Evaluation of AOTT Activity (DYM)

Our film shows a mentally disturbed little girl during her time in a mental asylum. Eventually she becomes uncontrollable and begins to murder people that are there. In the opening of my film we are introduced to the main character and are able to see key locations for the movie.  In the opening we see that the girl has already trapped and tallied off one of her victims whilst also preparing for her next victim.

In the film opening we have included vital information such as the main character of the story and the setting of the movie. We also included the names of the main actors within the title sequence. It was also very important that we included the title of our movie for factual purposes.  

The titles link to the film as they reflect the genre of the film. One way that we were able to do this was through our choice of font. By using this font we were able to connote and suggest horror, whilst also sticking to the theme of black on white as we tried to recreate the effect of chalk on walls.  

By the end of my film opening I would expect the audience to be very disturbed by the main character. I would also expect my audience to be very intrigued and invested by my film opening’s story as it is purposefully ambiguous. We achieved this through the use of a variety of CU shots so that the audience is not able to see everything going on in the story at the time, so are forced to make their own assumptions. However, their ideas are not fully fulfilled or dismissed until further within the movie, creating an air of mystery that if able to intensify the suspense and horror of the film.  The fear of the unknown is made very apparent as the audience should question the origin and motive of the little girl.

Three important conventions that are included in my film opening and are vital to the construction of an opening sequence would be:

• ·        The main characters of the film are introduced. This is very important as the audience has to get a feel for what kind of people the main characters are so that they may predict what they may be like later on in the movie.
• ·        The genre of the film is suggested. This may be done through the use of genre signifiers. For example, in my film opening the use of blood helps to quickly suggest the genre of horror.
• ·        The title of the film is included. Although this is mainly for factual purposes, the title also acts as anchorage for the rest of the film opening and may be used for dramatic effect depending on its placement.

I think that my film opening was effective as an opening as I was able to successfully portray the genres of a horror/ thriller through my choice of narrative and shooting style.  I also think it was successful due to the fact that we included the typical conventions of a film opening. This was particularly important as we had to fulfil the audience’s expectations of finding out information about the film, without revealing too much about the narrative of it. However, I do think that our opening was slightly too ambiguous in terms of setting. If I were to do this task again I would ensure that I added a wide establishing shot of all of the setting so that the audience are aware of the geographical space that all of the action within the film is occurring in.