GROUP NARRATIVE - miss georgiou

GROUP NARRATIVE

Firstly i am going to look at my other peers in my groups idea. The two other people in my group is Hannah and Oliver. They have come up with their own narrative thoughts just like me and i am going to discuss and look at them, and decide together which idea we are going to use/change.

Hannahs 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 sympathises 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 foreboading 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. 

My thoughts and ideas on hannah's post: i think hannah's post has a good narrative and has a good basic story line. Also she has explained the conventions and explained them well. Although there is a few disadvantages, she has not explained any camera techniques she will be used e.g. zooming in or slow editing. 

Furthermore, hannah has explained her overall narrative idea with detail and said things she's going to include to create a better opening sequence, for example, cliffhanger, although she hasn't explained why this would work well. Another advantage is that she has used a convention example, this is iconography. She also explains why this would work well and create a good opening sequence.

Overall i feel that hannah has a good idea and has explained things well. She has over ridden her disadvantages with advantages and has talked about her target audience and who and why she is aiming it for. Overall i feel that after concluding everyones narrative idea, i would defiantly use hannah's idea as it has good structure and could work well, i like hannah's idea and the amount of thought she has put into it. After conferring with my own group and making changes we will decide together and come to a conclusion.

Olivers idea

I have come up with a narrative about an old eery 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. 

The first disadvantage i can say about Oliver's work is that he has a very small amount of work. Although he has concluded his idea although with minimal detail. He has explained well how many characters he is going to used and why and where they would work well. His overall narrative is good and i would use this as our final piece. 

Oliver has explained where his setting would be which is in a forest, although he hasn't said in detail what will happen to the characters in the opening sequence. Oliver explains well about feeling and emotions. For olivers to improve he would have to add things such as editing styles, conventions and sounds that would be used.

Overall i feel that Oliver's narrative story line would work extremely well with some improvements. If my group was to conclude on oliver's idea i think it would work well and catch the audiences attention quickly, with a solid target audience. 

My own idea

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 enitial 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 reocurring 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 cliffhanger.

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 questionarre and from this I will discuss with my group what works well and what dosent. 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. Furthermore, i would use eery and tense sounds to create the feeling that the audience watching are actually in the film and experiencing what the characters in the film are.

Overall from re-reading my narrative i can now see that i need to make a few improvements and adjustments to my ideas. Firstly i think that i have explained my narrative opening scene well and explained all the points that i have made. Secondly, i have explained conventions that have worked well in other films and which ones i could use in my own opening sequence. Although i feel that i could have elaborated on sounds. I feel that sounds are very important in thriller films and create most of the tension that is made.

Also i need to talk about lighting and what costumes would work well and would be used. I have come up with a few ideas for the setting and scene as i couldn't decide which one to pick. I have discussed a few weapons that could be used and would work well to intrigue the audience and keep them on the end of their seats.

Overall i feel that all three ideas that i have analysed have been put together well and would all work good, although one one can be picked or create a whole new one.

Overall group narrative idea

We have discussed our ideas and come up with our narrative.
Firstly our setting is going to be in a small town which is surrounded by forest. Two young girls (myself and hannah) are watching TV in a house in the village, whilst watching a newsflash arrives on the screen explaining their have been several disappearances in the area, the two girls are surprised to see the news but do not think anything of it, but little do they know a black figure walks past the window behind them. 
The scene changes to the outside of the house and the two girls are walking their dogs, as walking down a long bendy road a van screeches of the road and speeds of down the road. The sunset begins to fall and they begin to enter the forest, little do they know a black figure is surrounding them and they soon tumble across something on the ground.

Our opening sequence is the ending to our film and we have decided to do this so the audience watch it and want to know what happens at ending, and will want to know the entire storyline leading up to the main events. They will want to watch it to the end and want to watch more. We have shown the disequilibrium at the end instead of the beginning of our opening sequence.

The narrative theory we have chosen to use for our group narrative is 'Aristotle'. This philosopher has knowledge that can be related to media. I think our theory is based around Aristotle as we are focusing on themes, we have a antagonist and a protagonist, we use sympathy/empathy and a resolution. 

Editing styles and cinematography: There are many editing styles i have easearched and looked at from the start until now, so know what works well with what.
Firstly i feel that in our opening scene of a thriller there will be the following: Panning shot, zooming in, long shot, close up, slow moving of the camera and focusing on the main object of the screen. All of these editing styles will help to build tension and create suspense for the audience. Without editing styles, a thriller film would be very basic and would use the same camera angles the whole way through, whereas including different editing styles can show different things to the audience; for example, when there is a long shot on the scene you can see the whole background aswell as the character, this background could just simply show the setting or could be used to show something to the audience, e.g. a charachter standing at the window or someone/something hiding in the room. I feel that overall i will take editing styles into consideration when creating my thriller opening sequence as it makes alot of difference when watching back and trying to create different emotions towards the audience.

Conventions: Conventions are typical things that happen in a film, i have researched conventions of a thriller and now have a clear picture in mind what conventions i am going to use for my opening sequence.
Conventions that i am going to use and i know work well are; female victim, low-key lighting, iconography such as a knife or axe or clothing such as red or black, main weapon, isolated setting and masks and props. I will be also using conventional sounds such as eary music and a heart beat sound track. A heart beat sound track creates suspense as this may show the heart beat of the person scared or afraid, and as it gets faster and faster it builds up tension for the audience. Furthermore, when a strange shadow walks past the window in our opening sequence, the antagonist will be wearing dark black clothing aswell as a mask. Conventions are what make a thriller exciting and fearful. Conventions help a thriller to have the same running fear through them all and mainly every thriller made uses atleast one of the above conventions.

Target audience: My target audience for my opening sequence will be ranging from the ages of 15+. From my questionarre i got feedback suggesting that the public ranging between 15-30 enjoy watching thriller films the most. A target audience helps me know what to include when creating my opening sequence, for example as my opening sequence is going to be viewed from the ages of 15+ there cannot be alot of blood and gore and only mild references of swearing and strong language.