The student produced an opening sequence for a horror/thriller film for a media coursework project. They worked in a group of three and the student did the majority of the editing. The opening sequence establishes the setting, introduces the main character, and creates tensions through enigmas like why the main character is running in the woods. It also contrasts happy scenes from three days earlier with the current tense situation to further intrigue the audience. Feedback showed the sequence was generally successful in conveying the genre and story.

1. My Evaluation By Ellice Macro

11. As I have discussed earlier, the enigmas we raised were key in making the audience want to carry on watching. Enigmas were instantly created when the sequence began ‘why is she in the woods?’, ‘who or what is she running from?’, ‘is that person dead on the floor?’, ‘have they been murdered?’, and so on. As our opening sequence continues, we are introduced to Mark (the killer). It is evident he is the murderer from the shots we took and the editing (discuss later). There is a massive contrast between the before and after scenes that helped raise the enigmas and made the plot more obvious to the audience. It is made apparent, during the ‘3 Days Earlier’ scenes, that Jess and Mark were supposed to be friends. The audience should be loaded with questions – ‘why is he trying to kill her?’, ‘what could have gone so wrong in the three days?’. From our audience feedback we can tell that these enigmas were successfully created, and the audience wanted to carry on watching the film to discover the answers. We have built up tension and suspense mainly through the music. We have used very fast paced music throughout the film which does create tension, however was mainly used to create contrast within the film. Some scenes we have slowed down (such as Mark) walking, yet we have kept the fast paced music – this was to try and show Mark’s calm attitude as he leisurely walks along, with Jess’ frantic state (the music). However, I don’t think this worked as well as we’d hoped as one of the criticisms from our audience feedback was that the music didn’t fit with some of the shots, (see audience response ). We also tried to create suspense in the shot where Mark is stood by a tree and Jess is unknowingly hid behind it. The shot then abruptly stops and the ‘3 Days Earlier’ comes up. We thought the audience would respond with ‘has he killed her?’ etc. The audience is left, theoretically, on a cliff hanger.

19. Preliminary Task Vs Final Product Looking back at your preliminary task , what do you think you have learnt in the progression from it to your final product ? Our preliminary task was VERY basic, we didn’t really cut any shots just added sepia effect to make it look like an old western. We used basic camera angles on a tripod and the whole thing was taken in about three shots. We used dialogue to tell the story, however with our final product there is no dialogue whatsoever – the story is told through the media language and I think this is a lot more powerful and effective and the audience has to read between the lines to understand what is going on. The characters and story line is obviously a lot deeper than ‘a stolen magical horse’ and we took it much more seriously. Our final product explores wider issues within society – lack of respect for others, lack of respect for life. I have learnt to edit the shots precisely using keyboard editing, which has definitely increased the professionalism of our film. The lighting is much better in our final film, we have experimented with natural lighting to create atmosphere on screen and the sound is much clearer. We added a variety of non-diegetic sounds to make the film more authentic and believable as a media product.