Evaluation of AOTT activity (DYM)

The film is about a small girl who has been detained in a mental asylum. There she becomes unstable and starts murdering other inmates. The sequence includes a trapped victim and the girl creating a tally of her victims. In the opening, the man character and key locations are established, as well as the main events and genre.

Our film opening included information such as the film’s title and actors’ names through credits. We also included the main character and setting, and connoted the genre through the opening’s mise-en-scene.

The titles link to the main film idea as the font, Crimes Times Six, creates synergy between the titles and the chalk marking the tally of the victims. This image is synonymous with cells and confinement, which also connotes the horror genre. 

I would expect the audience reaction at the end of the sequence to be one of fear, unease and curiosity. The opening is deliberately ambiguous and fails to pinpoint either the girl’s backstory or why she has turned into a killer, in order to leave the audience fearing the unknown and guessing & anticipating the film to follow. Meanwhile, the narrative itself is disturbing and unusual – clearly for the purpose of shocking and terrifying the viewer.

Three things I included in the grid which were important were the main character, the film’s information (title and actors) and its genre. The character is vital, as this gives the audience a taste of what the film is like later on. The genre must be clarified to the audience, otherwise they would be aware of the film’s content and storyline. The film’s information is also very important in order to make clear to the audience the basics of the film, such as its title and actors. The film’s name itself is also a clue to the narrative of our film. 

I think my film opening was pretty effective. It included conventions typically representative of horror films and the mise-en-scene, character, framing and lighting helped us to achieve a plausible storyline and a successful sequence. We also balanced clarity for the audience with the inclusion of the Enigma Code and equivocations to keep the audience questioning. A possible improvement would be a variation in shot types to sustain audience attention, along with the inclusion of an establishing shot as the setting was not immediately made clear.