Planning characters - Miss Miller

Characters are important when creating a thriller film as they build a relationship with the audience. For instance the audience feel sorry for the victim and have empathy towards her

because they know how she feels and they knows that she is going to die. However the audience feel threatened and intimidated by the killer because the killer looks strong and has the capability to murder someone which implies that he is overpowering. Characters are also important as they set the genre of the film by the way they look and act and they also create a narrative to the film. Characters also engage the audience into watching the film and become focused on one main character that they can relate to and feel sympathy towards.

The main character is the victim who is a young teenage girl. She is 17 years old and has blonde hair and is wearing a white shirt. She is a typical teenager who uses social media and goes to school just like any other teenager does. I have chosen to use a teenage girl who is wearing white because it shows her naivety and purity. By using a teenage girl, it implies to the audience that she is an easy target and the antagonist has more chance of killing her. Using a stereotype of a teenage girl creates more shock and suspense for the audience. Using a girl who goes to school makes the thriller sequence more realistic and more relateable as the target audience watching the film are mostly teenagers who go to school and so this means that the audience can build a better relationship with the victim because they can relate. It also creates a sense of naivety because young school girls are portrayed as more helpless and vulnerable which also creates a more thrilling sequence. The connotation of white represents purity and  innocence which shows how the girl didn't expect to be kept in hostage and shows her confusion of why she is there. By making the victim wear white it tells the audience straight away that something bad is going to happen and the white clothing foreshadows her death. By making the girl also a typical teenage girl who uses social media and goes to school, it creates a better relationship with the audience because they can relate more to her and feel more sympathy towards her because they are placed in her shoes. The girl also has blonde hair and this is used because blonde girls seem more naive than brunette girls and this is a typical stereotype of women. The victim always seems to be blonde and wears white because they look more innocence and portray purity and weakness. The audience also get placed in the victims shoes and so can feel exactly how the victim is feeling which also builds a relationship as the audience feel the same emotions and act in the same way as the girl does. The audience feel both empathy and sympathy towards the victim because they don't want her to die and they can see she is naive and helpless. This also creates an enigma for the audience because they don't know what is going to happen to her and whether or not she is going to survive. Having a female victim is conventional to all thriller films as they are portrayed as naive and helpless which gives the killer a better opportunity to kill the victim as the victim can't fight back. Having the female victim is used typically in all thriller films because they are shown to be the weaker gender and the victim always wears white to show their innocence but also to show the contrast between good and evil.

The other main character is the antagonist. The antagonist doesn't have an identity and so the audience don't know who the killer is or any information about the killer. The killer however is a man and knows the victim. The killer is going to be wearing black and this is to connote pain and death. It also shows that the killer is capable or murdering someone.  The identity of the killer is also going to be hidden as this creates thrill and suspense for the audience as an enigma is created which gets the audience engaged and intrigues them to watch the rest of the film because they would want to know who the killer is. The killer's identity is also hidden so that it doesn't reveal the plot straight away. The audience are led into the unknown as to who the killer is and dramatic tension is also created which engages the audience even more into the sequence. The killer is also going to be much bigger than the victim and is going to be portrayed as strong and tall. The killer is going to look like this as it implies that he is overpowering and much stronger than the victim. This will show to the audience that the victim is an easy target and that the killer is capable of killing the victim. By using an overpowering man it creates a more sinister effect because it gives the victim less of a chance of getting away which shows that she is going to die. A male is also going to play the killer and this is because stereo typically males are a lot stronger than females and can over power them. By getting a tall and strong male to play the character, it makes the victim look even smaller which implies she is helpless and weak and this foreshadows her death. The connotation of black represents pain and death but also represents instability which shows that the killer is portrayed as unstable and this shows the killers evil side of wanting to murder someone. The killer is implied to be scary which thrills the audience as when the killer appears the audience become surprised and shocked by the sight. The audience can build a relationship with the killer as they feel intimidated and threatened by the killer's appearance. The audience also know what the killer is capable of and so become worried for both the victim and themselves because the audience feel like they are included in the sequence and so they think they are going to die as well along with the victim. The audience are left in tension as to when the killer is going to strike but also when the killer is going to reveal his identity. This keeps the audience on edge because the hidden identity creates a dramatic effect and makes the audience want to watch the rest of the sequence to find out who he is and how he knows the victim. In all thriller films, the killer is shown to be a male and this is because physically males are a lot stronger than females and can overpower them. The male gender can also makes females look small and helpless and this is used in thriller films to try and make the victim look weak while the killer looks strong. A killer is conventional to the thriller genre as in thriller films there is always an antagonist and a protagonist. This is used to scare the audience and creates suspense for them. By having a killer, it also thrills the audience as when the killer appears it shocks the audience when they least expect it and it creates a sinister atmosphere. The killer also portrays the thriller genre and lets the audience know straight away that they are watching a thriller and this foreshadows what could happen in the sequence.

To conclude, planning characters are important because in a thriller film you always need a victim and a killer to set the thriller genre. By having both these characters it foreshadows events that are going to take place in the sequence and implies that something sinister is going to happen. Characters are also important because they show to the audience what the narrative is going to be about and show a contrast between the different characters. In a thriller film the characters contrast between good and evil and this is shown between the killer and the victim. The audience can see straight away who is portrayed as the most overpowering character and who is the more weaker character and this is shown through the body language of the characters and the costumes. Characters are essential for a thriller film because they create surprise and suspense for the audience. The audience builds a relationship with the characters and can relate to the victim and this engages the more into the sequence. The audience would also want to find out what happens to the victim and so they would be intrigued to watch the sequence as an enigma has been created and this keeps the audience on edge and in suspense. I think that my characters are very conventional because they fit into the  typical stereotypes for the victim and the killer. They each portray different characteristics which engage the audience and make the audience feel different emotions when they see the characters. The characteristics of each character are very conventional to the thriller genre, this is due to the costume and gender of the characters, for instance using a female for the victim and a male for the killer. The background of each character is also very conventional as using a student for the victim makes the thriller sequence more intense because a young teenage girl is more relateable to the audience than using an older women. A better relationship is able to develop when having the victim the same age as the target audience as the audience can be placed into the victims shoes and understand her emotions and reactions easily. This helps to make the sequence more thrilling and intense as the audience are able to feel the same emotions and reactions as the victim. I also think that my killer is very conventional to the thriller genre as having no identity of the killer makes the sequence seem more mysterious and already creates a threatening image to the audience.