My project was to create an opening three minutes
for a thriller film. It will have a sub-genre of our choice. I am working in a
group of three to create our project, with all different jobs to work on. When
looking at different sub-genre of crime thriller I carried out some research to
see what conventions this sub-genre has and what audience they target and which
ones we should. Our project will include an ident that we have creates and film
titles, as these are conventions of an opening of a movie.
During class we carried out many exercises when
learning about thrillers. We went to go
and see L.A confidential, which is a well-known thriller. We did this so we
could look at and notice thriller conventions, such as a main female character,
suspense, mystery, a hero and also film noir. We also created a list of the
characteristics of a thriller. We then individually created a short storyboard
for initial ideas for our project. We used iconography to do so. We looked at
and included different shot types and shot durations in this.
I then watched a few opening sequences to crime
thrillers. This was to compare the openings and to see if they had the expected
conventions that I thought they would have. I watched the opening to Skyfall-
James bond and also Taken. I chose these films as they are both successful
films and well known thriller movies. When analyzing these films I found that
it helped as I learnt a lot and how they used their conventions within the
editing and opening. We also wrote a essay looking at how different shots and
lighting represented and portrayed characters. For example, low lighting with a
lot of shadowing would show that the character is bad and more serious, rather
than light lighting will show that something good is happening and the person
is good/happy.
I would want to make my movie/project successful
and to do so I will have to have the correct target audience. For my chosen
audience I have chosen teenagers (from the age 15+) and above. I have chosen
these as the film may involve violence so the film becomes more exciting and
involve more action. When asking people of the same age as my intended
audience, I found out that they like tense music, dramatic build up, the movie
to include a lot of suspense and good lighting to make the movie worth watching
and successful.
I have found all of my research
helpful as it allowed me to realize the best conventions, which are used in a
successful thriller, which I then will consider to use in my project. When I found out what my target audience
prefer in a thriller it then allowed me to work out which ones I will include
in my final product. My research has allowed me to understand the conventions
of a thriller, which will then hopefully help me to create a successful
project. It helped me to develop my ideas and make them better. My plan is for
a young girl to go missing or taken. I chose this idea as it includes the
conventions of a thriller movie and would also have the same target audience,
which most thriller movies have. It will create suspense and the atmosphere of
a thriller movie. A flashback may be used in the opening of my film, as this is
also a common thriller convention, creating mystery and more suspense, to
emphasis this I will include a lot of low lighting and shadowing to represent
that something bad is happening.
