Conventions of a Thriller

Initial Ideas Summary

For the task I am working in a group with Laura Poyntz and Luke Davis.

Before we decided on exactly what we wanted to do we all put forward our ideas. Our first thought was that we would have a title sequence similar to the opening for Napoleon Dynamite where the credits would be shown on various objects. The genre to our film would've been a comedy as the theme of the title sequence fits into that genre quite nicely. Our idea was that a 'nerdy' school girl would be packing her bag to get ready to go to school and we would see rather comical items being put into the bag. The camera wouldn't allow the viewer to see her face until the very end when she's about to leave, when it reveals how her looks fit into the 'nerdy' stereotype.
Although this is a rather good idea, we thought that it would be a very simple and easy film opening which wouldn't stand out from other title sequences very well so we discussed different ideas.

Our next idea was that we would shoot the opening to a horror film at Sand Bay (A local beach) and in the woods. We thought that it would be a good setting for a horror as it is quite dark and mysterious however we may have a bit of difficulty accessing this location. Also, after researching with the examiners report we found that a horror clip in the woods is one of the most common types of entries so we decided that we'd like to be a bit different and came up with out next idea to get around that.

For our third idea we kept with the horror genre but decided that we could film it at an old barn in St. Georges. The old barn would give an eery feel to the clip and would be a great location for the opening. I think this it definitely comes away from the woods type of scene as there is only so much you can do in the woods. Our storyline for this would be that a girl or two girls would be running away from an unknown subject. As they run you would see leaves fall in slow motion behind them which would display credits. If we chose to use two girls they would bump into each other, both terrified and run into the old barn thinking it would keep them safe. As they hide and wait slowly thinking they're safe they begin to sense unnatural occurrences  inside the barn which would raise the tension of the intro and hook the viewer. The title scene would then begin to pick up the pace before it cuts to black as the rest of the film would begin, giving it a sharp rise and fall in tension. This intro could be a way of foreshadowing the film or it could be a flashback of the characters experiences before the film begins, to get a bit of a backstory.

Title sequence timeline

Ident

My idea for a Film Ident is 'Owl Entertainment'. Whilst I haven't finalised it, I have created most of the templates for a stop motion animation ident where you see an owl flying away. Here are some of the examples.

For this task I decided to choose the title sequences for Pitch Perfect and Spring Breakers as I have already seen these films so I would be able to compare how the title scene relates to the rest of the film.

I found the title sequence of Spring Breakers on a website called 'Art of the title'. The title sequence is quite fast paced which can foreshadow action and drama and can be used to engage the audience from the offset and make them more interested. It is quite a creative title sequence as it's quite bold and eye catching.
 However, nothing really stands out from this opening sequence as it is just text and music. The title scene doesn't do much to introduce the genre because of it's lack of image but the quick and quirky display of the text can give us, the viewer, an idea of what the rest of the film will be like. Also, the typography of the text could show some aspects of the film as it looks like lit up signs for bars and clubs. This is an example of one of the credits in this title sequence.

The music is quite good as some of the lyrics can display the thoughts of some of the characters during the film. For example 'the lights won't stop me'.

Before the title sequence there's a short opening scene in which you see some of the main characters singing on stage. In this scene, one of the main characters ends up being sick on stage which grabs the viewers attention and makes them want to know what's going to happen next.

From the very start of the pitch perfect opening sequence we can see that the film is related to music as you see the pitch bars on her laptop moving to the beat of the music which is playing. I think this is quite good as it shows what the film will be about. I think it's quite eye catching as the bright colours stand out from the black back ground and the bars move around to show different credits.