Media studies Thriller opening Evaluation

Questions

By Soane Ramanlal

1) How did your preliminary task and 1st thriller sequence task challenge or conform to thriller conventions?

Our preliminary task and 1st thriller sequence conforms to Thriller conventions with the use of thriller film stereotypes. For example we use low key lighting for suspense and match on action of the detective slamming his hand on the table. To create a sense of uncertainty and anxiety as we wonder what the detective will do with the suspect. The sound effects conforms to the thriller conventions as

our 1st thriller sequence conforms to the thriller film conventions with the use of a confusing storyline, that finishes with questions that are never really answered in the film. The audience can only make assumptions which is common in thriller films.

How does your 1st thriller sequence task and preliminary task engage audiences and how effective is it?

Our 1st thriller sequence task and preliminary task engages the audience very effectively by using a gripping and dark story line of a detective trying to catch a gruesome killer only targeting woman. We start of with an interview with a suspect right away which engages the audience, as they want to work out the storyline and the past events that have occurred. By going straight to the suspect it has the implication of the audience asking themselves questions.

Such as is this suspect the killer? What evidence do they have against him? And with this they are already engaged in the film.

With the emotion of characters such as frustration show in the detective, “Tell me now” it engages the audience because they are more involved in the film when they identify the emotions the characters are feeling.

Our thriller sequence in many regards engages audiences because it is the story of a psychologically insane man who resides in a mental asylum and part of his condition is that he has vivd, lucid dreams. The storyline is of one of his dreams of him being followed by a man in all black with a black mask as he walks around the city, when he finally daces the man, he lifts his mask and sees his own face. This largely engages the audience because it again has the implication of the audience asking themselves questions. “Why did the man with the mask have the same face as the man followed?”, is this reality or a dream?. This makes the audience far more engaged as they try engage with the sequence more to try find answers to these questions.

3) Evaluate how your production skills have developed through your 1st thriller sequence and your preliminary task.

My production skills in terms of acting skills by producing an effective performance have largely increased as through these tasks I have learnt how to act according to editing techniques or camera shots and to adjust my performance to fit and represent the thriller conventions and themes we are trying to represent. My production skills have developed throughout the 1st thriller sequence and preliminary task because I have learned the importance of lighting and cutting out all continuity editing in stages of production.

4) Evaluate what you have learnt from using cameras, editing software and equipment so far.

I have learn’t that the Editing software (Final Cut) is the much more advanced and technical. But if learn’t properly than it can be very useful and can create creative videos. I have learnt they are much more technical and advanced options to use then I had first thought. There are many more settings that must be adjusted to get the perfect shot. For example, you just adjust the white balance, iso and aperture.