Group Narrative - Miss Georgiou

Planning The Thriller Production

I will be working in a group to produce an opening sequence of a thriller. I will be working with Miranda Simpson and Chloe Eustace. 

Chloe's Narrative Idea

The main character is a girl (One of the Victims), her parents are away for the weekend and decides that she could have a party with friends. She lives in a pretty abandoned place in the town where there is only the neighbours. The party gets out of hand when everyone starts bringing there own friends and there is actually a murderer been brought to the party.  They try to work out who is the killer (antagonist) but people keep dying one by one leaving only the females alive, the males at the party are being killed first. 

Advantages -  

• There is the use of a female victim, this would be typical of the thriller genre.
• The victims parents are away and she lives in an abandoned area, instantaneously the victim is seen a vulnerable and the audience are likely to sympathise with her.
• A murder occurs at the party, this would be conventional of a thriller and would be effective in generating shock, fear and apprehension
• Only a group of females survive, the advantage of this would be the audience feeling sorry for them as they are portrayed as vulnerable as all the men have already been murdered so they are left to fight off the killer on their own.

Disadvantages - 

• A disadvantage of this narrative would be it may not be realistic to film as to find a location that is in a secluded area would be challenging.
• Another disadvantage would be that it would be difficult to find enough people to partake in filming the party scene, which would be necessary to make the film realistic.
• I would also be challenging to fit the main points of the narrative into 2-3 of an opening sequence. 

Miranda's Narrative Idea

A house in the middle of the Countryside. There will be 3 female victims who wake up locked in  different rooms scattered around the basement of the house, banging on the doors screaming trying to find a way to escape thinking that it is abandoned. However, with out them knowing the antagonists family are living in the house, not aware of the victims being there as all the walls are sound proof. Will the victims escape before it is too late or will one of the family members become suspicious as the antagonist keeps heading down to the basement?

Advantages -

• The location is presumed to be in a isolated area, this would be conventional of a thriller as it makes the characters within the sequence that much more vulnerable as help is too far to reach, again this would be deemed as a convention of the thriller genre.
• The use of 3 female victims is also a convention of the thriller genre as the the audience feel sorry for them when things go wrong, generating sympathy for female victims is very typical of a thriller.
• The theme of being trapped if used would make and effect opening sequence for a thriller as this would generate a lot of enigma and excitement from the audience and fit conventions of a thriller.

Disadvantages -

• It would probably be unrealistic to find a isolated location, with a house that has a segregated basement to film.
• It would be challenging to be able to film both parts of the narrative i.e. the antagonist playing 'happy families' and the ordeal the victims go through. 

My Narrative Idea

A group of friends are going on a camping trip for Alice Morgan's 18th birthday, little does she know the females in her family have been plagued by a curse since the 1800s. Every once in a while, a female in the Morgan family on their 18th birthday, usually of good nature and innocence, are said to have been taunted by a young ghostly figure before mysteriously vanishing and said to be claimed by an demoniacal being.

During the 1800s, William Morgan, a relative of Alice, broke the heart of a beautiful young woman named Elise Elliot, she was a young maid working for William and his wife Anna. Elise and William had a whirlwind affair, and eventually called their relationship off, explaining to Elise he never loved her, only his wife. Unknown to William, Elise was of Romany decent, she was in fact a gypsy. Elise was riddled with  unbearable heartache, excruciating grief and anger, so much so she cursed William before taking her own life. She cursed the whole Morgan family because she wanted William to pay for the pain he had caused her and wanted her suffering to be remembered for all eternity. 

Alice, leading up to her 18th had been having what she considered of odd dreams, she had been vividly dreaming of a young woman weeping over a man she had loved and lost, a woman eventually revealed to be Elise Elliot. Alice reveals to her friends the strange dreams she has been having while camping in the woods by her house, shortly before the ghostly taunting's commence.

Advantages -

• An advantage of my narrative idea is that the location (a forest) would be convenient to film and still remain within the conventions of a thriller as the setting would be remote, eery and dark which would be typical of a thriller film setting
• Another advantage would be the use of a female victim, this would again fit conventions of a thriller and enable the audience to sympathise with the character as she's portrayed as young, innocent and vulnerable.
• A sub-theme of supernatural activity in regards to a curse, demons and hauntings; would produce excitement, apprehension and fear. These are three audience reactions which would be typical of the thriller genre.

Disadvantages -

• The main disadvantage of my narrative would be that its far too detailed and would be challenging to portray in just a short opening sequence therefore the part filmed may not make sense and confuse the audience. 
• It may be unrealistic to expect to film a portion of the opening sequence as if it were set in the past in addition to generation a convincing atmosphere of an 1800's time period. 

Final Group Narrative



Two young girls Holly and Gemma are on their way to a party. Holly is driving down a dark deserted road when the car breaks down. Gemma and Holly get a bit panicked when they realise their phones have no signal.

The narrative would include two girls on the way to a party, who had been being followed by someone, and they didn't really notice, so when they break down on the way to the party the stalker is behind them, which creates tension for the audience and dramatic irony because the audience know that they are being followed but the characters (girls themselves: Holly is the driver and the story bases around her. Gemma dies in the car from the stalker) are unaware of this. One of the girls gets out of the car and wanders off away from the forest to get signal, and the other girl stays behind which is when she gets murdered by the unknown stalker who has a hidden identity. The setting is in an abandoned street where there is no one around in the middle of the forest. 

This idea is conventional because there is a broken down car which is in a an abandoned area, there are female victims as well as the main antagonist , weird noises are outside the car and inside the car such as the radio, They are being followed by the antagonist so this is the hidden identity. 

• Broken down car in abandoned area
• Female Victim x 2
• Weird noises - car radio
• Being  followed 
• cold - visible breath
• no signal
• friend goes missing

Narrative Theory

Todorov's Theory;

Todorov suggested that narratives begin with an equilibrium where any potentially opposing forces  are in balance. This is then disturbed by  as series of events (disequilibrium) which is then recognised by the characters whom then attempt to repair the damage and restore a new equilibrium. 

Summary

In conclusion this research has enabled our group to  brainstorm our narrative idea and allowed us to produce a final group narrative that we believe is conventional to the thriller genre. We believe our narrative is conventional as it fits a wide range of conventions which would be found within the thriller genre.