Evaluation of AOTT Activity

Our film idea was 'The Mentor', a horror film. The film follows a mentor turned killer at a secondary school who brutally murders students using ironic weapons e.g. the compass. In our film opening, the mentor murders an unsuspecting victim and then leaves her body in the middle of the hall.

Our film opening reveals the murderer and one of the many victims. Part of the murderer's face is shown which allows the audience to feel somewhat in the know but not completely as to cause some suspense and angst amongst the audience. It also introduces the audience into what sort of methods the murderer uses to kill his victim which is a major part of the film.

The titles relate mainly to the production team and the main actor involved for the film. They don't really give away any further information, however, if the director, producer, or actor were well known, it could raise further expectations for the film. Our final title is the name of the film on a black background which really foregrounds the shot and highlights the importance of the name.

I feel that our opening should be quite clear to follow but should also raise a lot of questions like 'why has this girl been murdered'. The ambiguity of the opening should hopefully raise expectations and hopes for the rest of the film to follow the action packed nature of the opening. The confusion of the audience will be a building block for us as their questions will later be answered throughout the film. There should also be an element of shock at the nature of such a gory opening scene.

We introduced the antagonist in our opening which helps to clarify any questions about who 'the mentor' is, even though the actual identity isn't fully revealed. We also connote the disturbance of the scene rather easily by the fact that the dead body is shown and then the murder weapon can be seen, especially the shot of the compass helps the audience to understand the importance of the murder weapon. Our wide variety of shots connotes the genre as we use high shots of the dead victim to highlight defenselessness and we also use low shots of the murderer to promote his power.

I feel our project is very effective as a film opening as it clearly highlights the genre and presents a series of events which are easy to follow even though we still leave the audience wondering what happened. I feel the opening could be improved if the titles were rearranged as some of them are quite hard to read as they are overlayed in front of objects.