Planning Characters

Planning Characters

The importance of characters in any film is to help show and give a clear understanding of the narrative. To help develop and create who are characters are we began a plan. This is so that our group had a clear idea and understanding of each of the characters, their role in the film and why they are important to the sequence. Not only are characters important to help establish the narrative but also to develop a relationship with the audience, as the target audience are a similar age to the main characters, so they will be fearful for the characters safety and can relate to the situation they are in.

In my thriller opening sequence there are 4 main characters. Firstly, there are two young female protagonists, both aged around 17. The two girls are pupils that attend the local school who happen to be taking there dogs out on the wrong night. Amy, played by Ella is a teenage girl, average height with brown/blonde hair. She is portrayed as innocent to the audience, however is intrigued by mystery which makes her question what is hiding within the forest. By having this trait it immediately puts the audience on edge as they question her safety, as they realise she will want to know what the "dark figure" is. In addition to this as Amy is a teenager, she could have possibly been a babysitter, which gives her caring and nurturing characteristics, automatically portraying her as caring which could be seen as innocent, therefore vulnerable. Chloe, played by myself is too a young student which could give her a vulnerable trait, this also jeopardizes her safety as she may not be able to defend herself. 

Another character is played by Ollie, this is the young, school aged boy with dark hair tied up to a tree, which is presumably to the audience by the dark figure. The reason this is conventional to the thriller genre is because the character is portrayed as vulnerable which helps to create some of the main elements of suspense and tension to the audience, as it is unknown what will happen to him next. This character will build up a relationship with the audience as the target audience for our thriller opening is of a similar age to the boy that is tied up. The can't help but imagine themselves in the situation, then hoping that no harm comes his way.

Another conventional character is the antagonist. Which will also be played by Ollie, but in different scenes. The antagonist is conventional because the antagonist in our opening thriller sequence is very tall, creating a sense of dominance over other characters. Aswell as this, our antagonist is all masked, with a hidden identity, this helps to create a sense of enigma which is key to creating a successful thriller film. Furthermore, the character are unaware of this at the beginning of the film, but the antagonist turns out to be somebody that has escaped from a mental insinuation, which is not in his right mind. Not only does this keep the audience on the edge of their seats it also helps to create suspense and tension, making the audience want to continue watching on.

I found that planning helped towards making our characters as it helped to individually plan who the character was, and why there role was important. Not only this but it helped to show which characters would not be necessary within the thriller opening sequence as the plot could have become too confusing. By doing this it helped to establish each individual character and how different they each are. It also allowed us to think why each character could build a relationship with the audience.