BBFC

" The British Board of Film classification is independent, non-government body, which has classified cinema films side it was set up in 1912, and video since the passing of the video recordings 1984 "


There are different classifications, the BBFC endeavours to classify submitted works in one of the following categories:

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U- A U film is suitable for aged four and over. However, it's impossible to determine what upsets a child as they are all different and can be disturbed by different things.

PG - A 'PG' film should not disturb a child aged around eight or older. however, parents are advised to consider whether the content may upset younger or more sensitive children during the movie.  All ages admitted, but certain scenes may be unsuitable for young children. may contain mild language and sex/drugs references. may contain moderate violence if justified by context ( e.g. fantasy ).




12- It is classified for audiences that are over 12 as some of the content in the films might upset children younger than 12. Strong language can sometimes be used in rated 12 films and some scenes may include violence. Audience that is under 18 is not allowed to watch an 18’’ film in the cinema. This also means they are not allowed to rent or buy an 19 ranted film.
12A- the classification 12A is only used in cinemas so you will not find a 12A DVD.







15- 15 rated movies are not suitable for any children who are under 15. Movies that are classified under the 15 symbol will include portrayals of sexual activity, strong violence, drug taking etc.









18- There will be strong horror scenes and strong blood and gore in films that are classified as 18. audiences that are under 18 aren't allowed to watch an 18 film in the cinema. This also means that they are not allowed to purchase or rent an 18 film.
R18-  Films with this symbol will only be shown in specially licensed cinemas or it will only be supplied in licensed sex shops. In fact, it’s to adults of not less than 18 years old.




As a group, we have decided to base our thriller opening sequence between the classification of 12 to 15. This is because we believe there will be scenes that are unsuitable for children under 12. Our task is to create an opening sequence for a thriller movie, the classification has to be at least a 12 because thriller movies tend to involve some relations to crime, bad language and frightening scenes. On the other hand, our opening sequence will not contain heavy amounts of strong blood or pornography, meaning it is irrelevant to classify the film as an 18 or R18.

Opening Sequence - 9 Shot Analysis

Psychological thriller - total running time for opening sequence: 6 minutes
The film title: The silence of the lambs.
Introduction to theme tune: The theme tune comes in just before the first scene begins.
Introduction to the character type: The girl was climbing up the hill in a forest.

Indication of place/ location: Woods near Quantico, Va is the name of the location.

Details of cast and crew: Costume designer - Colleen Atwood, production designer - Kristi Zea, editor - Craig McKay, directed by Jonathan Demme.

Enigma:  At the start, the girl is running through the forest as she looks to be in danger. Later on, in a different scene, the girl sees photos of dead people and newspaper articles on the walls.
Information on genre: The girl was wearing casual clothes as she was running through the forest, obstacles in the obstacle course she was completing on her own were props



Opening sequence generic convention analysis - Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

The films title is Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. The title appeared in canon order at 21 seconds. The onomatopoeia of "Bang Bang" gives connotations of guns and weapons, a feature that is common in a crime thriller. The "Bang Bang" also contrasts with the romantic "Kiss Kiss" as this portrays two different emotions of romance and violence for the audience. "Kiss Kiss" could also represent a main female character that is involved with crime activities. The film title could represent the timeline of love as as the beginning, the relationship could be kisses, then towards the end the relationship ends with violence. The film title is quite apparent towards the genre of the film, making the narrative seem quite predictable.


The theme tune starts at the beginning of the opening scene and lasts right through to the end. The upbeat soft music gives connotations of undercover detective work with a raunchy twist. This make the audience feel theres a mystery and suspicion in the crime thriller. The theme tune relates to the title of the thriller as both portray violence and criminal attributes and together they combine to complete the genre of a stereotypical crime thriller.


Within 4 seconds of the opening sequence, the location jumps out at the audience as being modern city life. This could reflect the realism of the crime as robbery is common in major cities and town. The location represents the urban life in todays world, as the audience see animations of barbed wires and mansion houses. This corresponds with the main theme of the thriller as the period is set for today.


