Question 1

I was tasked with making an opening sequence for a thriller film, this meant that I had to use the conventions of the thriller genre to make it seem as though it was actually a professional film in this genre, this meant I had to look at other thrillers to take inspirations from them and incorporate different elements into my own thriller 'The Pathway'. In my group was myself Charlie Stewart, Jessica Day and Ryan Samuels. The production roles for the film decided which person in my group would handle the specific tasks they were assigned to. This would make the film's quality seem as though it were a higher standard because if one person did everything the film would seem worse as they have to do all the organizing of different micro elements and writing and directing, whereas if people took tasks on their own or with a partner in the group then it would mean that overall everyone is happy because they won't be forced to do something that they're not good at. The production roles were as follows including the people that took part in that specific role, the producer is the person or media institution that funds the film and distributes it to the target audience however we said we all did this as we didn't actually have a professional media institution investing into the film, the director role was given to me, this meant I handled a variety of tasks and had most of the say during the production of the film, for example, when the group had picked out some music before I put it into the film, I had to check that it was conventional to the thriller genre this also went for each micro element. Actors played an important role in production as this gave the audience a narrative to follow as a narrative cannot be expressed without actors, the audience focuses on these people as well as building up a relationship with them. Screenplay writer was handled by Jessica Day, this role meant that this person would create most of the narrative for the film and they also had to handle what some of the actors should say or do, this means directions when on camera specifically, they have a particular idea with how the films narrative should pan out the director would try to convey this narrative on screen for the writer. The next role is the mise-en-scene coordinator which was again handled by Jessica, Jess had to handle the lighting and colours, costumes, characters' positioning, setting and iconography, it may seem as though Jessica handles a lot but the screenplay for the opening sequence wasn't too complicated or troublesome to come up with, the character gets kidnapped but allowing Jessica to be mise-en-scene (MES) coordinator made sure that her vision of how the narrative for the opening sequence would pan out as she handles nearly everything that is on the scene, the iconography was down to her so she could do what she wanted to make the narrative of the opening sequence seem more vivid for the audience. Music producer was Ryan Samuels which meant he handled all of the songs and sounds that would be incorporated into the piece, this person may also ask the director for some guidance on what to look out for specifically if they're having trouble. The next production role were the editors for the film which myself and Jessica Day, this meant this person had to incorporate all the shots and scenes together in their order, make the credits for the opening sequence, adjust the colours and brightness of each frame and so on, Jessica Day handled the opening credits and I did most of the editing of all the shots and and including songs into the piece. The last role in production was the director of photography which was me and Ryan Samuels, this meant we had control over the camera and tripod and we filmed all the shots that would be later be put into the film. As said previously my jobs included me being the Director, Director of photography and an Editor, this meant that most of time I had to take the camera and tripod and memory card home with me, meaning I was responsible for bringing the equipment to filming and editing most of the time. This task has helped me understand the amount of work that goes into a film as we only did an opening sequence yet it took a lot of planning and research until we were fully able to start filming. Overall this task has helped me realize that there is much to be taken into account before you start filming. Our group worked well some of the time, however, there were some lessons where we may not have been as concentrated as other lessons, but I got on well with my group. I think we made a successful thriller as we included some elements that are conventional to the thriller genre, for example the antagonist in the opening sequence is never revealed clearly but instead you only get slight glimpses, therefore the antagonist has a hidden identity that the audience try and focus on to see who he is, this means that the audience will focus on the film to try and see who the antagonist is, the hidden identity also creates a gap between the character and the audience, meaning they don't trust him head on at all and pursue him/her as a threat. We also had the convention of a female victim through the use of the character Cathryn, she is the victim because at the end of the opening sequence, the audience see the antagonist approach her from behind when Cathryn is hiding behind a tree in the forest but the audience don't see what happens to her, the audience just assume the worst which is a convention in the thriller genre.

The generic conventions for a thriller mean what you normally see in most thrillers, they don't necessarily have to be in all thrillers but are quite frequent and regular occurrences in the genre. A prime example can be the antagonists identity remains hidden throughout the film, this can be seen in most thrillers for example 'se7en' uses this convention throughout the film until the antagonist is finally revealed very suddenly. Another example of a convention is the other character that is just as important as the antagonist is the victim, most of time they are female victims that we see in peril, this can be seen in one of the inspirations for the thriller which was "Halloween" in which we see a woman stabbed to death by a mysterious killer in the opening sequence while the camera goes through the house in a POV shot.

