Comparison to other films and audience response

The opening to our film could relate to the film 'Ills', as they both show a mysterious crime being committed, in which we never identify who the killer actually is, and in both films, the victim is a helpless female, alone in a derelict area, who dies within the opening 5 minutes of the film. We related our film to Ills as we thought it would attract a similar audience, as both openings leave the viewer wanting to find out more and asking questions such as 'Well, where can the film go from here?' and 'Who is the killer and why has he killed them?'.

When researching, we found that a lot of films use this method of starting with a disruption leaving the audience guessing, such as 'Face-Off' and 'Sixth Sense', where the disruption occurs within the opening title sequences, like our production. 
Disruption the occurs in 'Face-Off'
Face Off Distruption from Holly Entwistle on Vimeo.

These are images from Face-Off and show the young boy on the merry-go-round, to him being dead on the floor. This all happens within the first 5 minutes on the production.

 These images show the progression from unaware and in love, to protecting his wife from the crazy guy. Once again, this all happens within 5 minutes of the film starting.



During our production, the cheery sound of 'Neil Diamond-Sweet Caroline' plays whilst two girls sit and drink in a bar. This music could be said to be contrapuntal as we have previously scene the girl in question running for her life down an abandoned rail-way track in the dead of night, and we can hear the panic in her heart beat. We used this contrapuntal music as it juxtaposes the idea of the film, and when the song starts to turn slow and sinister, it notifies the audience that something bad is going to happen.

We got this idea from the film 'Face-Off', when the contrapuntal, happy music during the opening scene turns sinister when the boy is shot. We feel like this is the unique selling point of our film as the song which links in with our production's title is edited to sound dangerous and is heard in a way that it wont have previously been heard before. It also foreshadows that a happy atmosphere is about to take a turn for the worst.

When talking about synergy in the media, it means that teamwork will produce an overall better end product, than if each individual person in the group were working towards the same goal individually. Synergy applies to us as we split the work load between us, to achieve a better end product, than if we were to do it all individually. Media institutions recognise that audiences enjoy using converged technology, and want to consume media in a variety of different ways, for example: trailers, videos, jingles etc. This can be used to promote a companies film and to boost sales to create a profit. If we were wanting to promote our film, we would have to start off small scale, perhaps by creating trailers and posters. In the industry, if a film does well and creates a lot of sales, a company may wish to merchandise. This could be done by creating a game, a range of toys, or something along those lines.For example, Star Wars has created a range of computer games which has increased the films reputation. 

 
AUDIENCE RESPONSE FINISHED from Jodie Mountain on Vimeo.
We also asked people a few questions after we'd shown them our production and they had positive feedback to give to us;

How did you know it was a thriller? 
The scary music and themes accompanied by the font used. The content as well was a key feature, it’s also left on a cliff-hanger which would encourage people to go and see it at the cinema.
-Rachael Struthers

Can you give us some general feedback to our production, involving the range in shots and your overall understanding?
There was a good amount of camera angles involved in the production, making it appear more professional. I was very impressed with the thing as a whole because it doesn't look like something that AS level students would be able to produce. I understood the whole story line, and the titles at the bottom of the screen helped me to understand the flash back etc.
-Nathan Howe