The summary analyzes the student's video project portfolio for their media studies class. It describes creating a thriller film opening called "Blood Ivory" with a group. The student took responsibility for research, editing, call sheets, and small filming parts. The opening establishes the crime thriller/mystery genre through music, camerawork, locations and costumes that build suspense around illegal ivory dealing. Feedback indicated the opening successfully answered the brief by creating an engaging mystery through film techniques while bringing awareness to the topic of ivory poaching.

1. Amber Saville 1158
Claremont Fan Court School 64680
OCR Media Studies J526
B324 Production Portfolio in Media
Studies

2. Video Brief 7: opening sequence from a new
thriller with storyboard
• I worked in a group of three with Jenny Adams and Charlie Atkinson.
• I took specific responsibility for doing some of the research such as
on Scoop It and Pinterest, I also did most of the editing on the
project, I did call sheets and some small filming parts.
• We made a thriller film opening entitled Blood Ivory
• The genre of our film is a crime thriller film/ mystery.
• We worked on computer programs such as iMovie and After Effects.

3. Research into similar films openings
I looked at many different film openings. We firstly looked at Les Bleus de
Ramville (2012). The opening clearly demonstrates how the film is about
some sort of hockey team and sport. There are multiple cutaway shots
for example of a hockey mask. This gave us inspiration to do different
cutaway shots in our sequence.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) is an action and thriller film. This is
clear from the opening sequence as there are multiple dark colors and
lots of images of fire. The use of color is the best point of this opening
sequence as it suggests that this film is not a happy one. The music that
goes with it is also almost quite frightening as it contains loud noises and
scream like noises.
We looked at Love Actually (2003) because it was filmed in an airport just like
ours and the use of the voice over was very effective. As we see many
different people in the airport we hear Hugh Grants famous voice as a
voice over. The voice over goes well with what he is saying. We looked at
this as we had been thinking about doing a voiceover on ours and we
knew that the Love Actually one was very effective with the filming.
Delicatessen (1991) is a thriller about a butcher. The opening sequence is well
made as at the beginning we almost fall into a rubbish bin. We then pan
across some sort of table and see many different things that could be to
do with the film. There are pictures, a tape measure, there are labels and
all of these shots give different ways to put the titles onto the sequence.
For example the “costume designer” and their named is placed on a label
of some clothes so that the persons job and the thing that it is on are
linked. This makes the sequence a lot more entertaining to watch as the
titles are being mentioned in a lot better way. The use of a sepia tone is
also effective as it suggests it may be set in an older time. It also adds
warmth to the opening sequence.

4. Our Target Audience
• Audience profile: our target audience is likely to be both
genders aged 20+. This is because our opening sequence it
not about a typical issue that people of a younger
generation would watch. It has all the same consequences of
the typical thriller opening however the twist is the main
thing going on: ivory dealing. This is why it would appeal to
an older audience.
• They are likely to have seen films such as Taken 2
(2012), Skyfall(2012), Looper(2012) as these are all films
which include quite a few action scenes as well as thriller.
• They are likely to go to the cinema at least once a month and
watch films of the action or thriller genre. They’d download
films from online and rent films from stores. The films they’d
watch would be fill of enigma and suspense.
• Audience figures show how popular the thriller /horror
/action genre is. Box office returns for films similar to mine
show the following figures: Taken 2 (source box office mojo)
$139,854,287, Zero Dark Thirty (source box office mojo)
$95,440,195 and Blue Velvet (source box office mojo)
$8,551,228.

5. The forms and conventions used in our film
• Opening
We only chose 3 titles in our opening sequence. This is because we felt that our film had a lot of
different information given from the filming therefore we didn’t want to overcrowd it with all
of the titles.
• Mise en scene
There was a variety of mise en scene. The first mise en scene of our opening sequence was in
a dressing room. It pans across her desk as we notice that she has different ivory and is
writing a letter.
The second one was Heathrow was as that is the main woman's job. We decided that if we
went to Heathrow it would make the whole opening a lot more realistic as we actually went
to Heathrow.
The next scene was set in an alley way. The reason we did this was to make it seem a lot more
suspicious and creates suspense.
The next mise en scene was the kitchen. At first the mood is calm as she is doing everyday
things however next she suddenly realises she could be in trouble.
The final mise en scene was back in her bedroom but this time it was not her in it, it was the
man previously seen in the ally way.
• We had to buy a whole costume for our opening.
We bought a new luminous jacket as we needed it to seem as realistic as possibly as she looks
like she is security. We then bought a security sticker to go on the back which made it look
even more realistic. The rest of the costume we already had for example a simple shirt and
black trousers.
For the man we just got a suit and shirt as we wanted him to look casual however slightly
serious at the same time.

6. Forms and conventions (continued)
• We did not have many sound effects in our opening. This is because it would have to be
extremely loud over the music therefore there would be no point of the sound effects. We did add
a “swoosh” sort of sound however to the beginning when our production company name comes
on.
• Sound
Our soundtrack is mostly just music however there is a voiceover. This voiceover was done to suggest
that there was a news report and this has shocked her and made her anxious.
• Music
In ours we chose a piano sort of music. It fits really well with our opening as at the
beginning it is calm as she seems innocent. Later on it gets louder as she goes into
the alley way suggesting something bad is going to happen.
• Atmosphere
• The atmosphere is tense since the music changes rapidly throughout the music
especially when a police van is shown it is clear than something bad is going to
happen.
• SUSPENSE
Suspense is created as there are scenes such as in the ally way when she looks
incredibly suspicious. The whole way through we do not know what is going to
happen to this woman.
• ENIGMA
Enigma is created from the beginning as we have no idea what the letter is about.
Throughout the opening people would be aware of the letter and eager to know what
it is about

7. Audience feedback

8. How successful our project is as a film
opening
• Blood Ivory works quite well as a film opening. The titles are
clearly displayed, it does not give away the whole film
however it is clear to understand and the sound track works
well with the filming.
• The acting was good enough to show what the film is about
and the costumes especially makes it a lot more realistic.
• There are a variety of camera angles to add texture and add
more suspense to our opening.
• The editing is effective as the black and white is used for
when going back in time whereas the rest of the editing
makes the filming warmer and adds texture to the opening.

9. How successfully the whole project
answered the brief
• Our opening did answer the whole brief. Although
the topic of ivory is not a well known matter we still
managed to create suspense and make it a thriller.
• The way we filmed added suspense as we did
different camera views throughout the opening. The
music used also added enigma as the pitch changed
at certain points.
• Our audience describes the realism of our play as we
use effective lighting, filming, costumes and actors in
our opening.

10. Appendix