Both of these conventions were used in my film's opening sequence, we use the generic convention of the mysterious antagonist in our film, as throughout the opening sequence you don't see the antagonist clearly and is portrayed to be bigger than the victim, the audience first see him watching him from the bushes somewhere in the forest and then see him standing opposite her further along the pathway, this also builds up enigma around the character for the audience as they want to know who it is, which is conventional to the thriller genre. 

I even managed to include the victim convention which is that a female character should be in some sort of danger, the character I am referring to in the opening sequence is Cathryn, this is also seen in the inspiration I had for my film which was Halloween. The first person killed in Halloween is the girl inside of the house, in our film though we only see the antagonist approach the victim, this leaves the audience guessing what could've happened to her and like in Halloween, the girl is the first victim, and the antagonists intentions or motives remain a mystery in both my production as well as the Halloween opening sequence.

I incorporated the iconography of the knife, this can be seen in the film 'psycho' which is another inspiration I took from, as the murder weapon, I included it into my opening sequence as the murder weapon for the antagonist, he is seen holding it many times when he is in the frame, this can show he has violent intent for Cathryn throughout the opening sequence and this is seen right at the end when he approaches from behind her with a knife while she is hiding behind a tree in the forest, this creates suspense for the audience as they have no idea what has happened to Cathryn but they are also shocked at the fact that she may have been killed or captured, this builds a relationship between the character and the audience as they feel for her and are worried what could happen to her.

I managed to include the convention of a POV shot into the opening sequence, this was taken into effect as I needed a shot that would display the intensity of the scene, it makes the audience feel as if they're there, this further builds up a relationship between Cathryn and the audience as they really feel as if they're seeing things from her perspective, it puts the audience in the footsteps of Cathryn and this enables the audience to feel additional sympathy and allows the audience to keep building up a relationship with the audience. I took this inspiration from Halloween's opening sequence where most of the whole opening is done through a POV, however, in Halloween it's used to build up Enigma on who the audience are seeing the perspective of, much more differently than how we've done ours.

I included another convention in our opening sequence which was the colour and lighting being very dark throughout the majority of the opening sequence, this was mainly due to the fact that Halloween took place at night when there isn't many people around to help the victim, this was the same for our opening sequence as well because it's quite dark throughout the majority of our opening sequence and the colours are all dark and murky. The audience relate the lighting and colours to the films narrative and the dark themes that are embedded in to the film, this is conventional to the thriller genre and I took this inspiration from Halloween as said before.

One more convention I would like to refer to that I managed to implement was the style of the opening credits, for this I took inspiration from the film 'se7en' which featured the same kind of style, the se7en opening credits featured hand written text for the credits, my credits were near enough similar although ours seemed different as ours was a stencil like font so it seems more organised than the writing for 'se7en'. This is conventional as it can convey the mood and overall tone of the film or the film's antagonist as it may suggest the overall psyche of the antagonist.

I would say that my film defines the thriller genre successfully as I have managed to include many of the key conventions of a thriller. My film manages to build up the main convention of suspense, the main micro element that accomplished this was the soundtrack it was continuous throughout the opening sequence which built up suspense, but then the music would stop and the audience hear a different and louder noise which grabs the audiences attention therefore creating surprise for the audience. Another element that we used that defined the thriller genre was the cinematography when Cathryn sees the antagonist, a series of low angle shots are used, this makes him/her seem superior compared to Cathryn, therefore the audience build up a relationship for Cathryn as they feel empathy towards her. My film has incorporated many conventions that are found in different films in the thriller genre that were successful, the main inspiration for my opening sequence was 'se7en' as the credits itself are similar that they both look handwritten, this is conventional as the credits do not look normal, they are written roughly and the credits convey the twistedness of the character or the antagonist, both my film and 'se7en' use this convention. As said previously, my film has the convention of the antagonist possessing a hidden identity, this is also implemented in the film 'se7en' as you don't actually clearly see the antagonist until 3/4 into the film, this creates enigma for the audience which is conventional to the thriller genre.