Intro + Question 1

The brief I was given was to create a two minute opening sequence that was conventional to the thriller genre, my group members were Me, Amy Sowerby and Alfie Harris. The production roles in film are the producer, who prepares and supervises filming throughout and decides what should be added, removed or re-shot, the role of the director is to focus on the dramatic aspect of filming, create a filming schedule and make sure everyone sticks to it and finally to make sure the film stays within the limits of the pre-planned age rating. The actors role is to play out the script/narrative and essentially create the directors vision of the film, the role of the director of photography is to be the 'chief' over the camera and lighting crew and make sure the filming is of a high standard, also the director of photography must decide on the filter and lens that should be used, this is an important factor when trying to create shock, surprise and suspense. The role of the music producer is to prepare and select appropriate sounds/soundtrack used to create a desired effect on the audience within a scene,. the role of the script writer is to basically create the narrative in the vision of the director, the role of the mise en scene co-ordinator is to decide on the intensity of lighting, costumes for each character, make up and hairstyles and the setting used, all key when trying to create shock, surprise or suspense, the final role is the editor, this role requires the editor to prepare and select visual and audible clips and piece them together to create scenes a the final product as a film.

My role was, as director, to create a filming schedule and make sure everyone stuck to it, also I had to position the actors during filming. During this role I learnt how to make a film schedule and about age ratings and what makes certain films certain age certificates, in my role as an actor I just played out my part in the narrative, I learnt how to use facial or body expressions to create shock, su
rprise or suspense, in my role as director of photography I had to make sure I filmed the scenes using the correct shots and timings, I learnt how to use different shots, angles and movements to create shock, suspense and surprise, in my role as editor I had to piece together scenes to create the film, during this I learnt how to attach and detach sounds from clips.
I feel we worked well as a group as we created a whole opening sequence by the deadline given to us and the opening sequence we made was successful as it recieved positive feedback during the screening, it also used conventions of the thriller genre effectively to create suspense, shock and surprise within the audience, engaging them into watching the film.

Example of male antagonist

Example of low key lighting and female victim

Example of knife

Example of isolated area

The conventions of the thriller genre are the low key lighting which is used throughout the sequence when she has entered the forest (like in se7en during the final scene), eerie soundtrack is used whenever the antagonist is in shot, signifying his danger and that the audience should be weary (like in the shining as he is walking up to the bathroom with the victim in), shock when the antagonist appears from behind the female victim, suspense is created when she looks at the picture of her pinned onto the tree and the music builds up tension, surprise is created when the picture of her is found pinned on the tree (these three conventions are a key aspect in every thriller), the knife is used to attack the victim toward the end where the screen blacks out (like in Halloween it is the antagonists key weapon throughout whilst attacking his victims), male antagonist is Marius (big convention, used in the majority of thrillers, one film it is used in is the shining, the male antagonist is the major character in the film and the narrative is based around him), female victim is Chloe (big convention, used in the majority of thrillers, one film it is used in is the shining, wife of male antagonist in shining, constantly running from the antagonist and is helpless throughout, similar to our protagonist) and an isolated area which is the forest (se7en use this in the final scene). I used many of the conventions of the thriller genre to engage the audience, low key lighting was used throughout once the victim has entered the forest to create an enigma as the audiences view is slightly restricted, the knife was used to portray the dominance of the antagonist. The fact he was male also portrayed his power over the innocent, helpless, female victim, finally the isolated forest created suspense as the audience wonder what is going to happen to the victim as they know it is unlikely that someone will be able to save the victim or that the victim will escape as she is in the middle of nowhere. I would compare my film to Halloween : resurrection, this film had a male antagonist who was attacking a female character, portraying who has the dominance, also a knife is used to show dominance as well, these are both used in the thriller sequence my group has created, also the use of low key lighting helped create enigma and suspense extremely well, this inspired us to use it as we wanted to create these effects and this film proved that it worked. Overall, my groups thriller was extremely conventional due to having a lot of characteristics of a thriller film, the title we used, Injurious, was conventional as it is an interesting name which draws the audiences attention and has an enigma around it as the audience wonder what it means, the meaning is to cause harm, this makes it, again, conventional to the thriller genre as you'd expect violence