In today's lesson we were introduced to what made a 'good' thriller this included the setting, sounds and the characters that were stereotypically used. But first we had to define what a 'thriller' and a 'opening sequence' was.
In my opinion, a 'thriller' is a genre of film that keeps the audience in suspense and anticipation, which leaves them with questions. In order to answer them they need to watch on for their questions to be answered.
An 'opening sequence' is where the film presents the key productions and characters who are involved. It has to be interesting and intense to catch the audience's attention from the beginning and to keep them hooked. It is used to establish the setting, the location and the atmosphere for the opening sequence to be interesting the setting has to create a good and intense atmosphere.
Within this lesson we were able to watch the film trailers of 'Public Enemies' (Michael Mann, 2009), 'Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince' (David Yates, 2009) and 'Funny People' (Judd Apatow, 2009) to see what conventions were used to define the montage as a trailer and not a opening sequence. We discussed what made them appealing to their certain audiences. A trailer is an advertisement for a film that is soon due out to be viewed at local cinemas. Most trailers try to build up the tension and set an atmosphere to keep the audience interested. Although, trailers often only show the most exciting parts of the film to attract the audience to go to the cinemas.
We watched the opening sequences of thrillers, including, 'Fargo' (Coen, 1996) and 'Mullholland Drive' (David Lynch, 2001). We were told to note down the typical conventions within, camera, editing, sound and mise en scene which later we had to share with the class. The typical conventions of a thrillers was dark settings and locations, dramatic music, long silences, mysterious characters and the common use of red and white. We then began to watch 'The Usual Suspect' (Bryan Singer, 1995) in order to gain a more wider experience in thrillers to help with our coursework when it comes to storyboarding our ideas of what to include.
I found this lesson helpful as I learnt how to distinguish between a trailer and opening sequence, as well as leaning some new conventions.
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