My genre documentary

Opening sequences

Opening sequences provide an introduction to a film. This is the directors chance to grab the audiences attention.

Some aspects an opening should include:
1. Set the scene to make it clear to the audience where and when the plot is taking place. It also shows the genre e.g. horror having darkness or a teen-flick set in a high school in America.

2. Introduce the antagonist ( or protagonist) or other characters so we get a sense of the world typical environment. In se7en, Morgan Freeman lifestyle is shown in the opening; his home, clothing, personality and job giving the audience a sense of familiarity and understanding.

3. Make the equilibrium obvious and reveal how it will be disrupted, allowing the storyline to unfold. E.g. In legally blonde, Elle's life is shown to be perfect; she has a boyfriend, shes extremely popular; shes the centre of attention; she has alot of designer brands. It is obvious all this will change as it seems to good to be true.

4. Contain music as it complements the mood of the film well. Music is very useful, for example, it can be used to create a happy environment or even create tension in a drama. It is also essential when credits are presented; without music it would seem odd to the audience. Usually, silence is not present in films as characters are speaking or sound effects are used. Therefore, music can be sued to fill in gaps or to pass time.

Soundtrack in films - research

Soundtrack is everything you hear in a movie, for example, dialogue.

Diegesis is the world of the story

Diegetic sound is the sound that has a source in the world of the story e.g. a hearing and seeing a conversation or panting and someone running.

Non-diegetic sound is the sound that doesn't have a sound in the world of the story e.g. errie music in an opening of a thriller movie.

Synchronous sound is sound that matches the visuals.

Asynchronous sound is sound that doesnt match the visuals e.g. voiceovers.

Score is music specifically written for a film.

Thriller Sub-genres

Thriller films are often sub-divided into categories known as sub-genres. The following are the types of sub-genres:

Thriller of murderous passion - Organized around the triangular grouping of husband, wife or lover. The central scene is generally the murder of one member of the traingle by one or both of the other members. The emphasis is clearly on the criminal protagonist. The criminal motive is generally passion or greed.

Political thriller - Organized around a plot to assassinate a political figure or a revelation of the essential conspiratorial nature of governments and their crimes against people. These films generally document and dramatize the acts of assassins, conspirators, or criminal governments as well as the oppositional acts of victim-societies, countercultures or martyrs.

Thriller of acquired identity - Organized around a protagonist's acquistion of an unaccustomed identity, his or her behaviour in coming to terms with the metaphysical and physical consequences of this identity, and the relationship of this acquistion to a murderous plot.

Psychosomatic thriller - Organized around the psychotic effects of a trauma on a protagonists current involvement in a love affair and a crime or intrigue. The protagonist is always a victim - generally of some past trauma and often of real villians who take advantage of his or her masochistic guilt.

Thriller of moral confrontion - Organized around an overt antithetical confrontation between a character representing good or innocence and a character representing evil. These films are often constructed in terms of elaborate dualities which emphasize the parallels between the victim and the criminal.

Innocent-on-the-run thriller - Organized around an innocent victim's coincidental entry into the midst of global intrigue. The victim often finds himself running from both the villians as well as the police.

Research and Planning

Above is a disgram of me and my groups brainstorm for our thriller opening. Our subgenre and ideas that each group member has contributed to is on this diagram as well as a mini image of what we imagine our antagonist to be doing (staring at a fuzzy TV). In the top left, we have included the possible genres that our film could be as well as the types of films that are categorised in these genres.

The main plot of our film is the main character being the antagonist who has psychological problems. He is on his own and is a lonely character who is extremely attracted to cutting of the hair of the victims he has killed. He is a wanted man due to the fact that he is a serial killer. We have chosen to create a psychological thriller and the main conventions of this is danger on a mental level rather than a physical level and one solitary character in mental conflict with their own mind. The two will be evident in our opening because the antagonist has metal conflict with his mind and the danger he poses is on a mental level.

Behind The Scenes

Here are some of the shots taken during our filming of our thriller opening behind the scenes. The first shot is the directior, Snehal, filming a scene. The second is a shot of the main character, Rahul, who sits up after realising that someone has arriveed outside the flat, hearing a door closing. The third is Rahul making a line of crack cocaine from talcum powder. Finally, the fourth shot is Rahul placing the old fashioned TV in position for our sequence.

Inspirations

This is a shot which I find very intriguing as it catches the attention of the audience instantly. This is a shot from a successful thriller film named se7en. The darkness in the room is lit up by the sharp beam of light coming from the window as well as the bedside lamp which creates contrasting views of the room. There is also the word 'sloth' written in blood on the wall, tattered bed sheets and the window with no curtains allowing the light to enter the room. All these features add to the errie mood created and the assumption that the room is used by some sort of killer/murderer. emphasised by the blood. This shot is what I want to replicate in my thriller opening as it fits in well with our script and genre of a crime thriler.

First cut of thriller opening

My personal rough cut of our thriller opening

BBFC audience research

Here is the criteria for a film rated at 15, which would be best suited for our thriller film. We decided upon a 15 rating because our film contains misuse of drugs, imitable behaviour e.g. murder and strong language. All these are of the criteria of the 15 rating and therefore any one below the age of 15 are not supposed to be watching the film.

audience research

Here are some figures from the film Se7en which I collected from the imdb website, showing the rating report from the different audience categories and the percentage of different viewers voting. Looking at the statistics, males are the majority voters and the ratings of se7en is mainly top marks.