Sana Haq - 7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progress from it?

Our Preliminary Task -

Our Final Thriller Opening - The Stalker -

Over the past couple since we finished our preliminary task, we found it was a great starting point. By experimenting with different camera techniques and editing skills, it allowed us to have a clear idea about how to plan the opening to our thriller. Whilst looking back at the preliminary task process,I feel as if we have progressed by our camera work,as our camera work was not that imaginative compared to our thriller opening according to the plot lines and final outcome of our shots and editing emerged together. Our thriller opening consists of a variety of camera work such as panning, tracking, point of view shot, hand held etc. compared to the basic camera work used in our preliminary task. Also in our preliminary task we used the same concept as our opening which was the stalker theme, we found it became quite easy to work with when it came to the final stages, as we can expand on our ideas effectively.

 By being able to experiment with the preliminary task during the editing process, it allowed us to save a lot of time as we already knew most of the basics, however reflecting back to the preliminary task our editing was not that effective, therefore we knew that making the same mistakes again was unnecessary. By making sure we did not make the same mistakes again, we paid close attention to ensuring there was continuity, the non diegetic sounds were correctly placed and transitions and special effects were used effectively.


 THINGS WE DONE DIFFERENTLY

• Added a soundtrack 
• Having a voice over as our dialogue instead of having diegetic sounds 
• Adding special effects such as the use of black and white images. 
• Using a variety of techniques to show off our camera skills.
• Setted our scenes in different areas within the school

 Overall I beleive without creating a preliminary task before hand, our group would have found it very difficult to create the final outcome we have achieved in our opening. However I believe with a bit more of practice we could have perfected all our camera shots. Even though i am pleased with the final outcome of out thriller opening,I still believe certain aspects of it could have been better with the help of extra time.

Sana Haq - 6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

What ways have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? on Prezi

Sana Haq - 5. How did you attract/address your audience?

We attracted/addressed our audience by the following;


Questionnaires. We felt that by conducting our research through Questionnaires was very helpful as it allowed us to meet the expectations and needs of our audience. We did by using a variety of questions about if the following actions we were deciding to convey would appeal to them, similarly if they did not we would then go the majority of the percentage that disagreed and alternatively go with the best option that they have suggested.





Although 10 percent of our participants disagreed with our theme. We believe that if we listened to our 10 per cent then the other 90 percent would be let down as we going with the minority. This then brings in the concept of our product being Mainstream therefore we would have to follow the majority of the research, especially that  the plot line is one the major reasons why people would watch a thriller. We then linked this question with another, asking if our audience would like to see a thriller with elements of realism. We found that 73% said yes, we believe that this would allow us to proceed with our theme of our thriller, which was to have the plot conveying of a stalker. This is suggested to imply realism as in society this can happen to anyone and has happened in the past when overlooking the news from the past few years.

However we did not always listen to our research as when asked about what sub-genre they would like the majority replied back with 'horror'. The reason why we automatically dismissed this concept was because we felt that we included thriller as a sub-genre then our theme would not represent any elements of realism, therefore we went for the next best option with 20% of our research saying the would like 'drama' to work alongside thriller.

Our own knowledge. 

We felt that because we are similar ages to our target audience, we can elaborate on our experiences and know how to connect with teenagers. Therefore by having our theme also based around a social networking site, we felt that we could easily relate to our audience as in society today the majority of teenagers have in some way experienced cyber bullying, random adds and easy communication through the beauty of social networking sites.This then again brings in the concept of realism in an effective way that has been presented in the 21st century as the majority of the time teenagers spend is through digital technology. Originally we were going to grasp the concept of Facebook in our opening as it's the most popular social network used by teenagers today. Due to problems facing copyright we decided to disregard this concept in our opening, however we still strongly feel that with the opportunity of producing the whole thriller we would include Facebook as without it our thriller would not be as realistic as Facebook's ratings and approach to social networking is the best so far. Therefore creating a new concept would not be recommendable as this is the best way to connect with our audience and make our thriller current and modern.

We also knew that by having our central characters based around the same age as our audience, would be ideal as the storyline would not fit if we had an adult playing the role of our characters, or a young child being played a victim. Therefore we made sure all the basics of our thriller were covered as without casting our characters correctly it would result in having a low response rate. I believe that we have correctly chose our characters as it helps the audience to relate with the characters more effectively by being around the same age bracket. Even if we were given the opportunity again I would not cast my characters any different. However with better access to more boys I believe it would have been more effective if we had shown a male character within the opening to get the male audience engaged from the beginning of our thriller.

