CONVENTIONAL CHARACTERS IN A THRILLER

WHAT DO THRILLER TEXTS REPRESENT?• Thrillers often present the world and society as dark, dangerous and

corrupt and for this reason the protagonists involved have to be abnormal to society.

• The characters in thriller texts are usually innocent victims, stalkers, assassins, menaced women, psychotic individual, police, people involved in a twisted relationship or terrorists.

CONVENTIONAL CHARACTERS IN A PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER

• The use of Conventional Characters in a psychological thriller gives the spectator the “edge of the seat” feeling. Often, an intense atmosphere can be caused by the protagonist having a secret. In my film opening, this atmosphere is created as Alice is hiding the truth about the murder of her mother and its trying to twist the spectator into thinking she didn’t do it. However, as the opening continues, the secret slowly reveals and when you are shown the knife scene the tension of the genre builds up which represents the mentality of the characters in the film.

ORPHAN• An example of a thriller that creates this intense atmosphere is

Orphan. Esther plays the protagonist in this film and when the spectator is first introduced to her we feel empathy as we are told by the narrative that she is a young girl, 9, an orphan and from Russia. Despite this, as the narrative continues the truth about Esther is revealed. We start to notice why she wears ribbons on her wrists and this is to hide her scars. She isn't a innocent young girl, she is a 33 year old women who as a disorder that makes her be really shorts. She didn’t come from an orphanage in Russia, she came from a mental institution.

Esther

Kate

Max Daniel

John

HAPPY FAMILY...

CHARACTERS IN MY OPENING

Carol“The Mother”

The dominant ideology of the mother is someone who is loving, caring and understanding.

In my thriller opening I have created a juxtaposition towards this from Alice’s point of view. Alice thinks her mother is evil as she “killed” her twin brother at birth and she now hears his voice to get revenge on her.

The mother only appears once in my opening and when she does she is introduced with a fade transition. I did this to emphasis her weakness and it puts emphasis on a fade of the past as she is no longer alive.

The nursery rhyme, “Hush little baby” is sung by the mother and daughter which creates a bond between the two and a bond between the character and spectator.

From the questionnaire that I carried out, I asked what characters do people enjoy watching in thrillers. My main response from this was young girls. I think this was because girls especially create that sense of innocence for the spectator as women are usually considered to be weak, vulnerable and an “object”.

Youth was also a high response in preferred characters. Youth is the time before you reach an adult. From this research I think it will be best to use a younger main protagonist.

ALICEI decided for my main protagonist to be a young girl as this will ensure that the genre of a thriller is achieved. Young girls create panic and vulnerability for the spectator as we consider them to be weak. From the questionnaire on audience the response for preferred characters to watch was young girls and since this is my chosen audience I will follow this through.

Alice is acting to be an 11 year old girl. This look was achieved by dressing her in school uniform, and putting her hair into a school style. The influence I got from this was from Orphan. The main protagonist here is Esther who is acting to be younger than her real age. Her costume is very similar to Alice's which tricks the spectator and hides the truth.

ABSENT FATHER

References:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2510371/Britains-130-000-absent-dads-One-fathers-lose-contact-children-earlier-relationships.html

Over the years, absent fathers are a growing problem in modern day upbringings. In this century it is It is estimated that up to 97% of single parents are mothers., which leads to 3% being fathers. Its obvious that women are the main carers of children but this role should be shared equally between mother and father.

According to the daily mail, In total, 129,000 fathers do not have any contact with their children and 300,000 do not pay to support them. This suggests another moral panic for the society that we live in. If this pattern continues then our children will think of single upbringing to be the norm and would possible consider this route themselves.

We can call these fathers feckless.

What is a definition of a feckless father? -A man who really doesn't connect with his own fatherhood cannot put his children first.

SINGLE PARENTING

This pie chart demonstrates how 13% of feckless fathers have no contact with their children.

Only 21% of fathers see their children once a week.

28% see their children a few times a year.

But 38% see their kids several times a week

ALICEHaving an absent father in Alice puts emphasis on the moral panic of feckless fathers. It will allow the spectator to question themselves where is the father? which is what society need to be more concerned about.

Only having two characters in my thriller opening keeps my production to be at a low cost. In addition, it helps the audience to known the protagonists well and will avoid any confusion.

Only one character will only be shown at a time which will also put more emphasis on the movement of the text. As the camera moves, handheld shots will almost create the spectator to be another character within the text which is what adds a twist to this psychological thriller.