Characters

Holly - Protagonist

Aged 17, Holly is an average student who begins the film with lots of friends and has a fairly 'normal' life and appearance; her growing interest in the supernatural being the only thing which makes her 'different' to others. The film revolves around Holly's life as her friends begin disappearing leading her to believe that she is being haunted and resulting in Holly completely isolating herself. We chose the name 'Holly' for the protagonist of our film because of the plant which is spiky and therefore suitable for this character because of the way she scares people away and doesn't let anyone near. We had also considered the name 'Rose' due to its thorns but decided against it because of the connotations of love and romance which is usually associated with the flower. She is played by Shauna Ellis.

Michael - Antagonist

Aged 17, Michael is not exposed as the antagonist until the second half of the film and is assumed to be of no great importance throughout the film other than an unwanted friend of Holly's. It is revealed through flashbacks that Michael was Holly's best friend as a child but as they got older he was pushed away, leaving him with few friends. As the film develops, Michael becomes obsessive of Holly and desperate which spirals out of control leading to his attacks on her friends. In attempt to avoid being suspected Michael fakes an attack on himself which is later revealed but keeps the audience guessing and unaware, making it a shock when he is exposed. Michael's appearance is normal as we don't want him to stand out, he is quiet and has good grades. We chose the name 'Michael' for the antagonist as it is a common name and doesn't suggest he is anything out of the ordinary as we don't want him to attract much attention. He is played by Matthew Robson (despite original plans with a different actor).

Amy

Aged 17, Amy is Holly's best friend but is pushed away when Holly notices what is happening. Amy is the first victim of Michael's, not only because of his jealousy but also due to the fact that Amy begins to question Michael as she had never liked him. It begins when her things start to go missing and eventually is killed by ingesting poison. We chose the mane 'Amy' because it is a stereotypical girls name and means 'dearly loved' which is what Michael is so jealous of. She is played by Lucy Robson.

Natalie

Aged 17, Natalie is a newer friend of Holly's who introduced her to the supernatural, leading to her sudden interest in it. She is another victim of Michael's but is not killed, only kidnapped in order for her to miss her arranged meeting with Holly. It is Natalie who exposes Michael through a text to Holly pleading for help. We also chose the name 'Natalie' because it is a stereotypical girl name. She is played by Eva Bennett.

Sarah

Aged 42, Sarah is Holly's mother and a close friend with Michael's mother causing Holly and Michael to grow up close. Sarah encourages Holly to stay friends with him despite her constant complaining and is unaware of the crimes throughout the film.

Plot

One of the first things we needed to do during the planning of our trailer was establish a clear plot and narrative to follow. This is the rough outline of our plot:

The film is based on 2 long-term family friends, Holly and Michael, who have grown up together and have always been close. However, as Holly gets older she tires of Michael's clingy and needy behaviour, Michael desperately attempts to hold onto their friendship fearing that otherwise he will lose her to the new friends she is making. Holly has a growing interest in the supernatural, encouraged by her friends Amy and Natalie which is clear from the beginning of the film. To begin with, the girls treat it as a joke but begin to wonder what they have caused when Holly's friends begin losing things and having strange and sudden accidents. These events escalate as Holly and her friends experience more and more strange happenings until one day Natalie goes missing.

Holly and Amy fear it is their own fault so don't report Natalie's disappearance, taking it upon themselves to find out where she has gone. Meanwhile, Michael continuously pesters Holly with text messages and phone calls, assuming it is in the hope of repairing their friendship Holly ignores him until answering a phone call to find he too has been attacked. As the troubles of Holly's friends get increasingly worse, she eventually isolates herself believing it is the best thing to keep her friends and family safe. Eventually, Amy encourages Holly to meet with her but to Holly's despair never arrives and is later found dead.

Holly begins to grow suspicious of Michael and it is finally revealed that Michael is responsible for the crimes and strange events that have been occuring throughout the film. His jealously of Holly's other friends had spiralled out of control resulting in the vicious killing of Amy and kidnapping of Natalie who is found alive, but in order to rule himself out had faked his own attack.

Film Titles Analysis

During lesson we were given some film titles of thrillers to analyse. This included the name, font, any effects used and colours. In this research I noticed some similarities between the film titles. For example, most titles were written in a sans serif font in capital letters, ensuring that the name is clear and easy to read quickly. Common colours used were red and black, red typically connoting danger and black connoting death and evil. Most of the titles are short as this is easy to remember, dynamic and sharp. The films with names longer than one word are all set out with just one word on each line or two if the name is long, making it seem staggered rather than too long.

Conventions of Thriller Genre

The Da Vinci Code Trailer Annotation

The Da Vinci Code is a mystery thriller directed by Ron Howard. The trailer is unique in the way that it is very vague and doesn't show any content of the film, no characters and no settings are shown giving no insight to the audience of what the film might be like, creating a mysterious effect which is what is intended to make people want to see what happens. It lasts 2 minutes, 3 seconds but only consists of 8 shots as zooms are often used which makes the duration of the shots longer, long camera movement also means lots is shown in a single shot. No characters are shown throughout the trailer and a single narrative is briefly implied through the intertitles and voiceover. The voiceover is an American male voice which is stereotypical of action, horror and blockbuster films used to inform the audience of the plot and set up the film as the rest of the trailer is vague and brief.

There is only one music track used in the trailer which I have found during my research is typical of thriller/horror trailers as this is the same in The Gallows and Carrie trailers. It is orchestral, eerie and slow to match the voiceover but suggests adventure and is continuous from the beginning to about 30 seconds before the end when the intertitles and institutional information is shown. 'Swoosh' sound effects synchronous to the intertitles appearing are also included to add to the mysterious atmosphere. The film is certified a 12a but from the trailer we can guess that it targets adults aged 25+ rather than a younger audience as the voiceover implies violence and death in the film. The symbols and historical painting also suggest that it would be more of an interest to the older generation.

The trailer doesn't give away much about the narrative but draws in the demographic through the intertitles and voiceover. The voiceover suggests the genre of mystery and thriller to attracts an audience whilst the intertitles advertises the well-known production and distribution companies and star power such as 'Tom Hanks', helping to create good expectations for the film. Overall there are 8 intertitles, including the director, worldwide release date and "No matter what you have read", "No matter what you believe" to build suspense and the audience's interest.

Thriller - First Thoughts

A mind-map of my first thoughts on the thriller and what comes to mind in relation to the genre.