The first introduction to a character is 00.08 seconds where the audience see an animated figure jumping over a tall barbed wired gate. This insinuates that the character is up to no good. As the animated figure runs out of the camera frame, a females facial features appears at the top left corner looking over at him. Although, the facial features of the female are animated, the audience quickly grasp that she is female due to her perfect shaped eyebrows and long eyelashes. The way the female looks over towards the direction that the male figure was running in, illustrates she is superior then the male. This is very counter typical as women tend not to be associated with crime. This makes the audience feel, that the female is involved with the criminal activities. The third introduction to many characters is at 00.51 when the audience see the animated characters suited and booted clutching a glass of wine. This portrays their criminal rewards have been spend on fine dining and partying. After the socialising, the scene alternates to many animated characters gathering in a small closed balcony where one female character is pushed of. The audience see the female character fall under the moonlight. This insinuates some sort of death in the crime, a feature that is also common in crime thriller. This gives the audience a hint within the narrative that one female character will either die or be injured. It turns out their is murdering, as one character shoots and kills the female out of anger.


The opening scene creates all sorts of enigmas for the public. The audience are keen to work out why a gun shots out animated flowers and leaves. This goes with the title of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang as the irony of the violent and dangerous prop of a gun is shooting out nature. Again, the contrast between the splatter of red blood and then red kiss mark, is ironic towards the title of the film. The contrast between love and crime, is very stereotypical as in crime thrillers there normally contains a crime being committed for the loved one.


The audience notice small details of cast and crew in the opening scene. The animated ladies are wearing tight expensive dresses and the male characters are wearing expensive black suits. This makes the audience feel that the characters are upperclass. This is very stereotypical to have upperclass characters involved with crime.


The sub genre conventions.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang uses four micro areas throughout the opening sequence, these being, camera work, editing, sound and miss-en-scene.

Camera work: There was a zoom out on the black gun making the gun the main focus of the frame. This portrays that the gun could be an important prop towards the film. There is also match on action of the girl getting pushed of the balcony and falling. This could insinuate that a character dies in the film or is seriously injured. There is a pan movement of the two houses and telephone wires which indicates the polluted city life.

Sound: Music fades in at 00.02 seconds and played until the end. The music is upbeat and secretive which relates to the plot of the robbery. The music is continued throughout the whole clip as the audience become familiar with the narrative.

Mise-en-scene: The setting is in a highway city life atmosphere which fits the plot as crime rates in the city are normally high. The setting informed the viewers that the film is based in the city centre. Certain props were used such as guns to fit the genre of the film. The colour was pink on some scenes which gives connotations with females. However, the colour was low-key black when there was men appearing on the scene. This distinguishes the male characters from the female characters as being up to mischief.

Editing: There was a straight cut between the long shot of the mansion house to inside the party where characters were socialising. This gives an insight to the rich criminal life that the characters live. There is short shot duration on the females facial features which could portray how secretive and manipulative the character is in the film, as she is constantly watching over and dominating the male characters.

Opening Sequence Analysis-Timeline

Thriller Genetic Conventions - Batman: The Dark Knight

The Narrative: Batman (Christian Bale) is on a mission to get rid of all of the criminal gangs in Gotham, with the help of Lieutenant James Gordon (Gary Oldman) and Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart). Whilst trying to free Gotham of criminals, they come across a criminal mastermind, the Joker (Heath Ledger). The Joker causes chaos in the city and Batman finds it hard to defeat him.

The Title: The title of the film is Batman: The Dark Knight. The tittle of the film has hinted that there will be a knight to save the city which suggests there will be a big issue involving the safety of the public living in the city. It has also created a question which is who is the knight? This makes the audience more interested because it makes them wonder who is the knight of the city who will save its people.

The Protagonist: The protagonist in this scene is Batman as he is shown through the majority of the scene. The whole film is centred around Batman, hence the title and he is seen as the protagonist because he is seen trying to save the hostages from being shot.

