BEING THE EXAMINER FOR A CHANGE!

Welcome back, everyone! As sir once told us, it's important to view previous thriller openings by ex-students before making our own. So after viewing some, it's time for me to become the examiner in this blog post - instead of being the pupil.  

The first one was shown to us by sir during a theory lesson...

I'll begin with what I love about it - the voiceover of the antagonist. It really gives an eerie atmosphere to the thriller, and definitely, leaves the audience feeling uncomfortable (which we want). I also really like the camera flare effects, as well as the colour correction and the shaky transitions added post production throughout, which all scream out conventions of a thriller. However, my negative about this opening is that I don't believe the narrative had been made as clear as it could've been. I would still rate this a level 4 though, giving it 50 marks out of 60 (real examiner gave it 48).  

The next one I'm going to 'examine' is a previous thriller made by ex-students in my sixth form. 



What I love about this one is the background music and how it changes throughout the opening, it adds to the suspense and works very well with the narrative. Another brilliant feature is the mise-en-scene, with the night time setting to the dark clothing and the quiet location  - it all screams disaster to the audience! I would give this a 48/60 as it's a really good thriller opening but I don't feel like it has much excitement in it to lure the audience, making them question if they want to carry on watching it. 

Another one we looked at in class is this one.



My favourite part of this has to be the phone call, as it uses technology and shows how communication is evolving in our contemporary society. I also think the conversation itself between the protagonist and her friend foreshadows the thrill about to commence in the film. Although, I'm not a fan of the black and white effect used throughout the entire opening, as I believe the use of colour correction would make the film more realistic instead of b&w the entire time. Also, it's clear that the black and white was used in the graveyard scene to cover up the fact that it was actually daytime that they recorded it, not nighttime like it was supposed to be set in. I give this a level 3!