Question 2
Thriller Conventions incorporated in ‘Music Box’

In our opening title sequence of ‘Music Box’ we create an enigma around the young boy which creates suspense as he is shown as an unknown character. The camera does focus on him many times, however not at any point during the opening sequence do we understand who the boy is and why he is on his own at such a young age. By keeping his identity a secret,  questions are raised for the audience; 'Who is this character?' ‘Why is he on his own?' ‘Where has the music box come from?’ These mysteries then creates suspense for the viewer.
A Narrative pattern of establishing enigmas which the viewers expects to be resolved.
An example of the young boy, shown as an enigma...
To build the suspense even more, certain camera shots are used for example down the alley way we used quite a few close ups when capturing the girls which showed them looking scared. Another camera shot used was a shot reverse shot , we first of all saw the two girls from the front looking down at the music box on the floor, the camera was then behind them showing there backs. We hear a laugh and the two girls sharply turn round to see what’s behind them. We did this as It shows the two girls are completely alone and vulnerable, anything could creep up behind them. A point of view shot was also used, and it was the point of view from the mysterious character, who scared the girls, this makes the audience think, “are they safe? And who is behind them?
Suspense is built through the plot and storyline of the narrative
The audience could start to get worried about the four friends safety as the little boy is so unknown, Suspense is especially built down the alley way when the two girls go and find the little boy as they are alone and young, also because the audience doesn’t know what the little boy is capable of yet.
Extraordinary events happening in ordinary situations
We decided a good but different location to film our thriller is on a train station platform and on a train, also incorporated in this idea we also filmed down a poorly lit alley. We decided to film at a train station, near where we live because this setting was easy to access and it had the mysterious effect which we needed, especially when it’s dark. The ordinary situation is four friends being at a train station and on a train but the extraordinary event is finding the little boy sitting on the floor singing along to a music box he is holding, its not an event you would see everyday.

Themes of Voyeurism and Themes of identity
These two conventions include the boy and the group of friends. We may say there is ‘theme of voyeurism’ used not only from the young boy watching the group of friends but also from the group of friends watching the young boy. Themes of identity links in with one of our enigmas, ‘Who is the young boy?’ his identity needs to be revealed, this won’t be seen in the opening sequence.
The music included in the opening sequence of the thriller
The music also helps reflect the mood and threat in the characters. The sound coming from the music box implies that something bad is going to happen, and that the little boy is around. There is around a 30 second pause in the middle where the music doesn’t play it then comes back in creating suspense for the audience as they know something may happen and the protagonists are in danger. The last words we hear from the soundtrack are ‘and we all die’ these words symbolise what is happening, the little boy here closes the music box and walks off, a newspaper article then appears with a headline about four missing friends, the ‘and we all die’ may stick in the audiences head when they are wondering what has happened, also because it was the last thing they would have heard.
The music within our opening sequence creates tension using both a Diegetic and non-Diegetic soundtrack. The main Diegetic sound used is the sound from the music box, the whole way through the clip we can hear the mysterious singing voice of what seems to sound like a child. As a child is singing it creates an element of innocence and we wouldn’t really expect the child to be the main antagonist.The child is singing to a music box which is high in pitch which mirrors the child’s voice. We cannot quite make out the words the child is singing which creates a secretive element to the piece which makes it even more daunting, the only words we hear clearly are the three words at the end ‘we all die’ and ‘the world is spinning’. 
Mise en scene
Another thriller convention in which the setting fits into is, ‘Mise-en-scene which echoes/mirrors the protagonist’s plight’. The protagonist who could be said to be the young boy lives a very dull and saddened life, we see this by his dirty, ripped clothes; the Mise-en-scene mirrors this as trains stations are also dull and dirty and some don’t have much light or hope like the little boy.
The Mise-en-scene especially the props help establish and insert into thriller conventions. 
The props also add enigmas, for example; when the protagonists find out their mobile phones have no signal, it will make the audience wonder what is going to happen next? Also when they hear the sound from the music box, they first would wonder where the music is coming from and if it is a music box or someone singing.
The first thriller convention which we feel is followed by the Mise-en-scene is ‘A narrative pattern of establishing enigmas which the viewer expects to be resolved’, the lighting, colour and sound used establish enigmas which the viewer expect to be resolved, however as our task was only to complete the opening sequence they will not be resolved, many enigmas are still formed through these aspects of the Mise-en-scene though. 
The music plays a big part in the opening sequence as it helps convey the mysterious yet frightening atmosphere. The music doesn’t consist of many lyrics and the lyrics that can be heard are relevant to what is happening or will play on the audiences’ minds even more; an example is “then we all die”, here we threat for the girls safety as we don’t know what the boy is capable of. Not much sound is played after this line apart from the laugh this will stay in the viewers minds for the rest of the film. The beat of the music also sounds like a ticking of a clock which could mean that time is running out for the girls; the music puts many thoughts into the audiences head.
The Title
We first called it ‘The Music Box’ but then thought there are many film titles including many thrillers beginning with the word ‘The’; The Ring, The Godfather, The Silence of the Lambs, The Shining. Short titles are conventionally done in thriller movies to raise questions and provoke suspense.
My group and I decided on calling our thriller ‘Music Box’. We thought this title was short but to the point and will make the audience think and try and guess how a music box is involved in the story, if it is at all? 
The titles at the beginning saying ‘J-A-G-M Productions’ move across the screen like a train we then see a train appear moving in the same direction. This also happens throughout the video when the names of each character appear on the screen, they all appear and fade out like a train in the same direction as before. They also are in white on a black background so they stand out to the audience. 
The title appears at the end of our opening sequence after the newspaper article, the camera zooms into the words music box at the end of the article, this then boldens and is presented on a black background, having white writing here really makes it stand out. 
In our re-edited Music Box we have included; the production company, the producer, the director, who the film is starring and finally the title itself, this makes the opening sequence look more professional. In our first edit of Music Box the titles at the beginning were done on after effects and we said that it moved like the train; however we have now changed it and made the titles look simple but realistic. We have used a standard font and plain white writing, we thought that this still linked in with the idea of a train station as the font looks like the font used in notice boards and a sign around the station and on the train, an example shown in our opening sequence is the ‘Danger’ sign. Also using a more technical font would lose the attention of the viewer watching what is happening behind the font.
The final thing we changed in our opening sequence to Music Box was the scene down the alley way involving the young boy. When the boy gets up from the ground and walks away we noticed firstly it was too long and secondly the boy jumps and speeds up, showing poor editing first time round. Our re-edit of Music Box shows a shortened version of the boy walking away and we cut out the jump and speed up to make the editing flow smoother.