How my research and target audience feedback has helped develop my thriller opening sequence

How my research and target audience feedback has helped

develop my thriller opening sequence

Narrative• Some audience feedback involved the story not

being explained in a clear manner in the opening sequence, which led to the audience being confused about the story.

• This was soon resolved by including a flashback to the scene where Junior (our main character) had just killed his target (Dennis).

• The use of this flashback has clearly laid out our storyline in a more understandable manner as opposed to what we had before (which was just jumping into a random scene that didn’t follow any chronological order).

Characters• Whilst you’d usually expect an older psychotic male in a

typical thriller film we decided to some what subvert from the typical codes and conventions associated with the thriller genre. Our main character (Junior) is a young ambitious teenager who has been bullied his entire life. The use of a much younger character who’s going through a common hardship (at his young age) makes it much more easier for the audience to relate to our character.

• Later on in our opening sequence Junior is seen to be developing psychotic thoughts, however it is questionable whether Junior is truly psychotic or is simply an angry, revengeful child.

Titles• Typography can be extremely important in

a opening sequence which is why I wanted to make sure that I got it right. Some feedback we received from out target audience involved the recommendation of using a simple easy to read font.

• As a result of our target audience feedback, we’ve decided to go with a simple, capitalized (fully white) font which we believe will fit in perfectly with the thriller codes and conventions.

Sound• A wide variety of sound will be used in my opening sequence. This

rangers from diegetic, to non-diegetic, to parallel sound and even contrapuntal sound. The use of a wide variety of sounds will definitely aid the overall success and effectiveness of my opening sequence.• Dialogue plays a big part in our opening sequence as we rely on our

voice-over narration to guide our audience through the opening sequence. I believe that the use of this narration will give the audience more insight behind the character of Junior.

Shots• I made sure that a range of shots were used when filming my

opening sequence. Shots such as: mid shots, close ups, extreme close ups, long shots and tracking shots were used throughout my opening sequence. Rules such as the 180 degree rule were also followed accordingly. Tracking shots were used to capture the moments where Junior was walking around. Establishing shots were used to establish the mise-en-scene of the specific shot. Mid shots, close ups, long shots and extreme close ups were used throughout the entire duration of the opening sequence as these are the most generic (and frequently used) shots used in Media, and they work quite well in regards to most of the shots we wanted to film.

Evaluation – What I learnt- By completing this research I fully understood the main areas of concerns that my viewers had. I

have now taken on-board the ideas that my target audience had and took action by implementing them into my opening sequence.

- I learnt that I needed to use a wider range of shots in order to benefit the quality of my opening sequence, instead of sticking with only a few generic types.

- I also gathered that a stronger narrative would have been more useful as it allows viewers to connect with the story of the film.

- The typography in my opening sequence was particularly weak as it was extremely hard to read, and overall was unclear due to its small size. My target audience advised me to make the typography more clear and larger, which I did.

- My target audience also suggested that the use of more sound effects would add to creating suspense in my opening sequence. As a result of this feedback, I decided to include more sound effects like e.g. a heartbeat sound, and a sharp piercing sound which implies that a flashback is taking place.