The purpose of a narrative is to tell the audience the story of the film. Me, Joe Waugh and Cara Gaffney discussed our ideas by sitting round a table and sharing each others narratives and merging them into one idea with aspects from each of our individual ideas.
Joe's narrative idea was: "set in a rundown or deserted area, such as an abandoned warehouse or a decayed urban area, similar to some of the settings from the films "Se7en" or "I Am Legend". There would be a protagonist investigating the area, whilst exploring the protagonist would be unwittingly stalked by a masked killer, similar to the "ghost face" characters from the "Scream" films in that they are masked and play with their victim, making them feel vulnerable and at the mercy of the killer. This idea of the killer being a kind of criminal mastermind is inspired by films such as "Saw", where the victims are toyed with by a clever and sinister antagonist. The only two characters would be the protagonist explorer and the antagonist masked killer, this would help to keep the scene simple and not confuse the audience while also making the protagonist appear isolated and alone."
Joe's idea is good because the masked killer will create mystery and make the audience scared as they wont know who the killer is which is typical of a thriller. Also the setting of an abandoned warehouse will entice the audience as to why the antagonist is there, and what will happen when there's nobody to protect him/her which will create enigma. On the other hand Joe's idea is bait unrealistic at an abandoned warehouse and there will be nobody to protect the antagonist.
Cara's narrative idea was: "It begins with a young girl aged about 5 or 6 playing in her bedroom with her toys. It's during the night time so there will be low key lighting, with only one bright lamp over the girl and her toys, this will be deliberately positioned over her, to convey to the audience that she is clearly the victim in the scene. The shots keep flashing to a fuzzy image which is taken on a hand held camera. The image is of another girl aged around 7 wearing old fashioned clothes, a long shot of the old fashioned girl on a swing from a tree, will quickly fuzz over and come back into focus with the girl gradually becoming closer towards the screen. A various amount of shots are going to be used to frighten the audience, however, there will also be non diegetic sound of the camera fuzzing over during this vision, which is conventional of a thriller film. All different shots of the old fashioned little girl will keep appearing, they're will also be a flash to the shot of a music box playing children's music, this will create tension among the audience. After all these different shots the music will come to a sharp stop, and the camera will be a close up of the normal little girls face as she appears to have just woken from a bad dream. However, suddenly the music box starts again, but this time the girl is awake and not in a nightmare, this will immediately create suspense for the audience. In the corner.of the little girls room with be sitting the other girl in the old fashioned clothes. As an opening scene it has to be scary but cannot give away too much of the story, although it will include loud of conventions of a thriller scene."
Cara's idea is very good because the use of shots described will create alot of enigma and tension within the audience. Also the use of a little girl will confuse the audience as they wouldn't expect a little girl to be so sinister, this is conventional to the thriller genre.
My idea was: "There is a little boy playing in the garden and looks up and sees someone in his bedroom window which is allow angle shot, also aloud piano sound is played. He runs (handheld camera shot) to tell his mum and she doesn't believe him fades out to night time and kids asleep upstairs and mum is watching TV alone when the door knocks. she answers but nobody is there then the camera films her face and somebody in the backdoor window is standing with a gas mask on and creepy music is played and he walked out of sight. Next morning the mum is tidying her sons room and finds the gas mask under his bed and same piano noise is played..."
In the end we all agreed on having a boy playing in the garden and seeing a little girl in a gas mask, then the scene skipping to a baby sitter who is home alone watching TV. She then hears a knock and opens the door and the camera shows a little girl in a gas mask behind her. This is how we merged all of our ideas together to create enigma and tension.
We are using the Aristotle theory because we want to make the audience feel sympathy and empathy, also we want to use an antagonist and protagonist to allow the audience to relate to the characters as we aim our films at teenagers aged 13-15. Also the Aristotle theory will create an emotional relationship with the audience because they are aware of the situations going on in the film where as the characters do not.
This post demonstrates some planning techniques. You have started to evalute the individual narrative ideas from your group members, but it is difficult to see how you devise the group narrative? How did you and your group decide on a narrative, what were your inspirations and why?
ReplyDeleteYou have also started to consider how Aristotle's theory follows your group narrative, but further discussion of the narrative is needed, to demonstrate further understanding. Also aim to include points on Propp's and Todorov's theory, to show further understanding of the theory.