Thriller opening sequence - Evaluation:

Question 5‘How did you attract/address your audience?’

How does your opening entice your audience to keep watching?At the very beginning of the opening, the audience are put into a somewhat home video style position. This suggests to the audience, that as the antagonist adjusts the camera he is filming what is about to happen. This suggests to the audience that the character could be quite sick in the head and mentally disturbed. This excites the audience as it infers that the thriller opening is going to explore the theme of being ‘mentally disturbed’, which is common within the subgenre. Overall, this feature gets the audience asking themselves what is about to happen. Because the of the common themes and conventions briefly explored in the very beginning the audience can infer that they will continuously be explored throughout the entire film, and therefore want to watch on.

The mise-en-scene of the opening will make the audience want to watch on for many reasons. Firstly, the props in the background, such as the coping saws, shears and the huge rolling pin. All these items will be commonly known to the audience as weapons. Weapons, obviously, connote danger and from this they can infer that there is a lot of hostility and danger. This excites the audience as it suggests that there is going to be a violence, which is potentially the reason they’re watching the film in the first place. Also, the audience will feel fearful for the character played by Joe Blaxall as they can clearly identify that he is the person in danger, and this will entice them to watch on and find out his fate.

Another part of mise-en-scene that would attract the audience to keep watching would be the lighting. The lighting within the first half of the thriller is chiaroscuro. This creates a feeling of tension and disorientation as the darkness connotes the idea of danger and uneasiness. This excites the audience and entices them to watch on as it suggests to the audience that these themes will be explored throughout the rest of the film. The lighting of the second half of the film is lowly lit, as the character is outside. The idea of a lowly lit scene connotes the idea of exposure as the darkness creates a feeling of vulnerability. This will excite the audience as it creates tension and, again suggests to them that these themes and conventions will be explore throughout the rest of the film.

Overall, within our thriller it’s the mise-en-scene that entices the audience to keep watching.

How do your characters engage the audience?One of the target audiences for my film is teenagers/ people between 16-24. This part of the audience become engaged through relating to some of the characters. The character they might be able to relate to would be the character played by Harry Ames. The character himself explores the idea of independence which is a topic that most teens can relate to. Because some of the audience can relate this creates a relationship between them and the character, therefore engaging them with the thriller opening. In our thriller there is a particular shot which represents the characters independence. In this mid-shot the lighting is chiaroscuro. The idea behind the shot is that the antagonist comes into the light when he wants to speak, this suggests to the audience that when he isn’t talking he is the darkness, literally and metaphorically. Metaphorically in the sense that he is a secretive person who lives in darkness. It is also supposed to be a visual representation to teenagers in terms of they only come out of their shell when speaking to someone. Overall this engages the teenage audience with the characters, as features of them are relatable.

This premise of teenagers relating to the characters can be somewhat applied to the older audience. Independence isn’t the only idea presented about teenagers within the thriller opening. The theme of rebellion is explored also. For an older audience the idea of teenagers being rebellious is a common feeling amongst them. Whether it’s that they’re parents or teachers or just someone who has to deal with them on a regular basis, the idea that they are rebellious is a familiar one. The plot of our film is the way in which we have projected these views. The concept of our film, as mentioned in my ‘Thriller planning’ blog posts is that two teen groups have collided as a deal between the two have had a deal fall through. This represents teens as rebellious as they collide through kidnappings and violence etc.

Overall, in terms of our audience engaging with the audience it’s both the target ages that can find the ideas explored relatable, which was my intention. This forms a bond between them and will encourage the audience to watch on and explore the relationship more.

How does your narrative engage the audience?My thriller’s narrative keeps the audience engaged and watching in many ways. The first way would be the ideas projected on binary opposites. The character of Harry Ames is the character of whom the audience is supposed to recognise as the antagonist, through the use of a high and low angle shots. The idea that he has the most power is presented which attracts the audience to keep watching as they wander what will be done with this power. The binary opposite suggests there will be more than one confrontation between the characters, which is common within the thriller genre and, again, will make the audience want to keep watching and watch these battles.

Another feature of my narrative would be the flashback. As the flashback plays the characters face is overlaid on top in an extreme close up, followed by the diegetic sound of him breathing. This engages the audience with the film as they are reacting to the flashback, somewhat, simultaneously with the character, and the close up allows them to see the emotions and fear in his eyes which is a common convention. This will make the audience want to watch on as they can infer that the theme of fear and paranoia will be explored, which is common within the genre as a whole, but more specifically for the subgenre (crime-thriller).

In our thriller we used a sort of cliff hanger at the midpoint of our thriller. The cliff hanger comes as the character of Harry Ames throws a punch at Joe Blaxall’s character, this is to lead the audience into suspense and tension as they become somewhat disorientated and want to know what has happened. The cliff hanger is then followed by the non-diegetic sound of the sirens which raises the level of tension and suspense. Sirens are associated with the police, which obviously connotes crime. The intention is to get the audience to think that there are actually sirens near by, but as the opening sequence continues there aren’t. This suggests to the audience, again, that the theme of disorientation and confusion will be explored and make them want to carry on watching.

