Past student Thrillers

Hidden
 The story line of hidden is basic, whereby a boy is walking his girlfriend home, when a murderer appears from the shadows and kills the boy outside of his girlfriends house. Unfortunately, the worst part about the film opening is the lighting used is far too dark to really see what is happening or for us to get a grip on the story. The choice and use of camera angles and transitions parallel with the lighting makes it hard for the audience to properly understand what is happening, a burden that the audience shouldn't have to carry on behalf of the film makers.

 Powercut
 This previous student Thriller opening has an easy to understand story on the surface, but without the use of dialogue to explain what is happening and some shots lasting too long enabling the audience to see camera shakes and human errors to filming. The film shows two characters, one teacher and one student, and while one person stays in a classroom to do work, the other leaves with a screwdriver, hacks into the school lights and comes back, with the ending scene being the two characters staring at each other. As previously mentioned, human errors while filming mixed with the transition effects by the bucket load make the film seem unprofessional and hard to get immersed in.

After Eight
While i'm not too sure on the story of 'After Eight', the actual acting and the use of mise-en-scene and dialogue makes it a successful opening. It is easy to keep you immersed due to the seemingly regular actions mixed with the strange shots of a bloodied axe. It is also to hold immersion, as there are not any transition effects and only parallel and diegetic sounds.

The Catalyst
 'The Catalyst' is probably one of the better student openings to a thriller, as with a good use of mise-en-scene and action we can get a general overview of the story with next to no dialogue. It is easy to follow what is happening and at no point we are confused about the story apart from the end with the child, but that may have just been me. However, the only true problem with the film is hot animated the sniper scene is. While attempting to add motion to make it seem more realistic, the actual style and way that it is pulled off seems somewhat unrealistic.