Analysis of a student's thriller project opening sequence

Candidate: Daniel Bowers
Date published: Tuesday, 26th January 2016

The project 'Young Killer' was produced by Daniel Bowers and was given an E grade. This film is not an example of what I hope my final piece turns out like since there are many clear errors in the film and the plot of the movie isn't creative at all. The theme of a child killer is very commonly used which gives an indication of the lack of thought put into this film and the title 'Young Killer' leaves absolutely no mystery, it is also clear that there was barely any thought put into this title since it is just exactly what the movie is about put into two words, maybe if the vocabulary was different in the title but still meant the same thing, it would be more effective but the title 'Young Killer' doesn't excite an audience or make them expect anything good to happen throughout the film.

 The candidate has created his own design for a production company, this is something I shall be doing in my final piece. However, I hope to create a logo to a higher quality that this since all that has been done to create it is that he has cropped the image of the eyes and put the title 'Insanity Entertainment' running along the bottom of the screen.

The candidate has also created a logo for the movie title which once again lacks any imagination or thought put into it. This time it is just the title 'Young Killer' in a red font over a black background which would've taken around 5 minutes to make at maximum. However, I will be attempting to create my own logo for the title of my final piece but mine will hopefully incorporate a higher level of imagination when it comes to designing it.

The film begins wi

th the 'Young Killer' waking up and looking directly into the camera lens. Usually the killer looking into the camera lens is meant to put the audience on edge and make them feel uneasy but in this case it doesn't have that effect since as the child sits up it is clear that he is attempting not to laugh which takes all edge off this scene. Also there is a major mistake in this shot, in the bottom left corner a female is visible through the bed frame. This shows that this candidate didn't carefully watch his film back to check for any mistakes during the editing stage.

A close up is used on the child tying up his dressing gown which doesn't have any major effect on the film and doesn't really make the audience feel any different. The close up may have been intended to build up a dark atmosphere but unfortunately that hasn't worked.

On many occasions throughout this opening scene the camera is out of focus which makes the film look rather unprofessional and makes it clear that it wasn't a very high quality scene. I also feel as though the background music used is not copyright free since I have heard it on many other videos before.

The child once again looks into the camera lens here but once again it isn't effective since a high angle is used which makes it clear that the child is looking up to face the lens. This makes it seem unrealistic and takes all the edge off the scene once again since it is unimaginable that a child would walk around his house looking up.


In this shot the camera is focused on the background rather than the child which is once again another mistake with the camera focus. Also when the child speaks the sound isn't very clear since a radio/TV is heard in the background as he speaks.



In the final shot of the opening scene, the 'Young Killer' reveals that he has hidden the dead body of a girl in a bin liner. However, the dead girl visible here is actually the same girl who I noticed in the bottom left corner of the opening shot. This is a huge mistake that I will be sure to prevent myself from making when I come to producing my own final piece.