Sana Haq - 4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

Sana Haq - 3. What kind of media institution might describe your media product and why?

As a group we decided to produce our media product as a Mainstream institution.
The reason for making this decision is because we knew that by going Mainstream it would appeal to our target audience as we are not a creating a new concept that we believe would not appeal to the mass audience. By being Mainstream it would encounter our media product to have different segments within our opening such as our own production company, therefore we created 'Innovative Ideas' this would allow us to keep both distribution and production rights. Similar to our 'Innovative Ideas' are Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros.

If we became an Independent institution, we would have had to face many difficulties that would not be found if we went Mainstream. These are having to go with the concept of releasing our thriller in a niche rage of cinemas, which may cause low revenue that would lead to a loss made from the film as we believe that our thriller follows the conventions of a thriller which involve's a lot of expenditure to create the best out come possible. Also if we became Independent it would restrict us from releasing our thriller worldwide/international as we are only targeting a small range of audience who our theme would appeal to.
 We then went on to believe that if we became Mainstream we would be able to please our target audience as they would have better access to it, therefore they would not be limited to the whereabouts they can view our opening as it would be available in mainstream cinemas such as, Odeon, Cineworld and Vue. 

Sana Haq - 2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In our opening sequence we have decided to represent different types of social groups such as;

1. Students; the reason why we have chosen to represent students is because we felt as if it would be easier for us to relate to and that we knew there would not be any issues with the locations we decide to set our scenes in as we were only allowed to shoot within the school. As well as all these issues we knew that by having our central characters as students it would appeal to our target audience (which is highlighted in  question 4.), this is because it would be a simple but effective way of allowing the audience to connect with the characters. As we our students ourselfs we knew it would be easy to plot the story line by having our characters and audience similar ages to us.

2. The Asian Community;

we have decided to focus on using our central characters representing the Asian community because we felt that this would be the perfect opportunity to go against stereotypes and show Asians in two completely different ways.

First;

As most people would see that a different ethnicity other than the white community are suggested to be outsiders (foreigners) and a threat to society, therefore we decided to centralize outsiders in our opening and allow them to dominate our thriller to make a different ethnicity the 'norm'. We felt that we could break the concept of 'outsiders being a threat' by going against this term for one of our characters. The effect of this is that it would allow the audience to see a variety of personalities and life culture. In the shot above, the victim has been shown as wearing no makeup this allows the audience to fully understand from the very beginning that there's a clear difference between both characters. Even though our initial reaction was to have the victim being played by a white teenager, we decided to dismiss this concept and keep it interesting for the audience and not to make things too cliche, therefore having an Asian play a victim role was simply intriguing.


Second;

By having the victim being played by an Asian, we felt very strongly to also have the culprit (the stalker) being played by an Asian. By knowing the stereotype of different ethnic groups being shown in the film industry we felt that we could play along with this and have our culprit shown as an 'outsider'. By listening to the voice over the audience begin to see the deceitful side of the stalker as she has been said to be from Texas, however adapting to the British culture and picking up on the accent very quickly. This gives the audience a feeling of the sense of secrecy by hiding her true identity from others. Also by being Asian, her voice represents her to only be an outsider by her actions, not by the ethnic group she's from.

Sana Haq - 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge the conventions of real media products?

I believe that our final outcome of our opening consists of many conventions that occur within a Thriller such as;

Orchestral Music

We found that during our research we commonly found that almost every opening used orchestral music, therefore we felt obliged to follow this tradition, as we did not want to make an error in choosing a different type of music. I also believe that this music suited very well with the theme of our story line, as it doesn't sound too aggressive and gives the perfect feeling towards its viewers. We also noticed that in our opening that after every other title there's a dip in the sound of the music just as it begins to fade away and arises again as the title is shown. 

Use of Fonts. 

We had decided to typically represent our title sequence as white on black, because we felt it gave off a thriller vibe, and as before we researched many thriller films that have used this same concept of white font on a black background.

Although some of the modern thriller's we researched had their title sequence running throughout scenes. However a majority of the old thrillers didn't use this concept. Therefore we felt that by going with a old tradition would be a better decision as we wanted to keep our audience engaged with the story line and not get distracted by the text that is shown with it. 