The Antagonist: The antagonist of this scene and the whole of the film is the Joker. The Joker is the antagonist because he is the evil character who has kidnapped and taken many people hostage. Also, we can see the Joker is an evil character because not only has he kidnapped people but he made the FBI think that they were the bad people and he would have let the FBI shoot them.

Micro Elements: There are lots of action scenes in the film and to support them, fast non dieagetic music has been used to achieve the exciting and thrilling atmosphere.
Most of the lighting is low key because the darkness of the scene has created a sense of danger e.g. in the fighting scenes. In fact, the low key lighting has achieved the realism of the night which relates to the title of the film. 
Editing shots such as short shot duration have been used to express the actual speed of the fight and it has achieved the dangerous atmosphere and gets the audience’s attention.
The costume that Batman wears in the scene relates to the title because his bat costume is black and this represents him as the dark knight.
The Joker’s hair and makeup shows him as the antagonist because we usually associate clowns with evil and the Joker’s face paint and hair make him look corrupt.

The Protagonist Will Be Seen 'In Peril': This happens near the end of the scene when the FBI catch up with Batman and aim their guns at him.

Themes: The theme of Batman: The Dark Knight is a crime thriller as it involves guns, fighting, explosions and many chaotic scenes. The theme of the scene we watched is action as it involves many fights between Batman and members of the FBI.

Sub-genre analysis - Taken and The Sixth Sense

A psychological thriller is a specific sub-genre of a thriller with heavy focus on the unstable emotional states of characters, in combination with mystery and thriller. On the other hand, an action thriller is where one or more heroes is thrust into a series of challenges that require physical feats, extended fights and frenetic chases. Action films tend to feature a resourceful character struggling against incredible odds, which may involve life-threatening situations, an evil villain, or being pursued, with victory achieved at the end after difficult physical efforts and violence.

I have chosen to analyse the psychological thriller "The Sixth Sense" in contrast with the action thriller "Taken".

Taken is a 2008 French action thriller film co-written and produced by Luc Besson, starring Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace and Famke Janssen. The screenplay was written by Besson and Robert Mark Kamen, and directed by Pierre Morel. The protagonist Neeson plays a former U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operative who has just ninety six hours to set about tracking down his daughter after she is kidnapped by the antagonist human traffickers while travelling in France.

On the other hand, The Sixth Sense is a 1999 American psychological thriller film written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan. The film tells the story of Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment), a troubled, isolated boy who is able to see and talk to the dead, and an equally troubled child psychologist (Malcolm Crowe) who tries to help him. The film established Shyamalan as a writer and director, and introduced the cinema public to his traits, most notably his affinity for surprise endings. The film was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

Both thrillers contain completely different narratives that distinguish them from one another. For example, action films create a sense of urgency by featuring a race against the clock. This is shown in the action film Taken when the father has just 96 hours to rescue his daughter. However, audience reactions to action films containing significant amount of time boundaries can be negative as this makes the film seem unrealistic and impractical. Alternatively, psychological thriller The Sixth Sense has the narrative of a boy who communicates with spirits and seeks the help of a disheartened child psychologist (Crowe). Crowe's wife and himself then discover that they are not alone at home; a young man appears brandishing a gun. He says that he does not want to be afraid anymore and accuses Crowe of failing him. Crowe recognizes him as Vincent Gray, a former patient whom he treated as a child for hallucinations. Gray shoots Crowe in the abdomen. However, several months later, Crowe comes across another ill patient called Cole who can see dead people. Both thrillers clearly have different plots that relate to their sub-genre. The stereotypical psychological thriller elements tend to be related to the mind or processes of the mind; they are mental rather than physical in nature. Usually, this conflict is an effort to understand something that has happened to them. For example, in The Sixth Sense, Once Crowe earns the isolated boy's (Cole) trust, Cole eventually confides in him that he "sees dead people... walking around like regular people". One that tries to hurt Cole is only heard as a voice who pleads with Cole to let him out of a dark cupboard, then yells that he didn't steal "the Master's horse" and threatens to attack Cole. These conflicts are made more vivid with physical expressions of the conflict in the means of either physical manifestations, or physical torsions of the characters at play.

