There were three main theorist of Thriller films. These were called Vladimir Propp, Tzventan Todorov and Aristotle.
Vladimir Propp said that every narrative has a similar structure and that there are certain roles within narratives which are vital to making the narrative what it is. The characters which he thinks are necessary within narratives are ;
- The hero
- The villain
- The donor
- The dispatcher messenger
- The false hero
- The helper
- The princess and her father
Propp would look at fairytales and break them up in order to prove his point. A modern example which backs up Propps theory is the film Shrek.
- The hero- Shrek
- The villain- Lord Farquad
- The donor- Fairy godmother
- The false hero- Prince charming
- The helper- Donkey
- The princess and her father- Princess Fiona and her father.
Tzventan Todorov's theory was based on the idea of equilibrium. This is when the protagonist and antagonist have equal influences and power on the storyline of the narrative. He also included in his theory the idea of Disequilibrium. This is when the forces are unbalanced between the protagonist and antagonist. He believed that a narrative should follow the following set up.
- Equilibrium ( Happy Start)
- Disruption
- Realization
- Repairing (The Damage)
- Equilibrium (Happiness Restored)
Aristotle is the final theory. He believed that each narrative storyline should have an aim or goal for the main character, with an antagonist and a protagonist with something at stake. He also believed in a narrative there should be a dramatic question with sympathy and empathy being created towards the main character from the audience.
In our own thriller clip we have used Aristotle's theory of narratives. We have our main character who is the protagonist with her life at stake. There is the spirit haunting her who is the antagonist. Empathy and sympathy are created for the character as the setting we have used is in a house which is relatable to an audience and would make them not want to be in her position.
We each sent our individual narrative ideas to the rest of the group and read through them. We then looked at the good and bad things we liked about each of our ideas. From this we managed to create a story line for our narrative, and begin to plan what we were going to do. We picked the location of a house as all of our individual ideas were set in a house. We then looked at the criteria for a level 4 clip and tried to plan what of those we could include.
Ravinders narrative was the first we looked at and was the following;
- Family(which consists of a father, 6 yr old son and a 15 yr old son) They are moving house to their grandfather's house which has been empty since 40 yrs. This is due to their mother's death 2 weeks ago. This is seen typical in thriller films as a film usually starts off in a good mood or it straight away starts with a sense of something bad.
- There is usually history(a past story or myth) where the characters in the film move into a house - which is known for haunting people who move into that particular house.
- The 6 yr old kid is being haunted by the antagonist - he is anonymous
- Background story - 80 yrs ago there lived a man called Mr Black - school teacher - he was bullied by students a lot as he had a mental disability, which resulted Mr Black becoming psycho - students were missing every month from the school. Once he was caught 7 years later he was hanged in 1970, and thereafter his house was haunted with evil spirits.
- The father and children don't believe in ghosts or spirits - they hear strange noises, however they always ignore it as they do not pay attention as they are always lost in their thoughts.
- Until the day comes after 2 weeks, where the unknown Mr.Black has had enough of haunting and spying on these three as he receives no reaction. (The myth is that whoever is scared, frightened and fearful - the bad spirits will always haunt them - The antagonist cannot approach the fearless.
- After 2 weeks living in the house strange things start to happen - the 6 yr old kid starts becoming afraid of being alone and hearing strange noises. Also, imagining things - he tries to tell his father, however he neglects him and think it's just because he's lost his mother. However, the 15 year old boy believes his younger brother and tells him not to worry or be afraid as God is on their side( he always wears a cross around his neck - telling his brother to but the 6 year old does not believe in anything as he believes God took away his mother)- due to innocence of the 6 year old he was first target. The boy starts to become afraid being alone - the antagonist can easily frightened the young kid and torture him.
- Randomly he starts to get knife marks on his body and day by day they get worse - Mr Black is opening up his insides whilst he's asleep - during the night and the young boy does not realise until he gets up with sharp pains running through his entire body. He does tell anyone as he thought that his father is busy with work, so every night he got this until the fourth day he went to tell his brother but he just collapsed before his eyes - losing excessive amounts of blood.
- The father takes him to the hospital, and realises that his 6 year old son has gone into coma. This resulted the young boy lying on his bed everyday - connected to machines - awaiting for him to regain conscious.
- Mr Blacks students who were trapped in that house forever, tried to warn the 15 year old by telling him the process of what Mr Black does every night and why. So during that night the 15 year old goes into his younger brother's room (fearless as he is aware of Mr Black visiting his brother's room and awaits standing in the corner hidden by the curtain - With the Cross Necklace around his necklace.
- 0:00am his father walks into the room with a kit in his hand. The remains silent however, when he witnesses his father stabbing and torturing his younger brother, he stands before him and starts to quarrel with his father. However, the 15 year old is not visible. he soon realises that his is possessed as he looked at his eyes and they were huge.
- The 15 year old goes to meet a priest and brings him home. As soon as the priest enters he feels a sense of negativity and evil vibes.
- The priest stays a night and prays in the house making sure that Mr Black who possess their father is out of this house and making sure the tortured escape from Mr Black.
- Once the prayer is done in the house for full 3 nights - the father is free and the 6 year old comes out of his coma and starts to bleed excessively.
- The story ends that the father becomes back to normal but is still suffering from his wife's and now his 6 year old son's death(traumatised thinking he caused his son's death. The 15 year old is left alone looking after mentally disturbed further.
Thriller films which have inspired me are Insidious, The Sixth Sense, Dead Silence and further more. I have used the narrative of Insidious as it has inspired me of similarly copying the story-line. Throughout the scene low-key lighting would be used, also as the house is the grandfather's house - ancient and old iconography would be used.
