Group Narrative

Group Narrative

Group Narrative

The narrative to my thriller film should be decided by 4 key conventions. The Genre, witch would be a thriller so will limit the other 3 conventions. The Characters, witch have to follow the codes and techniques to a thriller genre so will be traditionally be a helpless female who runs up the stairs instead of out the door. The Time and Setting are the other two. They again have to follow the traditional techniques of the Genre, as it is the most important and deciding factor. The setting will be a dark secluded place with dark lighting and limited access to towns and villages. The Time will be as realistic as possible to get the audience to show a natural reaction to the clip.

My Idea:

My idea was to have a woman alone in a cabin. She is there with new friends but while shes asleep they mysteriously disappear. She wakes up and finds a not saying they've gone out for drinks. She thinks its a bit wired but thinks nothing really of it. Later on she finds a load of her stuff has been looked through and she starts to become suspicious. Noises and blatant change in iconography show tension build. She starts to see silhouettes in doorways and becomes panicked. She reaches for the phone and the line is dead. She runs to the door and swings it open and one of the friends is right there. She is grabbed and turned to the camera. It all goes black and the female character screams and then it ends.

Advantages: Good use of the thriller conventions. 

Disadvantages: Too long winded and is to predictable.

Sam's Idea:

From all of the the research I have done I have got an idea of the location, lighting, characters and iconography that I should use in my clip. It would be set in an estate with a big field or wod nearby and there is a character who is vulnerable or is being stalked. Walking dog ate night in the woods and there is a dark figure that you see running from tree to tree but you never see him/her. But she is ok then she goes through her day working but there is someone following her but still you never see his face. She starts to creep out as she knows that someone's following her so she invites some of her friends to co e and stay with her. Power goes off and they all get scared the tv turns on but it's fuzzy and makes a loud noise that scares them even more. Then there's a flash of lighting and the killers face appears in the window.

So they all run to the top floor and try and call the police but the phone line has been cut and there's a bang which is the front door opening and the killer walks in and straight up the stairs as if he knows where she is hiding but he is shouting there's no where to hide and as he opens the door where they are hiding one of her friends throws something and they get out of the bathroom and they try and run but at the bottom of the stairs there is another man and both killers trap them and torched them until one escapes. 

A few of my ideas are from past thriller movies for example the masked men are from the strangers as there is more than one killer who is after the girls and the torcher sequence is from the human centipede as in this film there are 3 people who have been sown together. I will use lighting and sound effects from The Strangers also because my film is based in a similar condition, in a house.

Advantages: This has good use of the conventions and will draw the audience into the film as is not as predictable as mine. 

Disadvantages: There are too many characters to be using in the opening 2 minutes of a film.

Arthur's Idea:

Starts of with camera moving across the ground at ground level. This will be the opening credits, the text is motion tracked with movement of the ground, featuring out names (credits). Ends with a small scream, which then transitions into the first scene.

First scene is extreme close up of the woman’s eye. Which then opens (the eye) where she is scared and breathing heavily and this point the camera shot zooms out into a medium shot. She then sits up looks over to a glass which is empty so she gets out of bed and goes to the kitchen where on the way the audience see the villain but the character does not. Whilst this is building tension the women then puts the tap on and fills here cup with water. The camera is facing her where as the camera is placed on the side where the tap is. The audience then see the villain in the background whilst the woman character does not, this builds loads of suspense.

Then lighting (thunder) flashes and you get a better view of the villain then see the villain disappear. The women now turns around whilst drinking her water in relief. You then see the kitchen door creaking open which then you hear a thump and a black cat runs through, the women picks up the cat and turns around to go back to her bedroom and there is the villain right there where she bumps into the villain and screams she drops the cat and runs away in which on the way comes across the front door which is being banged on. She locks herself in her room in which she is very scared and reaching over to grab her home phone in which the line cut out whilst calling a friend number. She then screams and hides under her bed, it then becomes very silent you hear footsteps coming towards the door and then banging on the door. Then it changes into a POV shot and sees the door being opened and the villain walking in which you see him walking around then dropping on the floor so you have an extreme close up of the villain for around 1 second then screams and then it ends.

