In our opening thriller sequence there are two main characters. This is the female victim and the masked antagonist. The masked antagonist is mentally unstable and has previously harmed many other young, innocent victims and is now seeking his next opportunity. During the sequence we see the antagonist stalking and targeting the victim which has no relation to the antagonist on her journey home, which includes the shortcut through the isolated forest.
The victim in our opening thriller sequence can be portrayed as innocent and vulnerable. This is because she is unaware of the antagonist following her on her journey home. Furthermore the victim is also represented as innocent as she is a normal, young, teenage girl making her way home and has not done anything to provoke what forebodes. We can see that the victim is also represented this way due to the costume that she is wearing. Throughout the opening sequence the victim is in her School uniform on the way home from her friends house. The use of the Mise-En-Scene micro-element of costuming we can perceive the School uniform as an insight and connotation to her vulnerability and innocence as she has not yet discovered what people are like in the outside world and is still naive. In addition to this the victim can be represented as frightened and terrified. We can infer this from the diegetic sound of the scream which is meant to be coming from her. The high pitch scream again, shows her vulnerability as we can tell this is from a young girl. Not only this but it can be inferred that the young girl has not fought back to the antagonist which may signify that she must have been understandably frightened in his presence.
We decided to include these generic representations of the victim so it followed the conventional representations in a thriller film. We then hoped this would help to add the conventional elements to our opening sequence. Not only this but each representation of the young, female victim helped the audience to build a relationship with this particular character. I think this is because our target audience is of a similar age range to the victim so they will sympathize for as as they can relate to how they would be feeling if they too were in this situation she is currently involved in. Not only can the audience relate to the victim, but the generic representations help to create an eerie effect which consequently builds suspense and tension throughout. This keeps the audience on the edge of their seats wanting to continue to watch on to see whether the victim escapes unharmed or not.
The masked antagonist throughout our opening thriller sequence is generically represented in many different ways. It can be seen that the antagonist could be perceived as controlling and dominating. This can be seen through the story line as the killer is a man, with a young, female victim which is stereo typically less dominating then him, so he has an easy advantage. In addition to this we wanted our antagonist to be male with a female victim as men are stereo typically more dominant than females and automatically puts the audience on edge as they feel a threatening sense as it is unknown if the woman will be unharmed. This leads to another generic convention of our antagonist of threatening and frightening. Both the audience and the victim feel threatened by him. This can be seen through various shots in our opening thriller sequence such as a point of view shot from the victim which sees the antagonist appear slightly larger in size, portraying his dominance and power in the situation.
We decided to include these representations in our opening thriller sequence as we wanted both our antagonist and victim to be portrayed stereo typically. This would then help to create the conventional thriller genre elements such as shock, surprise and tension.
I think that gender is represented in a stereotypical way in our media product. This is because our antagonist is portrayed as powering and dominant and our female victim is portrayed as weak and vulnerable. This can be inferred as the young girl screams, with the audience questioning whether she is dead. This shows that the antagonist is inferior to the victim as he has overpowered her ability to fight back and harmed her. We can also see this representation through the over the shoulder and point of view shot used near the end of the thriller opening when the antagonist is hiding within the trees. This is because the victim is looking directly at the antagonist portraying fear as she is not moving. I think the gender stereotypes will help to build a better relationship with the characters as the audience can sympathize towards the victim and will want to continue watching the opening due to the antagonist making the scene gripping to watch.
I think that our victim would appeal to our specific target audience of teenagers as we have portrayed her to be of this age. Furthermore, this means the audience would be able to relate to her as she is a normal girl, which lives in a normal village who is kind and friendly. They also may relate due to stereotypes as girls may feel that they too can feel dominated in the presence of a male. So when the teenage girl comes face to face with the antagonist, they immediately feel on edge as they can sympathize for her and understand how she must be feeling. The audience would fear for the victims safety and want her to get home safely.
I think that our antagonist in our opening thriller sequence would appeal to our target audience as through our research we have concluded that our target audience find it more interesting to watch when the antagonists identity is hidden. This is because it creates enigma of who is behind the mask and why, wondering also what their intentions are. This keeps the audience wanting to watch on as they watch on to find out who is behind the mask. Additionally to this, he fits in with the stereotypical conventions of the antagonist as he is larger than the victim so the audience will automatically feel threat and dominated. This gives the narrative a structure as it is possible the female victim will not leave unharmed. This therefore will keep the audience interested and engaged in what is going to happen.
You have provided a proficient analysis of your character's and their representations, linking them to social groups and stereotypes. You have explained clearly why you wished to create these representations, as well as how you created them, and how you think the audience will be able to relate to/fear characters etc.
ReplyDeleteYou need to:
1) Include pictures to support points made
2) Cover costume for both characters