Audience feedback questions

Who is the boy?
The boy is the best friend of Naomi in 1990 as a eight year old girl.


Why is the older girl reacting the way she does?
She is mentally disturbed through what she has been through in her past.


Why is the girl playing with her?
The younger girl in the present day is playing with the ghost of the boy who was kidnapped in 1990.


What was happening with the man and the boy?
The man has kidnapped and killed the boy, known by the audience by the grave that is shown in the opening sequence.


Why does the sister take a tablet?
The person taking the tablet was the grown up girl featured in 1990. She has become a mother herself and is mentally unstable due to what happened in her past.

Why is she coming back to haunt her?
The boy who was kidnapped and killed has come back to haunt Naomi as an adult because she did nothing when he was kidnapped, even when he was begging for help.

Who is the older woman?
The older woman is the mother of the boy who was kidnapped, who is trying to get answers from eight year old Naomi, who hasn't told anyone what happened to the boy.

Who is the child actually talking to?
The child in the present day is talking to the ghost of the boy who was kidnapped, and the boy has come back to haunt Naomi to create a psychological effect. The boy is essentially back from the dead to haunt the adult Naomi for not telling anyone what happened to him in 1990, or telling anyone what actually happened to him.


Is the little girl your daughter?
The girl who is seen in the 1990s by the audience is Naomi as an eight year old girl. the girl in the present day is the daughter of Naomi, who is the same age as Naomi was when the boy went missing.


Who is the woman at the table?
The woman at the table is the mother of the boy who was kidnapped, who is trying to get answers from eight year old Naomi.

Why is there a forgiving needed?
There is no forgiving taking place in the opening sequence. The boy is kidnapped and says that he will 'never forgive you'.


Why are the other actors present?
Other actors are present to take place in the filming.


Why is the boy carried away in the beginning?
He has been kidnapped.


Are the people being taken the family of the woman and the girl?
The person who is taken is the son of the woman who is featured at the table. The girl is the best friend of the boy. In the scene with the mother and the girl, the mother is trying to get answers about her missing son.


Who is the main character?
The main character is Naomi, as she features as an eight year old girl, as well as the adult. She is also the main character because of what happened to her in her past, with the kidnapping creating an unstable mental future.


Who is the man who took the main character?
The man is a kidnapper who took the boy from the home.

The audience had questions because some parts of our opening didn't seem to present all ideas clearly. These questions will help us learn how to improve our opening sequence and make sure the viewers completely understand what is going on. Generally the audience shouldn't have had these questions, but them having these questions meant that we can now improve our opening. To ensure that the audience have no questions we can change certain things that are in our opening sequence.

Props list

Phone and earphones: We use these in the 14th shot to portray Ruby disassociating herself with reality. This also gives an insight into the characters deeper emotional state and feelings.

Pills: We chose to use pills to show Ruby's instability and paranoia. This will also give an idea towards her regret towards how she reacted in the past. Hinting at the idea of a psycho thriller.

Twig: We use the twig as an object to create tension in the opening sequence as the snapping of the twig signifies the introduction of the major antagonist.

Toy car: The car is used as an interactional object between Chloe and Fred. In post production we will manipulate the way the car is filmed to introduce the idea of a ghostly character that can be heard, but not seen.

Grave: We are using the grave to portray to the audience the regret that Ruby feels towards the death of Fred. This will help us hint at the sub-genre we are trying to portray as it will present the deep feelings of Ruby.

We have used all the props that our listed to create our opening sequence. The props that we have used create a sense of disturbance, which is what we were aiming to represent, showing the lack of mental stability the main character has.

Costume Planning

This costume will tell us that the character is of working class, but dresses smarter in order to fit in and present a positive image of themselves. Also this will tell us that the character has slight psychological issues as she choose to wear all black. A

Thriller Sub-Genres

Thriller comparison

Action Thriller - Hanna

For the thriller comparison, I used the film 'Hanna' as the action thriller and the film 'the Sixth Sense' as a drama thriller.