The reason why we have decided to go for a basic font compared to the title of the thriller is because we felt that the simple font begins to represent the life of the victim by showing she is an ordinary person. We then contrasted this with the title 'The Stalker' by being in a font which is named Cracked. I believe that is effective as this implies to the audience that the life of the victim gets disturbed by a person who is not right in their minds, therefore the font was perfect to reflect on the stalkers character. 

 Editing. 

The use of black and white images in our opening follows the conventions of a thriller as it gives the audience a sense of the past. They are inserted into our opening as jump cuts, which emphasizes the importance of the images. We decided that by portraying these images as black and white implies that she's already taken these images in the past. We developed the idea of using black and white by also showing colour images that are shown during the jump cut through a pan shot. The reason why this works well is because the past is clearly distinguished from the present by the use of colour. However we decided to try something a little bit new by having a clock over the stalkers face, this was to also suggest something in the past as the clock is moving anti-clockwise which. We used this concept because we wanted to show a varitey of ways showing the same thing so that it remains interesting for the viewers. 

We decided to have a voice over during our opening, even though it doesn't match with the conventions of a thriller as usually the only time dialogue occurs is when there's a coversation, therefore we decided to battle against it so the audience get a better understanding of the life of the stalker. I believe without our voice over the opening may seem a little bit boring therefore dialogue was the perfect way to overcome this problem. Although we understand that during our research the majority of the thrillers we viewed did not have any dialogue, we decided as a group to tackle this and have some different features to our opening.

Isobel Hall; Question 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

To produce a thriller opening that was perfect, was impossible. Not only in reality do we not have the budget of a mainstream production company we also don't have the expertise. We experienced many constraints, through from pre-production to production to post production, although were lucky to have equipment and experts who knew exactly what was expected from us.

Our use of camera

The clock - The shot that we used to cross-dissolve the stalkers face and the clock wasn't framed correctly. There was a lot of excess space around the clock, therefore creating the sense that we didn't set up the camera correctly. Also the camera was slightly slanted to the left, although this was disguised well through the use of editing - cross-dissolving the shots and using fast-paced editing.

The tracking shot - Using tracks was a new experience for all of us as we had never done it before, although the set-up wasn't overly complicated. The tracking shot took many shots, as we had to establish the correct time to move and realised moving in sync to the stalker produced the best results. We were very pleased with the shot when fitting it 

into our overall opening.

The hand-held camera shot - With the

 technological constraints, this shot came out suprisingly blurry and with very bad quality. It was a shame as originally it was a very defined shot, although by putting a black and white effect over the shot, it made the best of a bad situation. This became less recognizable.

Our use of mis-en-scene

Red lighting - We didn't plan on using red lighting and used it as an after thought as we were setting up. When seeing what it looked like after filming a few shots we were pleased with the results. It gave the scene a more sinister edge, than if filmed under conventional daylight as planned wouldn't of conjured the same feelings for the audience.

The lighting overall - We were lucky enough to not have many scenes outside and with no rain when we shot these scenes. Meaning when shooting we weren't held up by weather constraints. English weather may be more predictable than when we firstly anticipated.

Props; the gloves - Although the stalker was in the dark room the use of the gloves seems pointless. Although the camera shots are well done and there is an action match ensuring the putting on of them looks realistic. Although in retrospect when editing the piece I would cut this out entirely.

Our use of editing

The use of jump cuts - This took a lot of work and consideration. As we wanted to have both the memory segments and current day segments of the opening combined. This was hard to achieve as it didn't make sense, as our characters were in one place then in another. With the storyline not distinguishable. By using black and white effect over the memory shots this made what we wanted to portray more obvious for the audience, with the plot making sense.

Our use of sound

The soundtrack - I'm very unhappy with our soundtrack. As because of time constraints and a last minute decision to switch our shot order drastically, our soundtrack ended up not being continuous. This is a great shame as originally the soundtrack was perfectly in sync. If we had had more time this would of been perfected and the audience would of been unaware of our cutting and repeating of the soundtrack. Although we did choose an effective track to play.

The voice over - We originally were not going to have a voice over, although after much consideration from our group felt like it was the only way to communicate the narrative to the audience effectively. As our time constraint of 2 minutes was a hard obstacle to overcome. Although the quality of the voice over and the words being said worked extremely well in building a plot - future, past and present with anticipation surrounding the entire things.

In conclusion our task when beginning was to make a thriller opening. Whilst some of it may of looked unprofessional and undone, it was a daunting task.

Overall I am happy with our final thriller opening. It took a lot of work, but it's amazing to see how much our skills have developed and progressed while forming our opening production.

