Planning Characters - Miss Miller

Characters are very essential to a any genre of film, because without characters theres no story or nothing to be interested in a narrative. Characters within a film help build the narrative and through this process, the audience build certain types of relationships with them. There are two main types of characters in a thriller film, protagonist and antagonist. A protagonist is usually the hero, victim or someone that tries to stop the villain, this builds a closer relationship with the audience. In contrast, a antagonist is the villain, 'bad guy' or killer (in a thriller) and the audience tend to have a distant relationship with them. In this post I'll be explaining the different characters I will include in my thriller which I believe would be successful for my opening thriller scene. 

Protagonists

In my thriller opening, it will consist of two protagonists that know each other and are best friends that are students. One of them would be aged 17 and the other aged 18, this is because in the scene they were coming back from a birthday celebration that they had. My protagonists are stereotypical to a thriller as they are young adults, and the antagonist usually goes for the young females in their teens as there seen as more oblivious and vulnerable than men. The fact that the two are roughly the same age and are students that go to sixth form, it is easier for the age certificate that I've chosen which is a 15, to relate to them as the film includes characters that are close to that age. The actors that will be playing these characters will also be either 16-18 as they will come from a sixth form, this is essential as it allows the audience to build a closer relationship with them, so if anything was to happen they would sympathise them and put themselves in their shoes. I believe that these two characters will make my thriller opening scene more interesting, as they convey the difference between themselves and the antagonist. Also because they're seen as innocent, the audience will be shocked and surprised when they actually see them go through this tragedy on their birthday celebration. These two girls will be conventional as one of them will be blonde, and as blondes are stereotyped of being quite clumsy, vulnerable and simple-minded, this will automatically inform the viewers that she is a victim just because of the colour of her hair. However the other girl will be brunette, even though she is not blonde, it'll come to a shock when she actually gets put in danger as the audience do not expect what to happen. 

Antagonist- Flashback

As my thriller has a flashback in it, the little boy who will be included in the flashback will be the antagonist when we was younger. To portray his character, he will be dressed again in dark clothing that hides his identity, this will assure to the audience that the antagonist has always been the way he is due to the similarities of his clothing which portray darkness, death and power. His background story will be that he was abused by his single mother, who somehow had a certain hatred towards her son ever since her husband had died in a car crash with him inside of it. This is conventional to a thriller as antagonist often do have a background story that has affected them badly enough to influence on their present life. The little boy in the flashback will be aged 7-8 so that the audience can sympathise with him as he in young, also it'll create suspense because they do not know if the boy is safe or not as children are often used in thriller films to provoke suspense , tension and shock within the audience. In the flashback the audience will not see his face as he will be be facing his back towards the camera, this will suggest that the boy may be never noticed or seen by people that he is comfortable with hiding his identity. The use of this will create suspense and tension in the audience as they will be intrigued to see what the boy looks like. 

Antagonist - Present day

The main antagonist who will be the killer in our thriller opening scene, will be aged 17-18. This will show the audience that the little boy from the flashback has grown up and also create suspense within the audience as the target age certificate can relate to his age. This will make the audience feel shocked when they find out that he is the one killing the girls because they can relate to his age, making them surprised that someone their age is capable of such a sin. Like the boy in the flashback, the antagonist in the present day will be wearing dark clothing to convey his darkness and powerfulness, and so he can almost camouflage in the night which will be seen as hidden identity. This is conventional to a thriller as antagonist usually do not want to be seen by his victims so that they will never be caught out on their actions due to their lack of identity. Also the background story for him now, is that as he has grown up he has been in an abusive relationship with his mother, but he had killed her when things got too far. Furthermore, he went to school but dropped out due to his lack of focusing and socialising with other students, all these factors have influenced his behaviour now making him mentally abused as he feels he doesn't care for the world anymore. To portray this character I'll have a tall boy that is in sxithform , so that the audience can relate to him also his height would threaten the victims and viewers showing that he has power.

The characters I have created for my thriller opening are conventional to a thriller film, as the victims are girls because of their innocence and lack of power and the antagonist is a male who has been traumatised all his life by his own family. Moreover, the iconography I'm using e.g mask is conventional to a thriller because antagonist often hide their identity, this makes the audience feel tensed and suspicious on who he is. I believe that the characters I will have in my thriller are suitable for the genre due to the thought and process of planning them, me and my group made sure that each character will show most of the thriller conventions to make it successful. The planning for characters was very important as it helped me and my group members discuss and evaluate what type of characters we would like in our thriller that would help us achieve the best possible outcome within our thriller. It also gave us a picture in our minds on how the audience will see the characters and helped us create emotions within the characters so that the audience can relate, fear or build closer relationships with them. When creating my thriller I will look back to the post to help me understand what the characters I have chosen need to convey in the thriller to help the audience understand the narrative more as well.