Group Narrative
The purpose of a narrative is to create an engaging entertaining experience for the viewer that will grab the viewer attention some narratives are used for different purposes and used on different themes in particular ways. They contain various characters, dialogue and also descriptive language. The narrative method comes into 5 main categories Plot (whats going to happen), Setting (where it will take place), Characterisation (main characters), Structure (how the scene will start) and finally the theme (genre of the narrative and message trying to be broadcasted.
My Idea
A secluded location away from the outside world, which is out of the way from help from anyone. Female Victim most likely to be blonde as in my research from conventions they are portrayed as weak because of stereotypes. The female and the masked killer will be around Low Key Lighting as it creates shadows and suspense. Killer can be seen in the distance following the victim but barely seen so that it is not obvious to the victim. Killer comes into focus under a light to create a sudden shock to the audience and disappears quickly again. To create this light from lamppost can be used as they are a light source and shadows to hide the killer. It becomes apparent to the audience what is going to happen as they can see the killer gaining on the victim. The victim can be killed or just knocked out as the killer maybe torturing victims so either a knife to kill or some form of cloth with some liquid to knock the victim out when en-haled. In addition the victim doesn't need to be killed as the ending of the scene could just be a reaction shot. Although its typical of most thriller films for the victim to be killed.
I like my idea because it follows the conventional narrative of the thriller genre of a antagonist and and protagonist with stereotypical characters under each of the roles. My narrative follows such thrillers such as Scream or Halloween. I have also used various conventions such as LKL, hidden identity, knife and also conventional uses of editing such as a reaction shot.
Luke Durrance Narrative
In a empty are at night time the longshot shows a group of teenagers that are trying to hurt an old man thats on his own, the camera then shows a close up of the 'villain' in a mask, he is angry at what he is seeing happen to the old man, so as he comes out of the shadows he shouts over to the group of teenagers to stop. The camera shows the reaction of the old man as he is on the floor with tears rolling down his face, the camera then cuts to the leader of the group who is laughing at the 'villain' who is walking slowly towards them. As the man gets to the group there is silence until the 'villain' shouts at the group of teenagers who are standing there surprised at what is happening, the villain then helps the old man stand up, he then tells him to leave, the man is seen to be limping home as he is holding is arm in pain. Some of the teenagers begin to walk away as they are laughing but the leader of the group stays and the masked villain then whispers to him, 'there will be consequences . That is all that is said, he looks scared and he turns away and sprints off, the rest of the group follow him shortly after. There is a longshot that focuses on the masked villain standing on his own in the middle of the street in darkness. The next shot is of an abandoned warehouse, where the masked villain is sitting alone sharpening his saw, the shot after is of the group of teenagers from the previous night, they are all laid on the floor with their mouthes taped shut and their legs and arms tied together, one or two of them are crying. The final shot is of the masked villIan slowly walking in their direction, and he whispers in the same teenagers ear, 'what did I tell you'.
I do like the idea that Luke has, but I don't think it follows a conventional plot of a thriller scene as it seems to follow the conventional plot of a horror. It seems to complex for the audiences understanding as many events are taking place during the opening scene such as the sudden change of the setting and no apparent reason why or how each of the teenagers were in the warehouse with the killer. If I were to consider using this plot as part of our final opening scene idea I would deal with the situation of the teenagers and exclude them from the scene and just use the plot of the old man and the villian. Also I would maybe exchange the old man for a blonde female victim of some sort as it is conventional to the genre. Along with this I would start to consider other conventions such as the killing weapon, lighting, sound , camera angles etc.
Hannah Mahoney Narrative
Its late at night and a little girl around 10 years old is playing with her dolly's in her bedroom. The lighting is low key and her room is set in an old fashion room. She hears someone singing downstairs so she goes downstairs to see what it is. We see a close up of her face and see her slowly walking down the stairs and see how nervous she is as she is trembly. Scary non diagetic soundtrack playing in the background as she is walking down the stairs to create suspense and build tension. As she reaches the bottom of the stairs we see the hallway and the chandelier is swinging. We hear the diagetic sound of her footsteps and the floor squeaking as she walks along. The sound of someone singing varys in sound goes loud and quiet. She walks into the kitchen and in the corner of her eye sees a scary little girl in a white long night gown who is quite dirty and is singing and crying. She slowly walks over to the little girl and the background soundtrack starts to get faster and louder. As she reaches the crying female actress she puts her hand out to touch her. As she does the music stops and the crying girl looks up and we see an extreme close up of her face as she screams.
I really like Hannah's idea as it is conventional to the thriller genre. It has a blonde female victim and she has started to consider the sounds that should be used as different stages during the narrative. I like how it is in an ordinary setting that the audience can easily relate to themselves. I think that the used of two girls is a bit unconventional as it is rarely seen two girls without a male in a scene, as males are seen more authoritative over females. I would consider using a male as it would make the scene more contracting between genders, making both male and females to be able to relate back to the scene.