Isobel Hall; Question 5: How did you attract/adress your audience?

Before beginning attracting/addressing our target audience the nature of the task was complicated, due to our aim to identify with a specific demographic and in conjunction a mainstream audience also. Although through carefully considering the conventions of thriller movies, we identified forms to inexplicitly appeal the two groups of our target audience.

Question 5; How did you attract / address your audience on Prezi

Isobel Hall; Question 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

When beginning to produce our thriller opening no-one was aware the depth of technologies and skills we would acquire through the process. I was neither familiar or accustomed to many of the vast range of technologies we used.

Isobel Hall: Question 4; Who would be the audience for our media product?

The concept of an audience relates to the target demographic who we were attempting to identify with.
The main target audience for phycological thrillers is 18+, this is because of the violence and mental issues explored in the films that may be disturbing and unsettling to younger audiences.

Although the target audience for our own film will mainly be 15-25 years old, although also targeting and appealing to an older audience, with a rating of 15. This is because of the storyline presented in our opening,  where the true horror and meaning of the words from the voice over may be misinterpreted by a younger audience below 15. Although the lack of violence presented makes an  18+ rating inappropriate.

Also we carried out our audience research with students from 15-18. Therefore were aware of their preferences and likes, therefore were sure to include these within our opening, as we were aware of how to appeal to this market segment.

Although our research was only carried out on these age groups most thriller films, as shown in the image, are watched by 50+ year olds. Therefore although we included the preferences of this age group as this was our main target audience, as we are a mainstream production company it was important it also appealed to a range of ages.
The issue of stalking was appealing to our mass audience and our more specific target audience.

Below are openings from other thrillers, sixth sense and saw V. Sixth sense with a rating of 15 and saw V 18. As you can see the clear differences in the way the thriller genre is shown, you can see our choice of a 15 rating is truly fitting when put into context.

Isobel Hall; Question 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

A mainstream institution is likely to be the type of media institution distributing our media product. As we produced a mainstream film we made up the production company, innovative ideas, envisaging it to be of the same success of other media conglomerates such-as warner brothers. Therefore our production company would own production and distribution rights. Although this is hard to see due to our lack of linking logo sequence to innovative ideas, a large mistake on our part.


As we are a mainstream conglomerate we would have a large scale world wide release. Such-as that of the saw trilogy films. This would be made possible due to our low budget restraints. This type of release would influence the wide spread distribution we have planned. The movie would show in cinemas world wide with a DVD release following. This is all would be necessary in order to profit from our large advertising expenditure, as a mainstream conglomerate production company this is expected.

Our use of characters with both stereotypical and unique traits allowed us to identify with our audience as well as acquiring a fresh outlook on the phycological thriller genre. The stereotypical aspects of the representation of our characters allowed us to ensure it was relatable to our mass audiences.

Also we embraced and used many conventions in our media product, only challenging them rarely. This made sure it supported our image of our mainstream production company.

Isobel Hall; Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

When talking of the representation in our media product it was impossible to ignore or escape the stereotypes portrayed. To create a brand new character dismissing all stereotypes would of required a complex opening that was impossible due to our technical constraints. Also it would of been unbelievable to our audience, as they wouldn't be able to identify with our characters. It was important when considering stereotypes, to challenge them through our representation of our characters, but to also confirm them and develop these existing stigmas in society.

Question 2 ; How does your media product represent particular social groups? on Prezi

Isobel Hall (Singh) - Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

When developing our media product it was impossible to avoid conventions already iterated and reiterated time and time again. As because of the media focused world, the associations drawn between genres and characteristics are ingrained into our minds becoming unnoticed stereotypes. The conventions dominated our development of our product, from research to production to post production.

Saira Amjad - Question 7- Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

Looking back at our preliminary task, I have learnt a lot. I have learnt how to edit continuously, how to shoot different types of camera shots and how to include sound in the opening. It has helped me develop my skills on iMovie also.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product? on Prezi

Saira Amjad - Question 6-What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

From the very beginning of constructing this product we have been introduced to various new technologies that I have not used before. This has taught me how to use them and that anyone can download them on to their computers and produce a film if they have the right equipment. We have used technologies such as, iMovie, Freeplaymusic.com, tripods, cameras, tracks, Blogger, Microsoft excel, digital bridge cameras, scanner and the iMac. 

