Group Narative - Miss Georgiou

Chloe Eustace

Group Narrative

Introduction

A narrative is needed in order for there to be something happening within the film. If there was no narrative then the audience wouldn't understand what was going on within the sequence. In my group for the planning and creating of an opening sequence is Elizabeth Lawrie and Miranda Simpson. Bellow are the narratives that we have done individually and I have then written advantages and disadvantages for each idea, we have then to together come up with a final group narrative for our opening sequence.

Lizzie's 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 commence. 

Advantages

- The setting of the opening sequence is set in abandoned area, in the middle of the countryside which is conventional to thrillers.
- There is a female victim who is actually the main character, this is also conventional to thriller films
- There will be tension and suspense created for the audience to be able to build a relationship with the characters.
- There would be enigma created as there would in the opening sequence be a lot of unanswered questions, which is conventional of a thriller opening sequence.

Disadvantages:

- This is a good idea to  a thriller opening sequence but the issue with this sequence is will it be realistic to film and actually create, as the setting is in an abandoned place in the countryside, and they are camping.
- Also this idea is more of an overall idea and so all of that to put into an opening sequence would be difficult as there is only 2-3 minutes of time to create and there wouldn't be many questions left to be answered so the audience may not want to then continue watching the thriller sequence. 

Miranda's 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 setting is in the an abandoned house in basement which is hidden away from the rest of the family, this abandoned place is conventional to a thriller so the idea of this is good.
- There are 3 female victims which is also conventional and typical of thriller films for there to be a female victim especially when they are scattered around the room and there is three different characters for the audience to focus on.
- The three victims are banging on the doors trying to escape and for an opening sequence this will create suspense and suspicion for the audience and get them hooked as it is unknown if they will escape from the basement making the audience wonder what will happen next and make them want to watch the rest of the film, this also creates enigma as there is questions left open for the audience.
- There is a mysterious atmosphere that keeps the audience hooked to the scene and the rest of the film.
- The victims are trying to escape, this is conventional of thriller films as there is normally someone trying to escape.

Disadvantages

- This idea may not be easy to film and pull off because it is set in a complicated location as we don't know where we would be able to get an abandoned basement, as well as the fact that there would be the need for a lot of characters and props. It may not be realistic to film easily in order to give the suspense and the enigma that we want to allude the audience with. 

My 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:
- This idea is conventional because there is the use of props, victims and an abandoned environment, this is conventional because these things and ideas are typically involved within a thriller film. 
- The idea would create enigma because there would be a lot of questions asked by the audience as it would leave them wondering what would happen next and what would happen to the characters which helps the audience develop a relationship with the characters as they want to find out what will/would happen next. 
- The idea would create tension suspense and surprise for the audience because there is people that are dying and no one knows why so that leaves tension and suspense as well as the when people are dying it is a surprise for the audience.

Disadvantages

- This idea is more of an overall idea of the narrative mainly what would happen with the film, it would be difficult for us as a group to get the overall suspicion and tension that is needed within a thriller film because it may not really be realistic to do. 

Final Group Narrative:

We decided as a group after reading and analysing each others ideas that to use on of the ideas would be difficult as they are all quite difficult to be able to actually create overall so we decided that together we would come up with  new narrative. 

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 n 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. 


Narrative Theory: 
   
Torolovs Theory includes the idea that a film has a set follow or story line in a film,  he uses three key words for his theory Equibrilum which is where the story is normal and everything is as it should be. Disequilibrium is where there is an abruption where something changes within the scene and in the story line and at the end there is a new equilibrium created which is where a new one is produced at the end of the film where everything is fine and happy and back to normal.  This theory relates to our final narrative because...

Vladimir Propp has a theory about how films work, however this would not work for our final narrative as it does not really link to thriller films, his theory discuss' characters and how they are important to a film. He says that the characters in films are usually the same including characters such as a Hero (Protagonist), Sidekick and an antagonist. These types of characters are not present within thriller films which is why his theory probably wouldn't work or relate to our final thriller opening sequence. 

Conclusion: 

Our narrative is conventional to thriller films because there is the use of a number of conventional things including a hidden mystery of the antgonist, and this makes the audience excited to find out who the antagonist is and what he has planned, also there is the use of two female victims within the thriller film, this is conventional to thriller films because female victims are seen by the audience and vulnerable to the typiclly strong antagonist and so the audience expect there to be a female victim. Other conventional parts to our thriller opening sequcne include the fact that someone will die by the unnamed antagonist in an empty location where it is abandoned. Our narrative as a group for our opening sequence is a good idea and will be alright to pull off, there is parts of this opening sequence that are conventional and we can film it and create it so that it will prove the main things to the audience that a thriller film should, Enigma, Shock, Surprise and Suspense.