Group Narrative
After we all reviewed each others individual narratives we decided to collaborate micro-elements from each of our narratives that we all decided were fitting and were conventional to the the thriller genre. We combined them in a spider diagram and selected some that fit and created a narrative from that with some additional out of the box thinking about switching the role of the blonde female to be the killer, as we decided she should be a child. It would still be conventional to the thriller genre as it would be similar to the plot of the opening scene of Halloween that we have analysed. This is what we collectively came up with.
A young girl covered in blood is walking along an industrial estate at night in ragged clothes stained with blood. She walks lonely and fragile in pain as something has happened to her and she appears too be cold and injured. She is walking along with her phone with its bright light illuminating her face. She walks under the deem shawdowed light source of the lamposts, with just the wind brushing past her making her colder. She is encounterned by a man in this distance shouting out to her. He comes face to face with her and asked if she is "okay" he can see by her appearence that she is hurt and in need of help. He turns away for a brief period of time to call help for her and turns back to see her disappered. In shock he hangs up on the phone and looks in the distance in search of the girl. He calls out and looks around but he cannot find her. He walks off trying to forget the situation when out of nowhere the girl appears behind him with a knife and a unseen face and screams out to disappear as he turns around. It keeps happening until she is in front of him and starts to run at him.
Narrative Theory
There are three main narrative theory's. Vladimir Propp theory is that every narrative has to have a specfic list of characters as they have a narrative funtion and they provide a structure for the text. This list of characters the theory suggests is The Hero, The Villain, The Donor, The Dispatcher Messager, The False Hero, The Helper,The Princess and Her Father.
Tzvetan Todorov theory is based on the idea of Equilibruim (a state in which opposing forces or influences are balanced) and Disequlibiam (a loss or lack of equilibrium or stability) The theory follows a cycle of equlilibrium - disequlilbruim - New disequlibruim.
Finally Aristotle suggests in his theory should have a Heading, Imctitng Incident, Dramatic Question, Character Goals, Antagonist/Protagenist, Stakes, Resoloution and Sympathy/Empathy.
The theory that we will be using will be is Todorov this is as our narrative follows his theory of a Equilibrium at the start where all things are equal at the start then the plot follows on to a Disequilibrium as the girl disappears. As the new Disequilibrium as the girl reappears and kills the teenager.
The purpose of a narrative is to create an engaging entertaining experience for the viewer that will grab the viewer attention some narratives are used for different purposes and used on different themes in particular ways. They contain various characters, dialogue and also descriptive language. The narrative method comes into 5 main categories Plot (whats going to happen), Setting (where it will take place), Characterisation (main characters), Structure (how the scene will start) and finally the theme (genre of the narrative and message trying to be broadcasted.
My Idea
A secluded location away from the outside world, which is out of the way from help from anyone. Female Victim most likely to be blonde as in my research from conventions they are portrayed as weak because of stereotypes. The female and the masked killer will be around Low Key Lighting as it creates shadows and suspense. Killer can be seen in the distance following the victim but barely seen so that it is not obvious to the victim. Killer comes into focus under a light to create a sudden shock to the audience and disappears quickly again. To create this light from lamppost can be used as they are a light source and shadows to hide the killer. It becomes apparent to the audience what is going to happen as they can see the killer gaining on the victim. The victim can be killed or just knocked out as the killer maybe torturing victims so either a knife to kill or some form of cloth with some liquid to knock the victim out when en-haled. In addition the victim doesn't need to be killed as the ending of the scene could just be a reaction shot. Although its typical of most thriller films for the victim to be killed.
I like my idea because it follows the conventional narrative of the thriller genre of a antagonist and and protagonist with stereotypical characters under each of the roles. My narrative follows such thrillers such as Scream or Halloween. I have also used various conventions such as LKL, hidden identity, knife and also conventional uses of editing such as a reaction shot.
Luke Durrance Narrative
In a empty are at night time the longshot shows a group of teenagers that are trying to hurt an old man thats on his own, the camera then shows a close up of the 'villain' in a mask, he is angry at what he is seeing happen to the old man, so as he comes out of the shadows he shouts over to the group of teenagers to stop. The camera shows the reaction of the old man as he is on the floor with tears rolling down his face, the camera then cuts to the leader of the group who is laughing at the 'villain' who is walking slowly towards them. As the man gets to the group there is silence until the 'villain' shouts at the group of teenagers who are standing there surprised at what is happening, the villain then helps the old man stand up, he then tells him to leave, the man is seen to be limping home as he is holding is arm in pain. Some of the teenagers begin to walk away as they are laughing but the leader of the group stays and the masked villain then whispers to him, 'there will be consequences . That is all that is said, he looks scared and he turns away and sprints off, the rest of the group follow him shortly after. There is a longshot that focuses on the masked villain standing on his own in the middle of the street in darkness. The next shot is of an abandoned warehouse, where the masked villain is sitting alone sharpening his saw, the shot after is of the group of teenagers from the previous night, they are all laid on the floor with their mouthes taped shut and their legs and arms tied together, one or two of them are crying. The final shot is of the masked villIan slowly walking in their direction, and he whispers in the same teenagers ear, 'what did I tell you'.