Advantages: good strong narrative and use of cinematography. 

Disadvantages: incorrect as doesn't follow task

Orcun's Idea:

a female character who is presumably the victim of the opening scene to my thriller narrative, will have woken up from a nightmare in the middle of the night. She is petrified and has not come to her senses once she has woken, she is breathing rapidly and needs a drink of water to ease her throat. she leans over to the glass on her bedside draw but there is only a drop of water remaining, this results in her stepping out of bed and heading of downstairs for more water. she will open the fridge once in the kitchen with the camera placed in the fridge so that we can see the look on her face as she searches for water. when she places the glass on the table there will be a figure in the glass door behind her, she will see his refelction on the window of the cupboard and spin around to catch them in action but to only find there is no one there.

The telephone starts ringing in the front room, on the window sill. she picks it up and hears a muffled voice which screeches through the phone line, this fades into a beeping effect which means the phone call has ended. someone is banging on the back door which she immediately drops the phone and runs to the front door, to find it half open. when somebody knocks on the second front door she runs back insinde to find the phone hooked back up, remembering she dropped it it confuses her.

Final Narrative


A mid shot shows the victim running through the streets with panic and despaired facial expressions. It cuts (with a lagging effect) to the next mid shot but of her just walking down the road with her iPod. This is seemingly set before the chase. The lagging effect again occurs but to show her looking around in desperation. The camera circling her creating an spence that she is trapped with no clear escape. Using the same camera shot, it focuses on her but you see a man in a gas mask appear from the dark and grab her from behind. A jump cut is used, paired with a close up, of her face while in bed. She immediately awakes and throws herself upward as if the previous scenes were just a bad dream. A panning shot is used so the audience can take in her expressions and feelings before a mid shot shows her exit the bedroom. A close up facing the banisters Was then used with a focus due focus effect. The victims legs fly past the camera indicating that she has gone downstairs. Another mid shot is put into play but this is to show the door window over the shoulder of our victim with the same masked man from the dream watching her. His presence is not that clearly shown so the non-diegetic music increases in pace and volume to attract the audiences attention.

 She walks into the camera making the screen go dark. The next time you see her is when she opens the fridge to get a bottle of water. This shot was from inside the fridge and is considered a close up. This was to show her cluelessness of what was going on. Dramatic irony begins to develop. She opens the cupboard to get a glass and she pours the water. When she drinks the water, she looks into the glass window in the cupboard and sees a reflection of another man in different clothes but in the same mask from the dream. She freaks and swings around to see know one their. This was done using a point of view shot so the audience could see clearly the difference in shat the different shots presented. She warily reaches for the door handle (extreme close up) but the phone starts to ring. (The ringing sound was an old style one to stick to the old themed style of the villains, masks and old suits). 

She enters the living room and picks up the phone. The hang up noise startles her and a sudden bang from outside makes her drop the phone. She puts her fingers to the blind and widens two of the blades and sees a masked man, in a close up, starring in on her. The music again fluctuates in favour of pace and volume alarming the audience but now showing fear in the victim. She race up the stairs with the handheld camera following her (to help make the audience feel that are their and to help the variation of cinematography used) to the upstairs landing. In on other POV shot, all the bedroom doors slam in the order she throws her body towards them. The shot changes to a mid shot of her throwing herself at the bathroom door For one last attempt but she hits the door and slides to the floor In despair and hopelessness as she has failed and the door slams shut. As she begins to accept fate, one of the men arrives at the top of e stairs and grabs the victims foot. In one last attempt to flee the scene, she kicks him off and rushes down the stairs. 

She flings the front door open, forgetting about the other man outside, and rushes to the middle of the street. However an unexpected stop by her and the circling camera capture facial expressions as she sees herself on the green panicking for a way out just like in the dream and then from a POV and long shot she sees herself get taken by the masked man and the screen goes black. Simultaneously she screams and. The title of the film appears in red across the screen.