Planning Individual Narrative - Miss Georgiou

The purpose of a narrative in a film is to give the audience the key elements that are needed in order for the film to be classed as a thriller. A narrative is a the way the story is put together. Storytelling is one of the only ways that people can communicate their problems and stories to other people. The characters in movies show their emotions and feelings to the audience. This makes the viewers feel a certain way about what they are watching. For example, a thriller must have the element of shock, so that they are scared but not scared too much that they don't want to watch the film. Being scared of what you are watching can actually make you want to watch it more. It gives you a 'thrill' hence the name of the genre, 'thriller'. The narrative is always shown chronologically, the story starts as something that has already happened, moving into the future, e.g 'Halloween', the story is fast forwarded to the end, then is shown at the beginning, and the film starts completely from the beginning to help the viewers understand what they are watching. When analysing a narrative, the audience are watching the way the story is put together to see if it makes sense and if the viewers understand what they are seeing without any confusion. The narrative is the main part of the film because of the way it is structured, if it is structured correctly, it can make the film a success due to it not being too hard to understand. If it isn't structured correctly, it can leave the audience unsettled and wanting more answers than they are given. It can also leave the audience baffled about the story and believing that what they just watched was a waste of time and money. In order to properly understand a narrative and see if it has been used correctly, there are four codes and conventions that need to be considered; genre, when looking at the narrative, the audience can see that many of their characteristics are similar, so this is where genre comes from. Character, the way the characters are, for example, in thriller films, there is a victim, a killer, and the people who help the victim or the killer. There is also action, the way the action is shown can show if the narrative is good. It helps to structure the narrative so that the story makes sense. Location is the last of the codes and conventions as it is a key element as to how the story unfolds and develops as the film progresses.

I have a variety of ideas for my narrative, however, my main idea will be called 'Amnesia'. This will be about one man who has held another man hostage. The man is held hostage until he agrees to kill the mans wife due to the fact that she cheated on him. The man pays the hostage aswell as giving him photos. The hitman agrees to kill the woman and so he goes to the home of the woman which is the mans house aswell, and stabs her. He calls the antagonist telling him that the deed has been completed and the antagonist comes. The last scene will show the antagonist looking down at the dead body of his wife and smiling.

Conventions are certain things in the film that the audience expect to see due to the genre of the film. In my scene, the conventions are the female victim (damsel in distress), psychological theme (man forgetting who he is and where he is - amnesia), murder weapon (knife), shock, suspense, surprise, tension. There is also a realistic location (house), aswell as low key lighting (as the man kills the woman and when he is held hostage). The tension builds up during the scene. The fact that they will not see the hitman again can make the audience feel as though they are not sure what he is now capable of. There is silence at the killing, except for when the woman screams and this allows the audience to express their thoughts, it also shows that no sinister music needs to be played because the killing has now taken place.

Another idea i have is to create a story about a woman named Betty who was killed a ten years ago and the murder investigation is still going on. The police interview the widowed man, Ronald, and his two children to see if they have any new information or if they have any new suspects in mind. The police believe that Ronald killed Betty but have no evidence to prove that he did it. The film then goes on to show Betty's life leading up to the death. We see her fall in love with Ronald and her fall pregnant with the twins. When she starts work again, she has a new secretary named James who is very flirtatious, not suspecting any flirting, Betty got on with her work. Later on in life, we see James slowly falling in love with Betty. Betty comes home one night, and the twins are fast asleep but Ronald is no where to be found. Betty begins to worry and calls Ronald who claims that he is still at work but hears a woman's voice in the background. Betty hangs up and suspects that Ronald is having an affair. The next day, Betty gets her own back by flirting with James. Things get serious very quickly and a love affair begins with James and Betty behind Ronald's back. Not wanting their secret to go on any further, Betty ends the affair but James becomes violent stating that he will tell Ronald everything. Ignoring James' claims she leaves his apartment and goes home. She arrives in her home but Ronald is standing in front of her with a furious look on his face. He knows. A lot of yelling goes on, and Ronald picks up a knife as the argument begins to get intense. Betty steps back slowly and grabs a knife herself. Ronald believes she is doing it to protect herself, but she grabs the knife and says 'I can't live like this anymore, my children don't deserve a mother like me'.  Tears come tumbling down her face and she picks the knife and stabs herself.

The conventions in this idea of a narrative is the weapons, the knives used. This makes it expected from the audience because knives are one of the most commonly used weapons in thriller films. However, i still believe that the element of shock, surprise and suspense will be created by the knives because of the characters who are using them. The audience create a bond with each of the characters and feel like they know them well, so to see them with a potential murder weapon makes the audience feel scared and this is what makes a good thriller. Another convention is the use of the plot twist, when Betty kills herself, it is a shock because the worst that the audience expected was that Ronald would kill her because of what she had done.

In conclusion, i have decided to choose my first idea, 'amnesia' instead of the other idea because i believe it will shock the viewers more. The audience rarely see a narrative about the killer losing their memory. My first idea will create shock, suspense, surprise and tension in this short clip because of all the different elements that will be included in our opening thriller sequence. It will make the audience feel connected to the film, and even if they don't want to watch more, they end up watching the rest of it because they are hooked on the story and want to see how it ends. The target audience for this sequence will be teenagers of the age 15 and above. I think these types of viewers will want to watch our thriller because it contains what a believe is a rare and original narrative and a murder weapon that is typically used in thriller films. This is a psychological thriller so any viewers of a younger age are more likely to have the effect of trauma and are more likely to be scared about it.