The final idea explored that entices the audience to watch on is the idea of dis-equilibrium. The idea is that in our film society is represented as unequal, and unbalanced. The fact that someone has been kidnapped suggests to the audience that there is a lack of balance, law and order within the society in which the characters live and this idea will make the audience want to watch on as action and crime is almost guaranteed. The audience might also find this relatable as the idea of an unbalanced society is projected, which will form a relationship between the audience and the narrative, again making them want to watch on as these ideas are explored.

How will your technical codes engage with your audience?Camerawork: In our thriller technical codes play a huge part when trying to engage our film with the audience. The use of close ups engages the audience as they can really read the emotions on the characters face. This close up here was used as it shows of Joe Blaxall’s face as he realises what is going on as he has a flashback. This engages the audience as they learn some of the back story as Joe remembers. This is crucial as it creates a feeling of disorientation, which keeps the audience engaged and excited to watch on.

Sound: The specific example I am going to refer to matches with the one I used for camerawork. As the shot plays, it is matched with emphasised, diegetic sound of Joe breathing heavily and gets louder after the flashback. The heavy breathing connotes the idea of being scared, and infers to the audience that the character has realised what is going on which suggests to them that something major is about to happen. This keeps the audience engaged with the narrative as they become excited and keen to see the plot develop.

Lighting: The lighting of the film is lowkey and chiaroscuro. Alone, to the audience this infers that the film is going to explore the ideas of metaphorical darkness, considering it is a crime-thriller and excites the audience. Not only does the lighting create this feeling within the audience, but creates a sense of disorientation as the audience are unaware of where the interrogation is happening (because of the darkness) and gets them on the edge of their seats, keeping them engaged with the narrative. A specific example would be the lighting during the PoV shot. The darkness that surrounds Joe’s character creates a feeling of seclusion and gets the audience feeling sceptical about the future, as they are in the boots of the character.

Editing: In some of the thriller we used fast-paced, frantic editing to connote a feeling of uncertainty. Specifically, during the flashback. There are fast paced cuts. As Joe remembers what is going on, the feeling of uncertainty is created as it all happens so quickly, and suggests the audience it was such a frantic experience to the character. This engages the audience as they learn what is happening to the character throughout.

How do intertextual references attract your audience?One of the intertextual references in my thriller is the idea that our antagonist can be compared to Negan. The character Negan comes from The Walking Dead and is the main antagonist. However, his personality is somewhat annoyingly likeable. In my thriller I tried to create this intertextual reference through the way in which audience relate to the character. The idea is that the audience relate to the antagonist in terms of his projections of independence, and therefore the character becomes more likeable, however is still a sick-headed antagonist. Therefore, because of the recognition of the character Negan, our film becomes more attractive due to the idea of a likeable antagonist.

Another intertextual reference would be the costume similarities between the Joker and my antagonist. The Joker is known for wearing his classic green and purple three piece suit. I tried to recreate the idea of a smartly dressed villain subtly. The antagonist in my thriller is wearing a shirt and black trousers. The connotations to wearing a suit is that they are often worn by business men, who are often thought of as quite smart. Another type of person associated to suits would be a hitman. Both of these types of people can be linked with both my antagonist and the Joker. And if the audience is able to identify the similarities between the two, then entertainment is almost guaranteed, which will attract them the watch on.

Another intertextual reference would be the idea in both my thriller and The Dark Knight. The idea is that the audience are thrown in the deep end straight away. By this I mean that rather than a long build up to a crime, the narrative dips into it at the beginning, like the iconic bank robbery in The Dark Knight. The reason this attracts the audience is that this idea of action straight away tells the audience the film is going to be action packed, which therefore excites and makes them want to watch on and experience this action.

Overall, if the audience can identify the intertextual references then they are attracted as different features of the films are guaranteed (such as action and a likeable antagonist.)

How is the audience positioned?

In terms of positioning the audience is intended to remain in their own position in terms of who to support. But if they are supposed to feel the same way as the character played by Joe Blaxall. The idea is that the audience feel disorientated through the use of chiaroscuro lighting and close up shots. The darkness connotes the idea of not knowing where you are and metaphorically represents the idea of not being able to see into the future. The heavy diegetic breathing further supports this. Again, it connotes the idea of fear and this is a theme and feeling in which the audience is supposed to feel. Another way in which they’re positioned in Joe’s shoes is that they are both in fear of the antagonist. The over the shoulder, low-angle shots looking up at Harry creates a visual representation of the idea that he has more power than both Joe and the audience.

However, some of the audience could be considered to be in the position of the antagonist. As I have previously mentioned there is a bond between the teenage member of the audience and the antagonist because of their shared views on independence. The idea that they can be considered similar, could suggest that they see the world the same way. Therefore that part of the audience could be considered to be in the antagonists boots.

Overall, the audience are supposed to be in fear of the antagonist and expected to feel the common conventions of the thriller genre that I have explored, such as confusion, uncertainty, and disorientation.