Evaluation 1- Lauren Gilbert (7070)

From the top left to the bottom right (moving to the right direction) the frames are:

1. The establishing shot - The date of the 'murder'.

2. A clearer mid shot of the crucial part of our opening the 'murder'.

3. A close up shot of the perpetrator running away.

4. mid shot of the  perpetrator running away - different location.

5. Long shot - where the title of our film appears.

6. mid shot of a picture frame which the protagonist and victim are in.

7. Establishing mid shot of the protagonist.

8. Development of the protagonist- distraught because of the death of her father.

9. Mid close up of the protagonist switching back before the death of her father leaving for work.

I had made my nine frames before my group had added our production logo into our thriller opening, so our first frame is in fact our production logo 'Shadow Productions' we learnt that a black background made our production logo appear more professional , this was evident from logo's such as Miramax.

As a result we made this: 

Shot one:

Our first shot is the establishing shot where the date of the 'murder' appears on the screen immediately after our production company logo leaves the screen. You see the beginnings of the man’s hand which is covered in blood.

I believe it is crucial that you see the date first as it puts emphasis on the fact that the date is important in relation to the rest of our thriller opening.

Furthermore the pan up makes it seem more sinister as the hand is not shoved in your face at first glance.

As well as this the fact that the date is typed onto the screen makes it more sinister and correlates with our desired genre.

This challenges conventions of usual thriller openings but I believe it is very effective as it is different.

Shot Two:

The second shot is s mid shot of the hand covered in blood with the beginnings of our credits on , after this we added an affect so it now looks grungier and this relayed to the audience the genre of the film and made the 'blood' on his hands seem more legitimate.

Furthermore the concentration on the hand puts more emphasis on the fact that it is a real body/real hand/ 'real murder'.

A convention of a thriller film is used immediately as you hear the non-diegetic eerie music put with the visuals of the hand which is good as it causes suspense and builds tension from the offset.

The use of the watch as a prop , ensures that the hand appears very manly as a result of this . And the placement of the body on the tiled floor makes the scene appear cold.

This conforms to conventions of a thriller film , the use of blurry shots where we know that there is an arm covered in blood underneath is used to grip the audience straight away.

Shot Three:

This is a close up shot of the perpetrator running away, it emphasises that a crime has been committed in the previous shots.

Although the lighting appears bright in this picture; we later edited so that the picture is relayed in a darker tone which suits the dark tone of the overall thriller opening and does disrupt the pace and tone of the sequence.

As result of this running away shot it its easily conveyed to the audience that a murder has taken place.

As well as this, the use of the man running away begins to increase the pace which brings us into the next shots smoothly. This develops our plot as it adds to the story and may add more detail and clarity to the overall plot.

Shot four:

Shot four shows the continued escape of the murderer on the run , this is successfully achieved by the fact that Hannah held the camera and ran with it in order to get the most real shot we could to achieve verisimilitude.

we used the naturalistic lighting as it was a sunny day, however we completely dulled the light out when we edited as it meant that it did not look bright and happy and therefore again correlates back to our thriller genre which we did not want to veer from.

I believe this adds well to our opening as it means you don't go straight into the distraught clips of the protagonist.

This may challenge certain conventions of thriller films due to the fact that we see the escape of the murderer from a first person perspective.

Shot Five:

This shot is a long shot of a photo frame with the victim's family pictured inside of it, i really liked this shot because you get the naturalistic lighting which beams through the shutters.

I particularly like it because the sun is setting and it makes the moment appear bitter sweet. Just like the murder is horrible but she has the memories in these pictures.

We moved the title so it was differentiated from the other shots in which the credits are all on the left hand of the screen.

I like how the picture does not appear initially clear, which is conformist of thriller films as a lot of shots in thriller films appear unclear and unfocused in order to create suspense.

Shot six:

Following shot five shot six zooms into the photograph where you can see a clear shot of the picture that see the family together, which makes what the murderer has done more apparent. Furthermore; the fact that after the picture becomes clear it loses focus again hones in on the fact that the family will never be together again like that again.

However, I believe the way we introduce the title of our film and the background behind it challenges what is usually expected from a title. Instead of putting it on a black background we believed it was more effective to have it where you could see the victim’s family and the protagonist as a young girl.

We struggled at the placement of the text because we wanted it to stand out from the rest of our credits.

Shot seven:

This is an introduction to the protagonist of our opening; we decided to pan across her face as it challenges conventions where the protagonist is introduced with action straight away. As well as this it is put in to help make the connection with the girl in the photo frame and the one sat in front of the camera.

Not only this but we thought it was better to add this shot in because it is the only clear shot of her face you see throughout our sequence.

Shot Eight:

Shot eight develops the protagonists' stance in the opening, you see her distraught and upset about the death of her father.

This helps people know there is an emotional link between the two main people that feature in the opening.

A filter we have since added makes the shot appear similar to other famous thriller films E.G. Gone Girl, it is effective as it makes the scenes more sinister and eerie an atmospheric tone conforming to many thriller films.

Shot Nine:

Shot nine follows some match on match action, where you see the protagonist leave the room and close the door on the other side.

It is a really effective shot in our opening because it shows our editing to be really sleek; allows our opening to look more professional overall.

I think it is further exaggerated by the fact you can’t see her face in this shot and it means more camera angles were used , this is also honed in on when you see her come down the stairs.

Not only this; but the use of her coming down the stairs connects the scene of the crime to where she lives because both her and the murderer come down the same stair, I believe this is quite common but effective in thriller films to make connections in the film.