Daisy Edwards

Introduction
 My product was the opening titles to a Thriller film.
 I worked as an individual.
 The running time was 3:32 minutes.
 I had to film all the shots that would feature in the
opening.
Audience Testing Results
What does the title of the film – Vampire
Assassins – suggest to you?

Once they had watched the opening, most people

said that the genre appeared to be horror. Although
my opening is to a Thriller film, it is a cross genre
with Horror.
1) What genre does the sequence belong to
and how could you tell this?
Some audience members had difficulty
distinguishing between the two genres;
which is where cross-genres can be
quite confusing. Below is an audience
member response to this question.
So I could make the Thriller/Horror genre
obvious in my opening, I kept the
conventions of a Thriller/Horror cross
genre. I focussed on the micro-elements of
camera angles and shots as well as the
audio laying during editing, which allowed
the opening to build more tension and set
more enigma’s for the audience to follow.
We used clear continuity editing and a
voice over monologue to introduce the
main character and the narrative.
2) Who were the main characters in
the sequence?
The main characters in my sequence was the Vampire and the Victim. I used
these two characters in order to introduce the narrative and genre to the
audience. The way I edited the opening also allowed the audience to see two
different lives, a Victim’s and a Vampire’s, as well as seeing their two lives collide
because of one another (the Victim knows too much about the Vampire kind and
so she must be assassinated by a Vampire).

Casting the victim and the vampire

was quite easy as I already had a The Victim The Vampire
volunteer for the victim. Only a day
and a half was used on the Victim
shots as their time and location
was far more flexible and easier to
find. Only one person played the
part of the Victim while two people
played the part of the Vampire as I
was willing to show my face on
film, for the Vampire, while the
other member would be the
Vampire’s body while I filmed it.
3) What details made this clear?
I received similar answers in my questionnaire for this question.

Although only one of these characters are the main roles (the Vampire), I wanted
to only have two people shown in film in the opening in order to keep to some
Thriller conventions as well as matching up to some of the Horror conventions.
The way I edited the footage allows the audience to pick up on the characters, as
all but one of the Vampire shots were edited with a red gauze which had the clear
connotation of evil, bad etc. While all the Victim shots were edited with no gauze
so normal colour was present, which could connote to the audience that not only
is this person good but they are also normal, not a creature etc.
4) What is happening in the sequence? Is
this clear?
In the sequence we see the Victim researching Vampires, how to catch them,
what they look like, who to contact if they see one etc. and we see a Vampire
looking for information of the next hit (the next person to kill) and then we
follow the Vampire as they gear up and prepare for the assassination. Some
answers from the audience show that they understood this about the opening
though some answers were unsure -

In order to make this more clear in the sequence was to add more of a transition
of the Vampire while they are in the Victim’s home; there was a transition/scene
that didn’t get edited in because it was quite an impossible move to make as well
as unrealistic with the equipment I have, however I feel that if I had the right
equipment and time, I would have been able to make this transition/scene into the
sequence as well as being able to make the sequence more clear.
5) What could make this clearer?
Originally I had a full A4 page of script that was going to become the voice over
monologue, which I recorded fully with my video camera, however when I edited
it along side the footage, it didn’t fit and flow with the images on the screen and
so the majority of it had to be cut. Although this meant that I had wasted time in
writing and recording, this also showed me how film makers have to take into
consideration the length of shots and voice over’s.

I received a variety of answers

from my questionnaire
however the most common
answer that I received was
that more information should
have been mention in the
Vampire’s voice over
monologue.
6) What, out of the sequence, would
make you keep watching?
The way I filmed and edited my sequence allowed certain enigma’s to
become obvious to the audience i.e. “Who’s that?” – “Why’s she searching
for Vampire’s?” etc. Enigma’s are one of the key features that are laid out in
films, specifically Thriller films, since questions are usually trying to get
solved for the characters, as well as the audience. A few audience members
who did my questionnaire answered with “Enigma’s” while others replied with
specific characters that they would want to follow through out the narrative.
7) Did the pace of the sequence feel
right?
The way I edited the beginning of my sequence was a little different to
the shots later on in the sequence. For example the first five shots at
the beginning of the sequence last at least 10 to 15 seconds and are
very slow pace in editing, in order for the voice over to fit over it,
however while the opening titles roll and the shots flick between the
Victim and the Vampire, the longest shot in that section is 9 seconds.

All audience members answered “Yes” for the question because of this, none of
the shots were too long and the quick flow of the shots keep the audience’s
focus.
8) Do the images work well with
the music?
I looked through the majority of none copy right music that my Media
Teacher provided me, however I only managed to find three pieces that
would be appropriate for my opening. The one that I chose to feature in
my opening sequence was not my favourite, it was the only piece which
continually built on the base line which, along side the images on screen,
easily created tension for the audience.
All answers from my questionnaire clearly state that the audience believe my choice in
music for the opening was good, and that it fitted the sequence well.

In order to test whether or not the music I chose would fit the images on screen, I tested
the audio in iMovie, which proved to have positive results for myself and the audience
members.
9) Does it feel visually interesting? Are the
shots interesting or fairly typical and OK?
While filming for my opening sequence, I had always like the idea of
flicking between the two worlds (the Victims and the Vampires) as I
thought that, as a viewer, this would hook me. Not only did I like this idea
but it also fits in with some of the Thriller micro-elements.

I received some general responses to this question however other’s elaborated

into saying that they would continue to watch this film if it had been fully filmed
and/or been a real film.