Evaluation

For my media unit 23 coursework I have created the opening scene towards a thriller film. Overall I feel that opening has been created rather well, I feel the time spent on the opening was sufficient enough for it to be realistic and entertaining. The opening scene begins with a slow tracking shot which transforms into a medium long shot of a character sat down upon a wall, the reasoning of this shot was for the audience to take note of the character, where he is sat and the location around him. The range of shots I used throughout the film opening were varied but they fitted into the genre of thriller, I wanted to ensure the audience knew what time of film they were watching, and it helped them to feel more involved. I used various medium shots to show two characters at once, and also to show the setting around them, and also long shots were used so that it allowed the audience to view a character from afar, making them more curious as to what he properly looks like, who he is, and what part he has to play. I used close ups various times throughout to emphasize the characters emotions and facial expressions and this helped the audience understand the narrative and what’s going on during that scene.  I gained focus group feedback, and within that feedback I received a couple of comments which said that I should have included more camera angles within the film opening, this would therefore shown off the genre more and kept the typical conventions of a thriller in sight. Throughout the opening scene my main aim was to keep the audience involved and to include lots of use of suspense. To achieve this I ensured that dialogue was kept to a minimum so that the audience would try and guess things for themselves, but for them to be in for a shock or two as the film then progressed. The inclusion of no dialogue also remained in the typical conventions of a thriller and this was one of the contributing factors as to why I decided to do so.  When working as a group I found it hard to agree upon certain things with other group members, one example of this was the choice of sound overlaid on top of the video. One group member disagreed with me that the chosen sound suitable for the video, when in fact I felt that a faster paced track should have been included, which would of helped portray the videos genre to the audience much more clearly. 

Overall I feel that my thriller opening was as good as I could have made it, and had the group members not being a little too relaxed and laid back about it, I feel it could have been made slightly more professionally. However, I didn’t have as much time as the professional filmmakers do, nor the expensive budget they do either, had I of had the same time and money, I feel I could have easily created a much more exciting thriller opening. As location manager, along with group mate Alexander Dean, I feel the settings we chose within the film were well suited for the genre and enhanced the feeling of the film. We chose the co-operative car park as we felt the audience could relate to a supermarket, as its something many of us visit on a daily basis. Although I contributed with ideas towards the editing, colleague Thomas Wood did an extremely good job of editing the video and ensuring that it still made the film exciting and fast paced, and well within the genre.