We then looked at the advantages and disadvantages for Ravinders narrative.
Advantages: I have shown a detailed narrative, also there is a understanding of the location which is going to be seen as an unknown location. In typical thrillers, a location change is bound to happen where something evil will begin. The antagonist has also been acknowledged with a typical supernatural spirit.
Disadvantages: Throughout the narrative cinematography, mise-en-scene, soundtrack and editing need to be mentioned or mentioned in further detail, for the other group members to picture the narrative.
Next we looked at Lucy's narrative.
My narrative;
The scene starts as a long high angle shot focused on a house. It's night time and you cannot see the rest of the street. This is important as now my film will have a unknown location which makes the audience more naïve to the events that unfold as they are unaware of the surroundings. It shows lots of children arriving at the house and by zooming in through the door using a point of view shot the audience enter the house and see the setting for a little girls birthday party. This scene will put the audience on edge as through entering the house and seeing the fun, happy environment they understand that something is going to go terribly wrong as in a thriller film their is always a shock, surprise and suspense factor and so by opening the scene in a controversial setting it puts the audience on edge and makes the intrigued as it is not a familiar location. The party then begins to unfold before they children decide to play a game leading the mum to bring out a piñata. The little girl, who's birthday it is, goes first and gets a scarf tied around her eyes as a blindfold. As the blindfold goes on we see a last second look at the scene and focus on a bat in her hand which we assumed is going to be used as part of the game. As the blindfold is placed on her properly we return to a point of view shot as the whole screen goes dark just as how the little girl would have seen the room. Sound affects are then used to entice the audience as we hear the piñata get smashed and what is assumingly candy to fall out of the bottom. The little girl then cheers with delight and removes her blindfold. As the camera pans round the room we see all of her guests and family dead on the floor sprawled around the room. The little girl screams and goes to run out the house. Returning to the front of the house where the scene began we hear something drop. As the little girl slowly looks down a knife is shown on the floor and blood is all over the little girls hands. She scans them and realising she had involvement in the murders screams. The shot then zooms out on the house showing the little girl alone and screaming.
Like Ravinder's, we then looked at the advantages and disadvantages of Lucy's individual narrative.
Advantages: I have used a wide variety of camera angles to show lots of different view points on the screen. This allows the audience to see more of the events unfold and get a better understanding of the surroundings. I have also used cinematography in the form of a murder weapon. I have used the conventional method of a knife as it relates back to the thriller genre.
Disadvantages: Again through filming at a party which features so many people it would not be achievable for the group to film. I could have also used more detail in my narrative especially about the characters as without introducing the characters properly the group don't share a connection with the central characters and therefore the effect of the film will be lost on the audience.
My narrative was also analysed and was the following;
For my clip i have used inspiration from the Scream films and also the film Prom Night. Three boys come around the corner in slow motion with plastic bags in either hand. There is dramatic music playing. A long shot is used to show them walking down the road. Their is then a cut scene to a house party and a handheld camera angle is used for the first few seconds of this. The three boys then enter the party and a high angle shot shows them coming through the door. There is then quick timing of shots to pick up the pace and show the party advancing. The lights in the party then cut out and their is a reaction shot to show the fear of the people in the party. Hidden identity is then used as we see a masked character. Diegetic screaming is then used as the lights turn on and off. When the lights are turned on permanently there are numerous dead bodies on the floor.
The advantages: an unknown relatable location would make it scarier and more empathy would be created amongst the audience.
Disadvantages: Hard to film
After looking at the individual ideas and the conventions of thriller films we came up with the following plan for our Thriller clip.
Group narrative-
1. A young girl around the age of 16 returns home.
2. She enters the living room and switches on the TV. A news report on the BBC comes on speaking about recent suspicious activity happening in Chigwell.
3. After this she goes into the kitchen and warms ‘something’ up. She places a timer on the microwave for one minute.
4. She glances out the kitchen window and notices the light on in the shed outside. She goes outside to turn it off and as she goes to return to the house it turns back on. A slow back ground music begins to start.
5. Scared she shouts ‘who’s there?’ at the shed.
6. She runs back to the house and locks the back door. Whilst stepping backwards away from the door the audience can then hear her breathing heavy and a heartbeat. The camera is filming from the outside (ghost POV).
7. The timer then goes off on the microwave making her jump and gasp. She looks at the microwave and the timer starts again by itself.
8. She then slams the buttons on the microwave to make it stop but it doesn’t.
9. The radio in the kitchen then turns on and begins to play ‘we’ve only just begun’ by the carpenters. This is off screen sound. However she then looks at the radio and the camera zooms in on it on the side. Time flashes to 00:00.
10. As this happens everything in the kitchen begins to turn on- the taps, ice comes out from fridge, the kettle. The microwave timer then goes off again and resets itself to 30 seconds.
11. She runs out the kitchen with a knife and all the doors slam. She then tries to open each one but they remain shut.
12. The door from the kitchen opens slowly. There is a creaky noise. No music just the door opening.
13. She holds the knife up, aimed towards the door and starts shouting ‘get out my house’ and ‘who are you’.
14. She runs to the stairs with the camera following her she then gets dragged down them by her leg. The camera then films from the top of the stairs.
15. She’s then filmed at the bottom of the stairs screaming. The camera looks down and see she’s stabbed herself in the fall.
16. She removes the knife and begins to drag herself to one of the now open doors.
17. Just as she reaches it the door slams and she falls back on the floor at the same time and whacks her head.
18. It starts to zoom out showing her laying on the ground bleeding before jump cutting to an extreme close up of her eyes opening to end. Her eyes have changed colour to show she’s now possessed.
