Planning Characters

Introduction

The purpose of having characters is that it helps the audience relate to the narrative otherwise they wouldn't be engaged in the film so won't want to finish watching it. Another reason is because if there were no characters then the narrative of the film wouldn't make sense and the audience wouldn't understand so wouldn't want to watch the film. Planning for characters is important as it helps us understand how the character should look and act. It also means that we can work out how they will speak and their body language as we have looked at there past so we know what has happened to them over the years.

Our first character is the victim. She is a female called Jenny and is 17 years old. She will be wearing a white dress as it is cute and looks smart as she is clever. By wearing white, it shows her purity and her innocence as she is a good girl. This will tell the audience that she is the victim and will be the one who dies. This outfit also shows how she is loved by everyone and liked by all her fellow students. Jenny is a sixth form student whom gets all the top grades and loved by all the teachers. As the victim is small, it emphasises that the antagonist is much stronger than her so she won't be able to fight back. We will ensure that she is a stereotypical character of the thriller genre as she is young, innocent, weak and vulnerable which makes her an obvious target for the antagonist. It also means that she is an obvious female victim which the antagonist always goes for. This helps the audience build a relationship with the victim as they feel sorry for her knowing that someone is after her and that she will die. As the target audience are aged between 15-18 years, they can relate to the victim because she is around a similar age so it feels more realistic to the audience.

The other character is the antagonist. He is a male and is 32 years old making him much older than his young adult victims. He will be wearing a black tracksuit with his hood up which can be intimidating, which scares both the audience and the victim. By wearing all black, it symbolises danger, death and misery which are all shown in our thriller sequence. This is conventional to the thriller genre as the audience build up a negative relationship with the antagonist. He will also be wearing a clown mask which is conventional to the thriller genre as it keeps his identity hidden which creates an enigma. The antagonist wears a clown mask because it's scary and he knows that many people have a fear of clowns so he will frighten many. We thought this would be a good idea to give him a clown mask because we know that it will build suspense for the audience as they don't know who he is or what he is going to do next. This keeps the audience engaged in the rest of the film which makes it conventional to the thriller genre. This character is mentally unstable because he didn't have a very good upbringing due to him not having a father figure to look up to from a young child. This means he's always been around women and looking at women which is why his victims are always females and why he collects photos of women. We will ensure that he is a stereotypical character of the thriller genre because his weapon is a knife which is a popular weapon choice for antagonists to use. Another way that we will ensure he is a stereotypical character is the way in which he doesn't hesitate to kill people. This is like many antagonists as they aren't afraid to hurt their victims.

Conclusion

I think these characters are conventional to the thriller genre because they are obvious to the audience as they are the type of characters they would expect in a thriller film. Also, the elements that make up these characters are conventional because, for example, the victim is small and vulnerable making her an easy target for the antagonist and the antagonist uses a knife which is a popular weapon choice to use in a thriller film. The antagonist is conventional to the thriller genre because he uses a mask to hide his identity telling the audience that he doesn't want anyone to know who he really is. It is important for the characters to be conventional as it creates suspense for the audience and also, it means the audience know who each character is so don't get confused. I hope these emphasise the genre of the sequence because they create main conventions of a thriller genre which are shock, surprise and suspense. This means that the audience will stay engaged within the thriller. I found the planning helpful in preparing for filming as it helped me to understand the characters in more detail. It also helped me imagine what the characters will actually be like once the sequence has finished being filmed.