The title of the action film "Taken" corresponds with the main story line in the film, considering the daughter is kidnapped and "taken" from her home. The title is not very creative and quite predictable with the main plot of the story line. On the other hand, the psychological film The Sixth Sense is obscure and ambiguous for the audience. The "Sixth Sense" could relate to many different plots, which creates suspense and mystery for the public. One clue of the plot is that, humans have five senses; taste, smell, site, sound and feel. The sixth sense could relate to the characters being able to interact with ghosts. The way the story behind the title unravels in psychological films is far more interesting and appealing to the viewers as compared to those in the action films that are quite apparent and clear. 

The protagonist in Taken is Former U.S.Central Intelligence Agency operative Bryan Mills who plays the role of a detached father and a security operative. He has been absent for most of his daughters life but is keen to protect her when she wants to go on holiday to Paris with her friend Amanda. Little does he know, the daughter is lying as she is going to follow U2 during their European tour. Bryan plays the stereotypical innocent father that would do anything to make his daughter happy.

Similarly, the protagonist in the Sixth Sense is DR. Malcolm Crowe, a child psychologist who is married. Both protagonists in Taken and The Sixth Sense are job orientated and live relatively normal day-to-day life. The role of the protagonist in the Sixth Sense is to help young children who have an illness. However, at the end of the film, the audience acknowledge when Crowe returns to his home, where he finds his wife asleep on the couch with the couple's wedding video playing, not for the first time, as she sleeps, Anna's hand releases Malcolm's wedding ring (which he suddenly discovers he has not been wearing), revealing to Crowe that he was actually killed by Vincent and was unknowingly dead the entire time he was working with Cole. 

The sixth sense opening scene used four micro areas of camera work, sound, editing and mise-en-scene to express the genre of pyschological thriller. The music that fades in at 20 seconds, gives an eery and spooky taste to the film. The music is parallel to the antique and frightening castles and houses. The music continues throughout the whole opening sequence which portrays a negative and terrifying atmosphere. Each setting is edited to have transitions of fade out to black and then fade in from black to the surroundings. This gives enigmas to the audience in determining why the main focus is about castles and a house. The frame has a peep-whole illusion with a black background, this gives the effect that the audience are stalking the house. The long shot duration of the large white house gives the feel that the house is sentimental and a main object in the plot. Colour is used for mise-en-scene. Colour such as black and white scenes are used to give an eery and past-time period.

Sub-Genre Analysis - Black Swan & The Bourne Identity

We will be comparing two different sub-genres, psychological thriller and action thriller. The two thrillers we have picked are Black Swan and The Bourne Identity. First, we will discuss the two different thrillers, then compare the two in terms of sub-genres.

Black Swan is a 2010 American psychological thriller and horror film. Directed by Darren Aronofsky and starring Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassel, and Mila Kunis. The plot revolves around a production of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake ballet by a New York City company. The production requires a ballerina to play the innocent and fragile White Swan, for which the committed dancer Nina (Portman) is a perfect fit, as well as the dark and sensual Black Swan, which are qualities embodied by the new arrival Lily (Kunis).  The  narrative of the film centres around a female ballet dancer Nina Sayers that wins the lead role of 'swan lake' who is perfect for the role of the 'white swan', although she feels her role is being snatched from her when a new dancer Lily (Mila Kunis) joins the cast of the show, who seems to be grabbing the attention of the dance teacher who Nina is in love with, this causes an issue and Nina starts to believe that Lily is after her and her role and slowly loses her mind as she gets into the character more and more, becoming 'the black swan', leading to her to psychologically going mental.

Nina would be seen as the protagonist throughout the film as she is shown to be just a sweet and inocent ballet dancer at the beginning. The character is desperate to be the best and perfecting herself, but throughout the film she becomes in danger of herself because she starts to get injured and losing focus, which shows the audience she is in peril. There are scenes such as after her performances in part 1 of swan lake, where she goes into her dressing room to find Lily in there who teases her about how she performed. Then, in anger she throws her against the mirror. This shows her weakness in the film. However, stereotypical mind games are portrayed when Nina had actually stabbed herself and not Lily who she had imagined to be there. The frustration and anger gets to her making her think and see stuff which causes her to do stuff. This reflects the weakness and innocence of the protagonist. Nina is controlled by her Dance Teacher Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel) throughout the film who is pressurizing her to be better than any one else. The teacher also forces her to extreme states of mind, this shows us that she is inferior to him. Thomas is the antagonist as he limits her freedom and she feels helpless, although he does not harm her or put her in danger.

The narrative presents ordinary situations where extraordinary things keep happening, such as when Nina is gone to be fitted for her dress and she is standing normally in the mirror being measured. However, when she notices her reflection, she notices red cuts on her back. This is also a theme of seeing reflection and optical illusions which emphasis the mystery of the storyline too, as this usually this wouldn't happen in this situation. This makes the audience wonder and ask questions as what the Nina might be going through. The character seeing things makes the audience aware of her lack of concentration within her dance, the aim now is to get rid of the black swan and win over her teacher. However, as we all are aware she believes its the black swan she kills but really she stabs herself. Another scene is when she is having an argument with her mum and locks her out her room, and her legs suddenly snap into a swan like shape, this usually wouldn't happen and plays with the audiences minds. This confuses the audience but makes them want to keep watching.


Themes of identity are presented a lot in this film through all the actions she does. One scene that represents doubling is when Nina is walking through an alley dressed in a fluffy white coat and passes another person who she imagines to be her but is dressed in black. This links to the narrative as she plays a white and a black swan in the film. Also, throughout the film she keeps seeing a double of herself in the mirror but doing different things to what she is doing at the time. There is also a scene of Nina in the bath and as she goes under water she opens her eyes and imagines herself glaring down smiling at her from above the water, she suddenly sits up and the double image of herself is gone, this emphasises the psychological mystery of the narrative.
  All the different micro elements in the film help portray the urgency and mystery, it builds up tension and curiosity as to what will happen next. The camera work used adds tense emotion in the scene. An example of this is where the protagonist is practising her dance for the lead role, there is a close up showing deep expressions on her face suggesting to the audience that she has very strong passion for dancing. 
 A close up is also shown of Nina with sore bloodshot eyes showing confusion and terror on her face when she pulls a feather out her back as if she is turning into a swan, the different illusions makes the audience interact with the character as they will be feeling confused just like Nina, wondering whats going on. The camerawork portrays the events in the scenes such as handheld angles. Whilst Nina is dancing, the camera follows her whilst she is moving but at the same time , it still shows that she is the object the camera is focusing on. An eye line match is shown when Nina is staring into the dancing studio, we as audience members view what she is seeing. This makes the viewers aware of her feelings and what she's experiencing.
There is a lot of fast mysterious sound during the thrilling and extraordinary scenes, as well as elegant and slow music whilst she is dancing. The elegant music is parallel to her feeling and the situation, it also builds tension and realism to the story. The contrast with the music illustrates the peakest point of the storyline.
The lighting in the mise-en-scene has a great effect on the sub genre of psychological. There are many scenes where artificial light is used in order to portray realism. Throughout the rest of the film, the lighting is very dramatic and dark leaving the audience on the edge of their seats and creating engimas. The dark colours represent different emotions such as death and sadness. Linking in with the narrative, it creates suspense and adds mystery to the scenes. The costumes used in this film adds realism to the characters such as the perfect ballet outfit Nina wears. This reflects her innocence as a protagonist. At the end when she looks as if she almost is a swan with her feathery black dress, bold makeup and the orop of a tiara tells the audience she is playing the black evil swan. The contrast in her costumes suggests the different personalities and feelings.




