Character planning- Miss Miller

Character planning was vital as our characters where the primary source of the tension within our thriller opening and so we looked to focus on the characters as much as possible, looking at the conventions we where adhering to with each character and the effects they created. These effects intern helped increase the relationship a viewer would have with the characters, keeping them interested. Throughout this blog i will be addressing each character within our thriller opening and their purpose within it.

The victim (Late teens and blonde)- This characters role within the opening is to be stalked by our antagonist. Much focus went int the planning of this character. The Blonde hair was a necessity within our victim as it is a symbol of venerability within the thriller genre and so we hoped to utilise this  generic thriller convention to enhance the effect of suspense that the venerability created.In doing so our group spent allot of time trying to find a actress to play the part and as a result we consequently lost allot of filming time leading to parts of our film being rushed. The relatable age of the victim (late teens) to our target audience of teenagers helps the viewers engage with the narrative more as they feel as though this is or could happen to them or a friend.

Antagonist- Our antagonist (as planned in the picture to the left)
was detrimental in the tension within the film as he was the source of all of it. Knowing this our group looked to enhance certain characteristics to increase the fear factor of our stalker and therefore increase the tension the audience felt when watching him stalk our victim as a result. Inspiration from Stephan Kings 'it' was taken to create our despaired clown mask.

We identified a clown to be a relatable fear umonghst teens and so we looked to transfer this fear into a film using inspiration from Stephan Kings 'it' to create our despaired clown mask. This created suspense in that some teens are already scared of clowns. The antagonists identity being concealed by the clown mask also  enhanced suspense and tension as it creates an enigma. Viewers are unaware of who the killer is and so they continue to guess who it is throughout the film keeping them enthralled in the narrative. We where always looking to make our themes relatable to thriller conventions such as hidden identity as the thriller conventions create the effects that all successful thriller have, tension, suspense and fear.

I would argue that our group tried and succeeded in creating characters that where effective in enhancing the tension and suspense within our thriller opening by using the thriller conventions they display such as hidden identity (Clown mask), and blonde hair on our victem. Creating a blog on character planning has been enlightening as i am now more focused on the roles of my characters within my thriller film and it also gave me a opportunity to look at my characters in more detail allowing me to change certain aspects such as the clowns black tracksuit to make it more relatable to our audience of teens to enhance suspense within the film.