Previous Student Example Analysis: Love Links

This is another student example from YouTube that I decided to analyse.
Strengths of this Opening

• I thought the narrative of this film was very interesting. I read the synopsis and so understood what was happening but had I not have done, it would have left me asking a lot of questions and that is what the opening of a thriller should do. Therefore, I think it is really important that, similarly to in this film, we do not reveal who the killer actually is, and even more imperatively, why they are murdering the victim. 
• The camerawork was all really smooth. The shot that I particularly liked was the shot of the victim's head falling. Except, you only saw her shadow on the wall. This shot was really nicely done and it would be a shot that I would love to use in our thriller opening if we could find a way to incorporate it. It was a nice shot because unlike horror films, there shouldn't be lots of blood and physical terror and so using just a silhouette was a very psychological approach because the audience could only imagine how it really looked. 
• The costumes were also excellent. The murderer was dressed completely in black, suggesting darkness and revenge, and the victim was dressed in causal clothes but still wearing white - a very innocent colour. 
• The titles in this film were really well incorporated. They were shown at the beginning of the opening quite quickly and then there were no titles shown for the rest of it. I think they worked a lot better than in the first student example I analysed and so it has suggested that we should put our titles over, for example, a 30-second period before just showing the rest of the opening.

Weaknesses of this Opening

• With respect to the producers of the opening, I personally felt that the acting was a critical element to this opening and some of the facial expressions weren't very convincing. I think it is important for us to pay attention to detail in our opening and make sure that there is genuine terror on the victim's face and that you can see the aggression in the hit man. If the acting isn't good enough, then the film will not be very convincing. 
• The music didn't seem to fit in with the narrative of the film neither. I think it would have been nice to have a slightly more tense soundtrack throughout the opening. Although the heartbeat sound effect was very successful, the actual music didn't seem suspenseful enough.

I think the main thing I have learnt from this opening is that it is really important that our soundtrack fits well with our opening. In both of the examples I have watched so far I think that the music has been the main weakness to the film. 

However, I like the way they they have done their titles and I would like to do something like this in our film; having them at the bottom of the screen for a short amount of time whilst you can still watch the opening in the background seems to be really effective.