Analysis of Past Years Work (RI-16)

We analysed and marked a blog and final Thriller opening sequence from last years Long Road Media students.
We chose group R1-16 at random and this group had decided to create a psychological thriller opening sequence. The group blogged 55 posts throughout the duration of the task which was an excellent amount of posts.
The feedback we concluded for the planning and research of the group was that they did have a lot of good examples with a variety of thriller sub-genres looked into. However the analysis of the sequences and films were very limited with only bullet point answers and sometimes no analysis at all. There was never a comparison between two thriller sub-genres which showed that their research was not as in depth as it could have been. The group did plan well with thorough planning of the location of the sequence, props and costume. They blogged the exact timing of the filming and editing which showed good organisation and time management.
The film was based on a young girl who was having some sort of nightmare in the opening sequence. There was good editing for the film as they managed to create distorted images, which helped show the drama of the sequence. The editing also helped show what was a dream and what was real life with the dream being in black and white. There was a variety of shots in the sequence including establishing shot of the location, point of view shots and mid shots. This created good continuity in the scene and match on action was present throughout. The credits in the sequence didn't seem to stand out or create any sort of impact and when the title at the end was shown it was not as dramatic as it could or should have been. The mise-en-scene was good as the props, location and costume related well to the narrative and nothing seemed out of place or unrealistic.
There was some criticism with the film. Firstly the film didn't seem to make much sense to the audience. The group tried to make the dream more complicated and mysterious than it really needed to be. They attempted to exaggerate the conventions of psychological thrillers for example when the characters just disappeared with no reason or explanation. Also the use of sound was limited, with only quiet sound used in part of the sequence. Again this would have confused the audience and didn't seem to engage or keep the audience on edge.
Overall we feel that the planning, research and final sequence would be given a Level 3 if marked by an examiner.