Evaluation- story/codes and conventions

The bruising seen in the cold open

I think my production shows a coherent story. Although there's not an obvious storyline to the video, but the cold open suggests a story to progress as we have an insight into some of the plot to follow, especially as the character is bruised and seemingly unconscious. The narration also suggests a storyline to progress as he leads you to the beginning of the overall story. The drastic change of location from the safe setting of a home to a derelict street, shows the progression of storyline and the possible violence within the film. All participants that gave me feedback, noted that the opening sequence made sense and they could see a storyline developing from it.

Title sequence setting

Cold open setting

Making the video make sense, although puzzling the audience a little, is a convention of an opening sequence, particularly a thriller film. Other genres, such as romance or comedy, have a more straightforward opening, rather than action or thrillers, who often show some of the twists in the plot- which is what we have done.  The flashback aspect of the opening sequence is also a convention of opening sequences, and is used, again mainly in thrillers, action or tragedy because it effectively shows the "for and after" of a plot line or section of plot. Flashbacks are mostly associated with narrations, but narrations are also placed with simpler openings such as a panning of landscape. In my audience feedback, one person said that the video seems to be untypical of a opening sequence, but the flashback/narration combination was a good way to begin.

"It's kind of complicated to explain,
it all started on the day of my job
interview"- the narration in this shot

The Enigma code is a convention of opening sequences that is used very often. The enigma code is when you give some information into the film's plot line, but not all of it. This is done in our opening sequence by the flashback, because it gives an insight into this progression later on into the film, but doesn't give any of the details that lead up to this event. This would compel the audience to continue to watch to find out how this situation arises. The cold open, which we have also used, is another code of opening sequences, and is linked to the enigma code.


These two shots are the only credits
before the cold open

A cold open is when a scene is played without any credits, with the exception of production company or director, to get the audience interested into the film, and then is often followed by a title sequence. In our production, the flashback is the cold open, so this scene partakes in the enigma code, whilst being a flashback and cold open. Although this combination may be challenging the codes and conventions of opening sequences, it has been used in Pulp Fiction (1994, dir. Quentin Tarrantino).

Gavin, our actor- aged 18

From the opening sequence, we have established the main character, as he is the only character present in the opening sequence. He also fits the character type of a main character, being male, young, and physically able. This also represents the stereotypical image of main characters, promoting the stereotypical image of characters. The social groups that would be attracted to our film, would be the same as the main character. For example, early 20s and high paid job. All those that participated in my audience feedback, mainly aged 14-21years all said they were intrigued by the film and would continue to watch if it was a real film, because of the cliffhanger at the end and the mystery involved.

Equal amounts of both sexes in this age group completed the survey, and both were attracted to watching the film. I would of hoped for a wider range range of ages to complete the feedback, but as mainly the people I know are aged 14-20, this was quite hard to achieve. An audience aged 18-21 would be able to empathise with the character, I think these would be our target audience, this age group is normally the target audience for thrillers as they are often the age on the majority of characters. The costume in the cold open also reflects this age, as Gavin is wearing the fashion for that age; a cardigan, t-shirt and jeans. The costume in the title sequence is possibly aimed at a higher age group, as not as many 18-21 would have a job in which they have to wear a full suit. Perhaps we could of changed the costume to make it more relevant to the age group.



The CU of the Kettle switch and toaster

Our audience is also attracted by the conventions of the opening sequence, which are there to entice the audience, such as the enigma code, but also the fast paced editing in the title sequence, like the kettle and toaster sequence, which has very short shot lengths of about one second, compared to the average of four seconds in the rest of the production. Also in this part we used close-ups to make it obvious what was happening, as the switch on the kettle is quite small, we thought if we did a CU on it, then it would make it more obvious to what the character is doing. You don't see the character in this part, which also speeds up the pace, rather than dragging it out and having to use jump cuts to stop the video going over 2 minutes.

The intense opening to the cold open, also attracts the audience. This slow revelation of the body starts the sequence with a lot of tension, and once the camera has reached the body, it shocks the audience to begin with, and intrigues the audience see how it happens.

The unconscious body revealed in the cold open

50% of the audience feedback, said that they thought the video was of the thriller genre. The reasons for this choice, was varied, but the most popular answers were: the music that was chosen, the general mystery of the video, the choice of title and inclusion of a dead body. Which are all codes and conventions of a thriller film. Other codes and conventions of thrillers would be a weapon which we we didn't include, but then this codes and convention isn't always found in the opening sequence of the film, although can be if the film opens with a action sequence such as a fight or car chase. The other answers were are below:

All the audience feedback said the music we used was appropriate to the iconography, and one response said although the music in the title sequence, doesn't fit the typical stereotype of music for thriller it does fit into the context of the character making his breakfast. The music reflects the characters mood and the types of music he would listen to. It also shows the light heartedness of the the scene at the beginning of the film, which is a contrast to most openings to thriller films.

Look Inside- the music track we used alongside the title sequence

I had varying opinions about the pace of the video, some comments were: that if the cold open had been longer, then they might of been more drawn into the film; although, all feedback said the pace of the production wasn't bad, and the slower pace cold open, allowed them to get drawn into the film. One comment said that "It's a good pace, as the camera angles are interesting, therefore it isn't boring, instead it keeps you enticed". I thought this during filming, within the scene there isn't much, if any, movement, so to prevent the scene from becoming boring we would have to vary the camera angles. Also, to prevent the scene looking too 'still' we also used a lot of tracking and panning shots within this scene. The camera angles we used in the cold open were: