Evaluation Activity 1 - Story and how the opening sets it up

The opening two minutes to a film tends to either introduce the premise for the wider narrative or simply introduce a key character to establish a relationship with them and the audience.  We chose to introduce the set-up for the wider film - which involves a friendship group being killed, one by one, by an outsider in a college setting.

The opening of our film established setting.  The first shot after our production credits was a classroom with one of the main characters doing some work. We chose to do a long shot for the first scene as it shows the audience where they are and who is in the room. We then moved onto an over the shoulder shot to see what she was doing on the computer, this shows her doing some work, the audience could relate to this main character because they are also still at collage or are in some form of education. At the very start of the film you find out who the main character is. This is because the camera is mainly focused on her. You catch a glimpse of the antagonist, but this is only their hand. We also used quite a few close ups in our film to really get the audience focusing on a specific thing. We thought these were effective because it gets the audience thinking why are we just seeing this item. As you can see it is set in a school but what makes it stand out is there is no one there except the friendship group and the antagonist. This really sets the scene because schools are usually filled with students but this one is not so this gives the film and edgy feeling as to why no one else is there.

Later on in the film we find our victim dead on the floor and the film ends, this leaves it on a real cliff hanger. Throughout the rest of the film the antagonist goes on a killing spree and ends up killing each members of the friendship group. There will be one person left and this is when we will find out why the antagonist has killed all of them and people may start to sympathies with the antagonist and understand why she has gone and done such a horrible crime.

Our film has a lot of horror film cliches included in it. One being the creepy music we put over the top, this music really makes it feel like a horror movie because its always there and throughout the film gets louder and quieter. We also added in some booms to shock the audience and to make them jump. We thought this would make the film more exciting and interest the audience to make them want to see the rest of the film. We also have the typical antagonist where they follow a certain victim. This may make the audience feel uncomfortable and anxious for the victim as they do not know they are being followed but the audience do. This could make the audience feel sorry for the victim as they have no clue what is going on.