1. Structure of sequence: I believe the structure of our opening sequence is that of a conventional horror film. It firstly establishes the scene through establishing shots, before introducing key characters and showing relevant credits. The short amount of narrative in the opening sequence is conventional in a horror film, making the audience establish what is happening.We did manipulate the structure of the sequence ever so slightly, as initially the title of the piece was at the end of the film; however we thought this made it look like a trailer. In this case we put it at the beginning to make the structure more logical.
2. Style/colour of font: As a group we chose an almost harsh looking font; one that is in capitals where the straight structure and line through the lettering adds a serious element to the film. We chose for the font to be in white, one reason for this was because it made the credits stand out over the top of the clip; where the clip was either in dark colouring or black and white. This font was applicable to creating the horror genre, mainly because if it were a more curvy and comedic font, the serious and eerie tone we aimed to acheive would be distracted from.
3. Genre: The genre chosen was horror, a challenging genre to create yet one that after researching with our target audience was needed more in the film industry. Horror is created through simplistic elements; one being that the actresses are the same age as the target audience. This evokes fear in the audience and creates a sense of realism within the piece, alongside challenging the conventions within a typical horror film. The setting, a forest, evokes the horror genre and is that of a conventional horror film. We thought that to make the most of this genre, we could not deviate from the conventional horror films in such a drastic way. Horror genre is limited with it's audience, therefore we needed to place a fine line between 'different' and 'conventional'.
4. Narrative enigma: The main element of enigma is created through the mystery of what is in the forest with the girls. Where we used the setting and the camera to make the audience feel that there is someone with them, we reveal nothing about this person. There is also a sense of mystery as to what happens to the missing girl; and in a similar context, we reveal very little about this element. Mystery is very conventional in horror genre in the sense that it almost plays mind games with the audience.
5. Introduction to characters: We introduced two characters in the opening sequence of our film. Seeing them walk with linked arms immediately sets a relationship between the two, something which is furthermore explored as the opening sequence continues. The dialogue that we have included initially sets a conversational tone to the piece, giving the aspect of teenage years, but as the film continues you can notice that the dialogue changes to a sense of worry. This sets the image of a strong relationship between these characters. The characters being young girls deviates from the conventional horror film; where stereotypically it would be a female victim alone in a mysterious setting. However deviating from this and making it clear that the actresses are of the same age as our target audience gives a stronger sense of horror.
6. Camera: We used a series of different camera angles in the attempt to not only present a relationship between the characters, but to evoke horror in the film. When both girls were in the shot we used medium shots and in some cases close up's to gain a relationship with the two girls. However when the camera concentrates on one of the girls, close up's are more appropriate because the reaction and worry in her face is what we want the audience to concentrate on. Something which we took inspiration from the film "Paranormal Activity" is the idea of a handheld shot. The handheld shot that we did in the final scene of our opening sequence creates a sense of menace and even mystery; it is the peak of our horror simply because it seems so real. By using these shots, horror is evoked within the audience and it gives us a more stable chance of acheiving our genre.
Sound: As previously mentioned, one aspect of sound in our opening sequence is dialogue. Dialogue sets a conversational tone between the two girls and adds a young, adolescent tone to it. Dialogue and narrative in general is conventional in the horror genre. Also, through watching the opening sequences to films such as "Paranormal Activity" and "Blair Witch Project" we became aware that music was a huge element of horror. We wanted to find a piece that wasn't too distracting from the dialogue, but evokes fear in the audience. Therefore once we found an appropriate, copyright free track we put it over the top of the whole film. By making it quieter in the moments of dialogue hence making the peaked moments of the film; the opening and ending reflect the dramatic moments of the music an overall tense atmosphere was created. We also edited the music in a fast paced and almost blunt ending, because we thought any lengthly cut wouldn't be appropriate on the film that would continue.
7. Editing and special effects: The only special effect we used was at the beginning of the piece. We transformed the establishing shot of the forest into black and white, alongside adding a blurred effect which made the forest look more mysterious. Other than this, we only added different transformation tools to make the camera work look jittery and eerie. Most of the special effects and editing that we came across in producing this opening sequence is seen in conventional horror films.
8. Mise-en-scene: We had our characters wearing school uniform so that a childlike essence was shown hence adding to aspects of horror. The only propping we had was that of the girls' school bags, which we only used in order to make the audience aware that they were coming home from school. Without the mise-en-scene making this clear, the storyline wouldnt have been as effective.
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