Location

In the film 'Hanna', the location takes place in a winter land with snow and winter trees with very minimal in terms of other people or any other sort of life. By doing this, Wright is able to give the impression of the fight for survival in the conditions. However, in the film 'The Sixth Sense', the location takes place in the basement by a wine cabinet in a house. By having the two contrasting locations in the opening scenes, it shows how the different directors interpret the different sub-genres. The winter location fits with the action sub-genre and the home location fits into drama better than the winter setting would.

Devices

In the action thriller, 'Hanna', the director uses a cliff-hanger in the opening scene, as the last thing in the scene that the audience sees is the gun pointing at the reindeer's body, and the last sound that is heard is a gun shot, creating a cliff-hanger effect to the audience. However, in 'The Sixth Sense', the director uses a small cliff-hanger and climaxes when the main character quickly leaves the room after building up the suspense of something or someone watching her in the basement.

Props and Costume

In 'Hanna' Wright uses guns and a bow and arrows as a use of self defence, as well as a thick winter coat, camouflaging into the surroundings of the winter location, giving the action effect of having the weapons as a form of protection, as well as the camouflage as a form of hunting and predatory  behaviour. Contrasting to this, in the opening scenes of 'The Sixth Sense', Shyamalan gives the female character a wine bottle, and that is all in the terms of props. This is as in the location she is in a wine cellar, meaning it would be fitting her having a wine bottle as part of her props. As a costume, the character is wearing smart casual clothing, as if at a dinner party. This contrasts 'Hanna' as the sub-genres are shown through the differences in clothing.

Themes

 In the opening scenes of 'Hanna', the director uses themes, such as violence and death to demonstrate the action thriller theme. Using the reindeer to represent the two themes highlighted, it also gives the idea that justice is served, as the main character has managed to get what she set out to hunt down in the beginning scenes of the film. However, in the opening scenes of 'The Sixth Sense' the director uses a close up of a lightbulb, and then the entrance of the main character, with dramatic music to emphasis that it is a dramatic thriller

Characters

 In both films, the directors have chosen to use one character in the opening scenes. By doing this, it creates the sense of suspension at the beginning of the film, and the sense of unaware for each character. In 'Hanna', the character is given the role in hunting, which gives the audience the idea of fighting and having to live off independence which could be considered as a key aspect of action thrillers. However, in 'The Sixth Sense', the director puts the character in a dramatic setting and a dramatic lighting to match in with the drama-thriller sub-genre.

Showing the sub-genre

 Wright shows the sub-genre of action-thriller through the use of the weaponry, as well as the location. By using the combination of the gun and bow and arrows, Wright has created the action thriller effect by showing the aggression and power at which comes at having the weapons, as well as using the location to give the idea of threat to the main character. Shyamalan however contrasts the action thriller to drama thriller by using dramatic entrance music during the credits at the beginning of the film to give the dramatic tension to the film, as well as using a dramatic, dark lit room as the opening scene. By doing this, both directors are able to highlight the key sub-genres in the first few minutes of each film.

Experimenting with Sub-Genres

Bird eyes' view-                
This photo was a picture of George taken from above of him leaning on a wall. The sub-genre that this picture is showing is that of crime Thrillers. It shows this genre by it being in a somewhat shifty location that would be commonly associated with hiding and hiding would therefore be associated with crime. As after committing a crime you hide so you don't get caught. This photo has a good composition and is well lit. This means that you can clearly see what is in the picture and what it is trying to portray. This picture could have been better if it was all taken at the same level as the bottom frame was at a slight angle; making the picture look slightly angled.

High angle-            
This photo was taken of Naomi sitting on the floor curled up in a ball from a high angle. This photo shows the Thriller sub-genre of Psychological Thrillers. This genre is shown through the picture as Naomi is portrayed as sad; she is experiencing something psychological. This photo was good because it was completely in focus and the angel it was taken at was correct. However, to make it better it could be edited to a lower contrast and the edges could be faded to place more epathesis on the subject and to bring a more meaningful idea to the picture.

                  I did this task so that I could learn how to easily show sub-genres through imagery. I have learnt that in some cases it can be hard to represent some sub-genres as they can be ambiguous to some extent. Furthermore, this will help me in my opening sequence as it has shown me how critical it is use angels and different shot types to represent certain ideas about genres. I will especially use what I learned from the high angle shot to help me create an effective psycho thriller.