The Bourne Identity
The Bourne Identity is a 2002 American-German action spy film loosely based on Robert Ludlum's novel of the same name. It stars Matt Damon as Jason Bourne, suffering from extreme memory loss, attempting to discover his true identity amidst a clandestine conspiracy within the Central Intelligence Agency. The film also features many other main characters who help set the story. This film is the first in the Bourne film series, being followed by four other series. The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum, and The Bourne Legacy.


The plot starts of with Jason In the Mediterranean Sea near Marseille, Italian fishermen rescue an unconscious man floating adrift with two gunshot wounds in his back. The boat's medic finds a tiny laser projector surgically implanted under the unknown Jason's skin at the level of the hip. When activated, the laser projector displays the number of a safe deposit box in Zürich. Jason wakes up and discovers he is suffering from extreme memory loss. Over the next few days on the ship, Jason finds he is fluent in several languages and has unusual skills, but cannot remember anything about himself, he has memory loss making him unaware what anything has happened in the future, Jason also doesn't know why he was in the sea. When the ship docks, he sets off to investigate the safe deposit box. Jason has the skills of a dangerous man however he has no memory. Now the governments top agents is about to become their number one target. And the only way he can survive is to find out who he really is, but before they find out where he is. Jason escapes from every danger he gets into, as quoted in the movie " as he's made to disappear".
Bourne escapes and encounters a Swiss woman named Marie Kreutz, offering her $10,000 to drive him to an address in Paris. Meanwhile, Alexander Conklin, the head of Treadstone, assures Abbott that he will destroy any evidence connecting them to Bourne, making it more difficult for Jason to know who he really is.

The action thriller is fast and snappy, the clip shows various parts from the movie. There is narrator within this clip making the audience aware of what to expect and roughly what The Bourne Identitty is about. Where in Black Swan we only really see the main character and her life journey as she goes through ballet school. The psycological thriller Black swan has defiantly got more short shot duration and maintains the storyline as very unrevealing. On the other hand, in The bourne Identity, the action thriller is quick and fast showing the audience the narrative and characters.

Thriller Genetic Conventions - Se7en

Se7en

The narrative: The newly transferred David Mills (Pitt) and the soon-to-retire William Somerset (Freeman) are homicide detectives who become deeply involved in the case of a sadistic serial killer whose meticulously planned murders that correspond to the seven deadly sins. The seven deadly sins being gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, pride, lust, and envy.

The protagonist: These are the Detective William R. Somerset (Freeman) and Detective David Mills (Pitt). The two detectives are motivated throughout the sequence to capture the serial killer ( Doe). This shows how they are the stereotypical protagonists of the film, trying to secure justice.

The title "Se7en" clearly relates to the plot of the thriller as the serial killer bases his murders on the seven deadly sins. For example, an obese man was forced by the serial killer to feed himself to death, representing "Gluttony." Another example of the title corresponding with the seven deadly sins is when a drug dealer and child molester before his captivity is found dead, this victim represents "Sloth”. Though unable to learn anything from the insensate victim, the detectives agree that the killer has planned these crimes for more than a year. Relating the title to the antagonist's murders makes the plot more memorable for the audience.  

The protagonists are in danger throughout the investigation. For example, when the killer finds the detectives approaching his apartment, he opens fire on them and flees, chased by Mills. Eventually, the killer gains the upper hand and holds Mills at gunpoint.

The antagonist ensnares the protagonist until the protagonist feels isolated. For example, the detectives arrive too late to find a prostitute killed by an unwilling man wearing a bladed S&M device, forced by Doe (the serial killer) to simultaneously rape and kill her. Another example of the protagonists feeling helpless and isolated is when they investigate the death of a young model whose face had been mutilated. She had chosen to kill herself rather than live with a disfigured face; she is the victim of "Pride". This illustrates how powerful the antagonist can be, this is very stereotypical. It also shows how the protagonists must think fast in order to capture the serial killer, for the serial killer is determined to continue killing, as this is what he believes.

Micro elements were used throughout the opening sequence. For example, camera shots such as a close up were used on the large book. The close up of the book is severally shown throughout the clip, this could show the plot is centered on the book as the audience see its a key prop towards the thriller. Sound such as non-diegetic music has been used throughout the opening sequence. The sound is eerie and mysterious which portrays a dark and gloomy atmosphere for the audience. The sound is parallel to the footage shown in the opening sequence as the suspicious and sharp sounds reflect the mysterious props used. Editing such as short shot duration on the blades, the books, the pictures and the objects is continuously used throughout, making the audience feel the sense of urgency and the pace being kept fast.This significantly engages the audience and creates enigmas for them. Editing such as dissolve and fade ins are used whilst the pages of the book are being flicked by the potential serial killer. This makes the audience again feel that this book is an important and significant object that revolves around the crime. Mise-en-scene is a French word used that translates into “what is put into the frame”. Colour and lighting is one aspect of mise-en-scene. Throughout the clip, the colours are red and black which give connotations of blood, death and gory.  The lighting was low-key at the beginning. However, the lighting shifted to being naturalistic when the shadow of the characters hand was shown in the frame of the camera. The naturalistic atmosphere portrays that this thriller is realistic and based on a true story. The prop of a blade was used which gives connotations of violence and brutal. The director’s aim was for the audience to wonder and ask questions on the viewing clip. The opening scene left the audience wanting more as the story began to unravel.

The theme of the opening sequence is crime and violence. The opening sequence reflects the antagonist in terms of the peculiar and violent props used such as razor blades and needles. However, mirroring and seeing themes are not used in the sequence.

Preliminary Evaluation

1) How well do you think you created your preliminary?

Our initial idea was to use two students in a classroom interacting about exams. However, the setting and environment was too busy for the scene to take place. Our group moved to a different classroom in order to develop clarity and experiment with different story lines. This worked well on our preliminary as we were able to expand our camera techniques and use various camera angles and framing. During our preliminary production, we all learnt the features of the camera and tripod to produce our sequence. We then learnt the basics of Final cut software which enabled us to complete our final piece. 

2) What you have learnt from the preliminary task that you will use in your actual production?

By completing this preliminary task, we have learnt how to use the video recorder (Canon video-recorder) that was provided by our teacher. This means that when we film our Thriller production, our group will be familiar with using the camera and the skills required. Our group have also had practice in creating and designing a storyboard. We had many errors when creating the storyboard due to the small drawing spaces. Hopefully, when we come to producing our actual production, we will take more time and care to ensure that our storyboard is completed efficiently.  Lastly, our group have learnt how to use the editing software final cut, this will be beneficial as we have mastered the basics to learn more and more features on the software. 

3) Did you find it difficult to use the technology and what technology did you use?

When creating our preliminary, we used a cam recorder to film our sequel. This was tricky at first as the equipment was all new to. Luckily, working as a team helped us to use the camera better as we all combined our skills to handle the equipment safely and carefully. Next, we used the iMac to edit the sequel, using final cut express to add all the clips together and add in transitions. This at first was difficult, but we constantly refereed back to our notes to help use the different features on the software. 

4) Did you stick to the brief?  How long was the preliminary? 

Our group did stick to the brief as we included all of the shot ties that were required. We also worked hard to put the shots in the order they were required. Our preliminary was around 50 seconds which is long enough to establish and understand the storyline. The minimum time was 30 seconds yet we managed to have a understandable storyline and fit it in less than a minute. However, we could of improved the sequence by adding more camera shots and extra details for a more powering video for example, we could of used a proper classroom full of girls and improve the setting by adding more realistic props.

Preliminary Video

Preliminary Storyboard