Individual narrative

Individual narrative

A narrative is important to a thriller film as it allows the plot line to unfold in an unexpected and suspense filled way. 

From the analysis I have done on different thriller films I have learnt different ways in which they build the audience's expectations for what will happen in the rest of the film, causing them to instantly form questions about who the attacker is, and what is motivating them to carry out their terrifying attacks. 

I have learnt that an enigmatic opening scene is not only conventional to thriller films, but almost compulsive, as it instantly draws in the audience's attentions. I would therefore like to include an unexplained attack in my opening scene, with the attacker's identity kept secret, and even the background of the victim to remain hidden, so their is no clear motive as to why they have been targeted. This is a method used by Wes Craven in his trilogy, and now film series; Scream.

  

I would like to include no actual shots of the attacker, just displaying their hands as they opened doors, or their feet as they walked silently down a corridor. This would increase audience anticipation and anxiety.

For the initial scene which they audience sees, I would like to have a shot of an unidentified person's hands picking up a knife, and then their feet as they leave the room, locking the door behind them. 

I would then cut to another scene, where the victim could be getting ready, or even doing school work on their own. 

This scene would be interrupted at regular intervals with images of the attacker, walking, turning door handles and seemingly getting ever closer to the innocent victim.
Eventually, I would like to have a shot of the attacker opening a door, then the next shot showing the scene from the point of view of the victim, with the classroom, or bedroom door opening slowly, and again a shot of feet walking into the same room as the victim.
During the attack of the victim, I would like to keep the attacker's identity completely hidden through the use of camera shots which never feature their face, or whole body, and not even showing the actual attack, focusing more on the facial expressions and blood dripping onto the floor. This would build even more anxiety of the audience as the scenes are so ambiguous that they have no idea what is going on.

Much like the famous attack in the shower scene of Psycho (1960) I would aim to include shadow on the face of the attacker to enhance their evil nature, as well as being a clever way of keeping their identity hidden. As one of the most classic thriller films of all time, I would like to draw a lot of inspiration from the way in which Hitchcock is able to create a tense scene, without including any actual scenes of violence.

Much like Bryan Bertino relied on natural sounds in his 2008 film The Strangers, I think that natural sound will be one of the best ways of increasing the tension felt by the audience when watching my thriller film. Through natural sounds I hope to inspire the audience to feel as though they too could be in the same position, making the scene seem even more realistic.

 

The target audience of my thriller film will be teenagers between the ages of 15 to 20. As the content of my film will be suitable for a certification of 15, this is the threshold age of my target audience. It wouldn't make sense to target the film at an audience who are too young to legally go and see the film in the cinema, and in order to make the film appealing to the older teenage audience, the content of the film needs to be interesting, exciting and dramatic enough to earn the 15 certification.

 

I believe that my target audience will be able to identify with the female victim in the film, due to their similar ages. I will aim to portray the victim as between the ages of 18 and 20 in order that the audience will feel that they can identify with her, increasing the feelings of empathy, fear and suspense during the opening sequence. 

Members of the target audience who are younger than the character will be able to identify with her as they see the type of person they would like to become when they themseleves reach her age. Members of the audience which are the same age as the character will be able to identify with her due to their age similarity.
I have chosen to cast a character who is older than most of the target audience, to lower the risk that the audience will see the character as immature and silly if she is too much younger. This can be seen when children around the age of 12 or13 watch a film rated PG. They may find the characters hard to identify with due to their immature nature and way of handling situations.
Therefore, by casting the character at the top end of my target audience age range, it will lower the chances of audience members taking this view of the initial protagonist, and their initial opnion on the film and story line.
If an audience member can identify with a character and the decisions they make within the film, it will increase the chance of them sticking with the film, and watching the rest of the events unfold, as opposed to giving up and switching off.

My target audience will also match that of other successful thriller films, i.e. Scream and Prom Night, which also appeal to teenagers around the age of my target audience. I therefore know that I am creating a film which will be successful in appealing to my chosen target audience, and contains the correct conventions to match.
I will not include the sadistic type of violence which is featured in thrillers such as Saw, as I want to avoid making a film which would earn the certificate of an 18. This would prevent half of my target audience being able to watch the film, therefore limiting the success of my film.