Pre-Production

iMac

Before the production, we started using the iMacs. Although this was not my 1^st time using one, I was introduced to new software on it. If we did not have the Macs, we would not be able to use iMovie to edit our film openings.

Blogger

Personally, I do not think I used blogger as much as I could have. However, we used blogger to upload our work and our progress; this was for the examiners and our teachers to see our development. If technology had not developed the way it has today, it would be difficult to show examiners the work we have done and also for them to view the videos.

Digital bridge cameras

We used a digital bridge camera to capture the photographs for the stalkers scene in the darkroom. This was easy to use. An advantage to us was that you could change the type of focus on the camera. . If we had to use an analogue camera instead of a digital one, we would have not been able to upload the pictures on to a computer and print them off and use them on our film.

Microsoft excel

I used Microsoft excel to produce charts from the results we received through the questionnaires. Because we had asked questions from exactly 30 people, I thought it would make sense for me to show the results in pie charts. Without Microsoft Excel, we would not be able to show our results from the questuionniare in an accurate graph.

Scanner

We used the scanner to scan the storyboards so we could upload them on to the blog. This was a much easier option than to have to illustrate the storyboards on the computer. Without the scanner, we may of had to illustrate the storyboard on the computer, having the scanner was easier as we could get every detail right

 

Production

Canon video camera

We used the canon video camera for our filming. This came as an advantage to us as it was a HD camera; therefore we were able to capture our film effectively. Also, using a canon video camera meant that we were able to capture and save the film on to the actual camera, however, if we had used a VHS camcorder, it will mean that the film would be captured on a video tape which will mean it will be harder to upload on to a computer.

Tripods

The tripod was very effective in helping us film. While filming some scenes we did feel as if the camera was slanted. This was entirely our fault as we did not check beforehand to see is the tripod was on a straight level. To prevent it from happening again, we always checked the bubble at the top of tripod to see if it was in the middle.

Tracks

Initially, we were going to use a panning shot when the stalker is walking across the darkroom. After we shot it, we weren’t very happy with it, and then one group member suggested we should use a tracking shot and that showed the right type of mood that we wanted to create. From this, I learnt that to set the right atmosphere in the scene. It is important that you use the right shot and equipment.

Post Production

iMovie

Before the real preliminary task, we had a mock one and in this we were able to use iMovie to edit it. This was my first time using it and I learnt a lot from then until now, after the production. It has taught me a lot, I now know how to edit clips, cut them, add sound, remove sound, and add transitions and so on. Without iMovie, we would not be able to edit our film opening efficiently.

Freeplaymusic.com

Free play music was a very useful site to search for non-copyrighted sound tracks. Although they did have lots of tracks, we finally did come up with one that we preferred and it was fairly easy to download.If technology had not developed, it would not be possible for us to find music online and we would have to compose our own music. This would have taken up a lot of time and we may have not finished in time.

Saira Amjad - Question 5-How did you attract/address your audience?

We attracted our audience in a number of different ways, through voice overs, different types of shots, the location, etc.

How did you attract/address your audience?

View more presentations from Saira364.

Saira Amjad - Question 4-Who would be the audience for your media product?

We gathered information about who our target audience would be by doing a questionnaire and handing it out to around 30 people. From that, we had found out the following results. We have also recognised our target audience by our own reflections. 

The target audience for thriller movies are usually teenagers or young adults, usually from the ages of 15-25. They are people who like to feel thrilled and scared while watching a film.

Our target audience is similar to this. We found out our target audience by primary research and giving out questionnaires to around 30 people in total. This helped us discover the likes and dislikes of our target audience, as one of the questions included was ‘What subgenre do you thrillers to be crossed with’ and 47% said that they preferred horror to be a subgenre in a thriller film. 20% of people said they would like drama to be a subgenre in a thriller film. This was an advantage to us because our film has a vast majority of drama in it; therefore we were slightly aiming it towards some of our target audience.

Saira Amjad - Question 3- What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

The type of institution that would distribute our film would be a mainstream one. We came up with a production company named ‘innovative ideas’. If this production company was an existent one, they would be similar to companies such as 20th Century Fox or Universal studios. Our reason for choosing a mainstream institution is entirely because our media product is aimed at a mass market, therefore in order to advertise to them, we would have to be a mainstream production company. Although our film is advertised to people over the ages of 15, I want a mainstream distributor to distribute our film so it reaches as many people as possible.

