Group narrative - Miss Georgiou

My idea

Narrative ideas

The narrative is important because it tells the audience the background story of a film. It also makes the film have a meaning. Without the narrative the film would be confusing to the audience because they wouldn't know what was going on. The narrative keeps the film together and stops the storyline from going off track. Thriller narratives should have a tense opening sequence to grab the audience and pull them into the film straight away.

Narrative

I have come up with a narrative about an old eerie forest which has had some weird unexplained happenings occur in it. A group of friends take a trip to the forest for a day out and they suddenly become trapped and in danger. The forest plays with your mind and makes you confused and lost really easily. There is also a dark cloaked figure constantly lurking amongst the trees, spying on people that enter the forest. There have been constant sightings of this figure and some even say he follows you when you leave the forest. 10 people have suddenly disappeared over the course of two years. 

My opening sequence will consist of 3 friends going to the forest to try and find out what all the fuss is about. After one girl spots the dark figure in the corner of her eye they leave thinking that it was just her imagination going wild. She returns home haunted by her experience and goes to bed trying to forget about it. She later wakes to find that she is back in the forest. Scared and confused she tries to find her way out but she ends up encountering the figure again. This time she doesn't  escape. She becomes the 11th person to go missing. The opening sequence the ends with a close up of the dark figure with just his face showing. 

Ella's idea

INDIVIDUAL NARRATIVE IDEAS

(planning the thriller production)

My production is going to be a thriller film. Planning out my narrative is important so i know exactly what i am going to do and collect all of my ideas.

Firstly, my first ideas for my setting are:

• Small town
• Dark and gloomy/bad weather
• A small crowded place e.g. forest with lots of trees and some greenery& plants or messy room
• Abandoned house in a middle of a street

I want my thriller opening sequence to be a cliff hanger. This keeps the audience/watchers wanting to watch the whole film and eager to know what is next. This creates suspense and catches more views from the audience.

Furthermore, i will use animals e.g. dogs in my opening sequence. This creates a little more adventure instead of just using me and my other group members in our opening sequence.

My overall narrative story line will have a dark setting. For my first initial idea I will be filming in two different scenes. In the first seconds of the scene The audience will see a news flash on the television being watched by myself. The news flash will contain a recent reoccurring murder that has taken place in that day. Then myself and Hannah from my group will be having a friendly conversation walking down a open road. We happen to come onto the conversation of the news flash. Whilst walking with out pets(dogs) we see a van speed of with a young boy inside trapped in the back, we think nothing of it until we head into a pathway leading into the forest. It's only until then the camera slowly zooms into a body laying on the floor. The scene will end here on a cliff-hanger.

There are many conventions that will be used in this opening sequence. Firstly the setting is dark and with minimal lighting. Furthermore, i feel that I have created something different to normal thrillers. I am going to use a male victim instead of a female, this will give a different aspect onto the audience, creating a completely different view on thriller films. I have tried to keep a simple story line although one that will keep the viewers interested. Although this might not be my final idea, I feel that this narrative story line would work well and have good feedback from the audience. I will receive feedback from my questionnaire  and from this I will discuss with my group what works well and what doesn't  Although I feel I will use typical conventions that the audience love to see. E.g. A weapon In the scene somewhere which could conclude to some sort of evidence. Furthermore a lot of drama to keep the pace of the film going. Although i am only making an short opening I want the audience to want watch more and feel like this could be a real film.

I think that Ella's post is good because I like the  setting of the story and I also like the story line itself. I think that Ella has put a lot of thought into her narrative and she has put thought into the conventions as well which is helpful when coming up with ideas. The disadvantages to Ella's post is I think that the opening sequence could be too long and over 2 minutes. I also think that it would give away too much of the storyline which would ruin the rest of the film.  

Hannah's idea

A narrative is important to a film as it creates a main purpose for the film. Without a narrative the film would be unwatchable as there would not be a point or solution. It is important to have a narrative for a thriller as it should create enigma to keep the audience engaged and making them want to continue watching, also creating the three key elements of shock, surprise and suspense.

I will target my thriller towards people aged 15+ as some of the scenes may be upsetting towards a younger viewer and may potentially be scary due to the use of blood, gore and weapons. 

My own individual narrative for my thriller sequence is based around a boy that was kidnapped which the reason is unknown to the audience, tied up and taken to the middle of the forest. The audience will see the struggle of the boy and the flashes of the event. By using flashes of the event, and not completely showing the event I hope this will create enigma as they are wanting to know what is happening to the boy and why, making the audience want to watch on, to see why this has happened. The sequence will then end on a cliff hanger when two girls who happen to be walking into the forest discover the boy. This is a cliff hanger as the sequence would end on a scream, which is unknown to the audience who's scream this is, the audience would then begin to wonder is there a reoccurring theme of entering the forest and death.

Some conventions that i will include in the opening sequence could be set in a forest at night time. This is because it conforms with typical thriller conventions of an isolated setting as it is in the middle of nowhere, automatically giving a sense of fear and danger as there is nobody around to see, hear or help if anything dangerous occurred. Furthermore, the use of dark lighting creates suspense as the vision is slightly impaired in darker vision so it is harder to see what is going on and what is hiding within the darkness. This makes the audience sympathizes for the protagonists as they are not aware of what is about to happen and has less of a chance to defend there self as they cannot see what is coming.

Another convention I will use is the use of iconography. the iconography my group will use is most probably a fake knife. This is because a knife is a typical weapon you would expect to see within a thriller film. A knife has several connotations such as death, brutality, blood and violence. This will create a sense of foreboding for the audience as the knife will be a clue that something bad is going to happen to one, or possibly three of the characters. 

Advantages to Hannah's post are it is a good idea and it also has a clear story line to it. The opening sequence is very intense and it will drag the audience into the film. She has also looked at the age rating of the film and who the film is aimed at. This is a good idea because  it makes the film easier to create. 

Disadvantages to Hannah's narrative is it could last longer then the allowed time we have. Another problem we could come across is getting the iconography i.e. the van and so on.

Final group narrative

Begins with news report about disappearances in local area.. Continue throughout scene, hear screeches of van tires and screams. Then have the news report playing, then shots of a dark figure walking past the window,

It then continues on two friends walking dogs in forest, see boy roped up looking possessed, scene ends on cliff-hanger of two girls turning round looking for help, seeing dark figure in the forest, audience wonder what dark figure is, why its there and trying to take children. 

Our opening sequence is the ending to our film. We have done this to make our audience watch the film to the very end to find out what really has happened. We have shown our disequilibrium at the end instead of the beginning of our sequence.