Opening Sequence Evaluation - David Taylorson

Our project was a horror/thriller which followed the generic conventions of an opening sequence. As well as the typical conventions we also incorporated flashbacks. This allowed the sequence to feel fresh and new as the audience had to work out the narrative for themselves. These proved to be effective for the audience as they were left wanting to see more.

In the opening sequence not just one but several social groups have been represented for example; criminals and victims – men and women. Criminals are usually portrayed as rough looking, men and addicted to drugs, for example, Wild Bill in The Green Mile is a criminal on death row for multiple murders. He is badly dressed, unshaven and mentally unstable. On the other hand victims are seen to be vulnerable and usually women. Looking at the men vs. women stereotype; men are seen to be in control and dominate where as women are weak and maternal. There are several examples of such behaviour; Sarah Connor (Terminator) is on a mission to protect her son from what will happen in the future.

These traditional views have been challenged in our sequence. Instead of men being seen as criminals and dominate the roles have been changed; showing women (the protagonist) as a criminal and the victim, as a male, who is a coward for lying to his lover about an affair.

These groups have been represented through Mise en Scene, Cinematography and Sound. Mise en Scene, for example, women’s clothing and a blood stained t-shirt represent both violence associated with criminals and clothing suggesting female involvement. Along with this through out the piece the non-linear narrative constructed the reason for why the main character was running and what she had done; adding to the criminal/victims stereotype. The location of the sequence took place in a forest which helped to create the atmosphere needed for the horror genre along with location was the use of parallel sound which set the pace for the overall clip.

These representations were challenging the trend of the media. Mainly due to the fact that the media sees men as violent killers where as in our sequence it is the female that turns out to be violent and dangerous. Challenging the dominant mode helps to offer something new and fresh to the genre, add intrigue and hence capture the audiences’ imagination.

The product would appeal to a company such as Film4 who specialise in British products from independent filmmakers, and the alternative view of women may even appeal to America viewers.
The audience for the product would be male and female viewers 18 – 25 years old. It may also appeal to fans of the genre or British films. This audience is a good target group as they are still open to alternative views rather than mainstream ideals, this would in turn attract a small niche of viewers who would almost certainly want a sequel or buy fan merchandise.

Looking at the feedback collected of the finished product it is clear to see that it has received positive feedback. With 80% of the viewers wanting to see what would happen to the protagonist and who she had actually murdered. Some even speculated that she may not have even murdered anyone (10%). This positive feedback would help to set the stage for possible sequels.

We attracted the audience in several ways one of which was equilibrium. This was established by the first shot of our character running but was then broken once the first flashback had taken place; leaving the audience confused by the events and making them thing about what is going on.

A sense of time (chronology) was created by the flashbacks which explained the events leading up to the protagonist running through the woods. Flashbacks were created by using a fade in and out transition along with the use of black and white; giving the feeling that the events had taken place sometime in the past. Using black and white also suggests evil vs good and also adds to the mystery. This draws in the audience and makes them put together the flashbacks to work out the narrative.

Another concept was enigmas – throughout the sequence questions are raised such as; why is she running? Who has she murdered? These help to keep the audience gripped on the events - the pace of the editing (4 seconds) between frames also helped to maintain a steady pace to the product which helped towards raising these enigmas.

The music in the sequence is up beat but still has a low bass to it. With the upbeat music and the time between shots being approximately four seconds the pace of the scene was maintained throughout. Transition between the clips uses straight cuts this also keeps the audience on the edge of their seats and the pace quick and lively.

During the sequence special effects such as slow motion and black and white are used. Slow motion helped to keep the tension building throughout the sequence and also added intrigue and emotion. The use of a black and white filter on the flashbacks helps to create Binary Opposites of good vs. evil and also assists with the chronology of events.

Another device used to capture the audience was the use of high angle shots to show the vulnerability of the protagonist; also upsetting the equilibrium as we associate high angles with vulnerability but hasn’t she just murdered someone?

Overall from the preliminary work to the finished product I have learnt that working as a team is essential for success of the product. Also adequate planning is needed and deadlines need to be set to keep the project on track. Looking back at the media aspects of product some new skills have been learnt and techniques such as fake blood and running with the camera to create a POV shot helped to add realism.

Throughout the project we have used research technologies such as the internet, youtube and imdb.com. These resources were simple and easy ways of accessing millions of clips and information on our relative genre. The use of blogger.com has also allowed us to display our research and finished project in a quick reference and easily accessible place. Creating the sequence has also allowed us to work with camcorders and imovie technology. Working with camcorders was reasonably easy to do and any mistakes could easily be undone by using imovie; whether to cut/crop shots or to add effects such as low contrast. imovie could also be used to add title cards and a cast list.

To conclude the product came very close to the desired result, with only a few minor problems, that could not be resolved with the technology we had. For example running to fast would sometimes cause the shots to become blurred and out of focus. A possible second problem was time management which led us to rushing towards the end of the time allocated to finish the product. However, the project was a result with positive feedback from the audience.

David