Student Film – The Assignment

Genre – The genre of the opening is made clear by the music and the fast paced shots. The genre is clearly action thriller. It is clear it is a thriller since the narrative is fairly confusing and the opening leaves many questions for the audience unanswered. It could also be seen as an action since there is a gun is a few of the shots which is a generic convention of the action genre.

Editing – Editing is fairly fast paced and each shot is around 5 seconds long. This is good since it helps the support the genre of the opening. Additionally the editing of the CCTV camera shots are very impressive since they helps move the narrative forward but at the same time seems more realistic then a floating camera.

One of the negatives of this opening is that the logos at the beginning don’t fit the genre. This distracts the audience from the narrative and may confuse some members since the genre of the film can be unclear at times.

Sound – As the opening scene progresses the music gets more intense until the shot of the gun is seen. This is a good since it builds up to a climax without revealing too much about the narrative. This fits the thriller genre and makes the opening more effective.

The noise of the gun loading is also quite significant since there is no music over the top. This connotes that this object is quite significant to the storyline and is a simple shot that helps the opening stick to the genre

Camera Angles – There is a variety of camera angles during the opening they are each quite narrow and don’t show much of the background. The person in the biker helmet is fairly mysterious since the audience never see his face. He is also mostly shown in high angle shots making his efforts to get inside the house futile. This is a good use of camera work.

Mise en Scene – The costumes used in the opening are good. The bike helmet makes that character seem mysterious since you never see his face. Additionally the man wearing the suit is also fairly mysterious and not many traits of his character are shown throughout the opening.

Titles – The titles in this opening are done well. They are placed in good locations and it is a good idea that the colour of the roles and the names are different therefore showing a clear difference between the two. Some of the titles are integrated well into the scene, for example when the camera is from the point of view of the CCTV the titles at the bottom read “Gecko Productions Presents”. This is a clever place to place it since it does cover any critical aspects of the scene and its placement is fairly realistic since there would be text in that area of the recording.

Character – The two characters in this scene are very mysterious and don’t have any dialogue. During the opening neither character is explained, this helps elevate the mystery of the opening.

Positives
- The genre is very clear
- Costumes fit the genre
- Titles are in clever positions
- Sound effects are very significant

Negative
- Logo doesn't fit genre