Our film may be similarly advertised to the audience the way films such as ‘The happening’ or ‘Shutter’ or ‘Deception’. The reasons why they would be similar to us is because they were aimed at a specific mass audience over the age of 15 and got an excellent response. These films are quite similar to ours as firstly, they are all aimed at people over the ages of 15 and they are thrillers.

Saira Amjad -Question 2-How does your media product represent particular social groups?

How does your media product represent particular social groups? 1 on Prezi

Saira Amjad - Question 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We looked at various film openings at the start to get different ideas and see the conventions of thriller films. We developed those ideas in to our opening and this is how…

Title of the film

The title of the film is ‘The stalker’. Our reasons for choosing this name is because it is a simple name and it tells you a little bit about the narrative of the film but not too much. For example the film ‘Se7en’ is called Se7en because they deal with se7en deadly sins but do not mention how they do it. Similarly, we have used this as our film is called ‘The stalker’, but it doesn’t let the audience know about how she stalks the girl or who she even stalks. We have used different font for the actual title of ‘The Stalker’ to the other titles in the title sequence, which gives it a different effect.

Setting/ location

We decided to shoot the most dominant scene in the whole opening in the photography dark room. The reason for this was because this is the one scene in which the stalker is shown as an actual stalker, stalking the victim without her knowing. We chose this location as it shows her going in to this room, where she is away from everyone and it is just her and the victims pictures that she takes and develops alone, making her feel as if she is more closer to her. Furthermore, having a dark setting is a convention of a thriller film therefore we have developed it in to ours.

Costumes and props

For the costumes, the victim was dressed as a casual type of girl. We challenged the convention of having the stalker wear dark clothing; this is usually a convention in thriller films but we did not use it. The stalker was not wearing dark clothing even though this is usually a convention in thriller movies and she was also dressed casual to look normal to everyone else, just like the nanny in ‘The hand that rocked the cradle’ was dressed.

We used a number of different props which included, the red tint for the dark room, the pictures to put up, the props used by the victim in the pictures such as a phone and book, the clock, the computer and the gloves.

Camera work and editing

In the opening of our film, we aimed to use different types of shots. Originally we weren’t going to show the stalkers face, however, we later decided that we had to other wise there would be too many of the same types of shots, for example, point of view shots. Therefore, we used shots such as tracking shots, close ups, mid shots and panning shots. This was because in the film openings we saw, they used a range of shots and we developed it in to our film opening.

Title font and style

The title font and style is placed on a black background with white font. We have done this because it reflects the good vs bad in thriller films, as white reflects ‘good’ and black is the ‘bad’. While doing product research in the beginning of the project, we found that a lot of thriller films such as ‘Se7en’ use white font against a black background in the trailer, therefore taking that in mind, we decided to use it in our opening also.

Story and how the opening sets it up

One of the shots that opens the film is the one of the stalker on the computer and on the screen it says ‘I WANT HER’ and is repeated on the whole page. This shot is significant as it introduces her as the stalker and she wants this other girl. We decided to have a voice over of the stalker in the beginning so it introduces the film so the audience aware of how much the stalker wants the victim as she says ‘I needed her, I wanted her’, she also stresses on some words which indicates her emotions and how determined she is to have the girl.

Genre and how the opening suggest it

Our opening suggests that this is a thriller film as it starts of with very mysterious music. Although, in the product research I looked at ‘The hand that rocks the cradle’. The non diegetic sound used in the opening was firstly was quite smooth happy orchestral music but as another character was introduced riding in the neighborhood on the bike in dark clothing, the music changed tone and got relatively tense. We somewhat used this in our opening as we had the same music playing in the title sequence but as soon as the title of the film ‘The Stalker’ comes up, we hear a loud sound and then the stalker appears on screen, this suggests that that character may be the ‘bad’ one.

How characters are introduced

In the opening sequence we only see two characters which symbolises that these two are the main characters. The other characters would have been seen later on in the film. The first character to be introduced is the stalker, she is introduced as a psychotic person as she has typed up she ‘wants’ the girl on her computer. She then goes to her dark room where we see she has taken pictures of this girl she is stalking and shows a very psychotic side to the character. The other character introduced is the victim who is being stalked. She on the other hand is introduced as someone who is very naïve and you feel sorry for her.

Special effects

We used special effects such as jump cuts in the opening sequence. This was when the stalker was walking in the dark room and thinking about the past. The reasons why these were used are so that the audience can see the past and how the stalker used to stalk the victim then and how she has still not got over her. We chose to have those shots in black and white to show the past. 

 

The Stalker - Final Film Opening