and also flashbacks of her getting ready to leave her house in a happy lighting, with tense music, to show that something bad is going to happen to her. Much like the opening sequence of Heat, there could be quiet, mysterious music playing in the background to add to the suspense.

Section 3
I think that my role of the camera operator was carried out successfully as I followed the aims of each camera shot on our storyboard. A good variety of camera shots were used to create an exciting thriller opening such as the panning shot at the beginning, which sets the scene well by showing a gloomy day in a quiet village and has a slow pace to create a mysterious atmosphere. The shots leading up to the victim’s bedroom were made to take the audience on an intriguing journey to find out what happened to the victim, i.e. the point of view shot of the stairs was used to look as though the audience were walking up the stairs to the bedroom. The other roles of editing and sound were performed well as the transitions to each shot were smooth, the lighting clearly revealed the flashback used and the music helped to build up tension. The voice recording of the interview between the detective and the victim’s mother also fitted in well with the product as it helped explained the mystery of the victim’s disappearance so this can lead up to a good story which will appeal to the audience.

Although most of our opening sequence was successful, there were several elements of our first cut which weren’t very effective and needed improvements, such as the camera shot lengths and some of the editing. The feedback from our first cut explained that some shots were too long and a few had continuity errors, for example in one shot the girl picks up her bag before she leaves her bedroom however she isn’t carrying anything as she goes downstairs, so we then cut the shot so there was no longer a continuity error. Other comments from our feedback were that some shots were quite boring, so we improved the editing by including more effective transitions into each shot and increased the brightness to highlight the flashback which made the sequence more interesting and added variety. Also there was no sound on our first cut because the soundtrack and interview recording weren’t uploaded on time, which was another improvement we were able to make.

I think that our product is similar to the opening of Heat as they both use similar elements to set the scene such as slow panning shots, and other typical thriller conventions such as gloomy lighting and mysterious music, which create a tense atmosphere. My groups opening soundtrack is similar to that of Heat’s as they are both quite edgy and create slight anxiety for the audience. On the other hand, the openings are of a rather different storyline as the opening of Heat includes a detective as the main character whereas our opening includes the victim who is a young girl on her way to a party. However in both openings, a variety of different camera shots and angles are used to create an interesting opening which attracts the audience’s attention.

In conclusion, our opening should appeal to our target audience as the camera shots and music used build up tension for the audience, and there’s a hidden story between the characters as our opening suggests that there’s a link between the person in the nearby car and the girl’s disappearance. Before filming, I had to remove some shots from our storyboard as they weren’t achievable to film such as the bird’s eye view shot of the girl’s bed. I also included a close up of the girl replying to a text which shows where the girl is going so our audience are able to understand the opening sequence. Once we received the feedback from our first cut, we made improvements including making some shots shorter, adding more brightness to the flashback and finally adding the interview recording. After making these necessary improvements to finish our final cut, our target audience said that the music and voice recording fitted in well as they explained the story and added to the tense atmosphere. They liked our flashback as the editing was soft so it was clear that this was a flashback. The only negative comments about our final product were that the lighting in some shots was too bright and a few transitions between shots were too quick. Overall I think I have fulfilled my role as the final shots link well together and successfully introduce an effective thriller story.

Gemma Barham