I do like the idea that Luke has, but I don't think it follows a conventional plot of a thriller scene as it seems to follow the conventional plot of a horror. It seems to complex for the audiences understanding as many events are taking place during the opening scene such as the sudden change of the setting and no apparent reason why or how each of the teenagers were in the warehouse with the killer. If I were to consider using this plot as part of our final opening scene idea I would deal with the situation of the teenagers and exclude them from the scene and just use the plot of the old man and the villian. Also I would maybe exchange the old man for a blonde female victim of some sort as it is conventional to the genre. Along with this I would start to consider other conventions such as the killing weapon, lighting, sound , camera angles etc.
Hannah Mahoney Narrative
Its late at night and a little girl around 10 years old is playing with her dolly's in her bedroom. The lighting is low key and her room is set in an old fashion room. She hears someone singing downstairs so she goes downstairs to see what it is. We see a close up of her face and see her slowly walking down the stairs and see how nervous she is as she is trembly. Scary non diagetic soundtrack playing in the background as she is walking down the stairs to create suspense and build tension. As she reaches the bottom of the stairs we see the hallway and the chandelier is swinging. We hear the diagetic sound of her footsteps and the floor squeaking as she walks along. The sound of someone singing varys in sound goes loud and quiet. She walks into the kitchen and in the corner of her eye sees a scary little girl in a white long night gown who is quite dirty and is singing and crying. She slowly walks over to the little girl and the background soundtrack starts to get faster and louder. As she reaches the crying female actress she puts her hand out to touch her. As she does the music stops and the crying girl looks up and we see an extreme close up of her face as she screams.
I really like Hannah's idea as it is conventional to the thriller genre. It has a blonde female victim and she has started to consider the sounds that should be used as different stages during the narrative. I like how it is in an ordinary setting that the audience can easily relate to themselves. I think that the used of two girls is a bit unconventional as it is rarely seen two girls without a male in a scene, as males are seen more authoritative over females. I would consider using a male as it would make the scene more contracting between genders, making both male and females to be able to relate back to the scene.
Group Narrative
After we all reviewed each others individual narratives we decided to collaborate micro-elements from each of our narratives that we all decided were fitting and were conventional to the the thriller genre. We combined them in a spider diagram and selected some that fit and created a narrative from that with some additional out of the box thinking about switching the role of the blonde female to be the killer, as we decided she should be a child. It would still be conventional to the thriller genre as it would be similar to the plot of the opening scene of Halloween that we have analysed. This is what we collectively came up with.
A young girl covered in blood is walking along an industrial estate at night in ragged clothes stained with blood. She walks lonely and fragile in pain as something has happened to her and she appears too be cold and injured. She is walking along with her phone with its bright light illuminating her face. She walks under the deem shawdowed light source of the lamposts, with just the wind brushing past her making her colder. She is encounterned by a man in this distance shouting out to her. He comes face to face with her and asked if she is "okay" he can see by her appearence that she is hurt and in need of help. He turns away for a brief period of time to call help for her and turns back to see her disappered. In shock he hangs up on the phone and looks in the distance in search of the girl. He calls out and looks around but he cannot find her. He walks off trying to forget the situation when out of nowhere the girl appears behind him with a knife and a unseen face and screams out to disappear as he turns around. It keeps happening until she is in front of him and starts to run at him.
Narrative Theory
There are three main narrative theory's. Vladimir Propp theory is that every narrative has to have a specfic list of characters as they have a narrative funtion and they provide a structure for the text. This list of characters the theory suggests is The Hero, The Villain, The Donor, The Dispatcher Messager, The False Hero, The Helper,The Princess and Her Father.
Tzvetan Todorov theory is based on the idea of Equilibruim (a state in which opposing forces or influences are balanced) and Disequlibiam (a loss or lack of equilibrium or stability) The theory follows a cycle of equlilibrium - disequlilbruim - New disequlibruim.
Finally Aristotle suggests in his theory should have a Heading, Imctitng Incident, Dramatic Question, Character Goals, Antagonist/Protagenist, Stakes, Resoloution and Sympathy/Empathy.
The theory that we will be using will be is Todorov this is as our narrative follows his theory of a Equilibrium at the start where all things are equal at the start then the plot follows on to a Disequilibrium as the girl disappears. As the new Disequilibrium as the girl reappears and kills the teenager.
This post demonstrates basic planning techniques and this is because you have not evaluated each individual group idea, which demonstrates no planning discussions within your group. Also how did you and your group come up with your group narrative?
ReplyDeleteYou have made a start in describing the three narrative theories, but further points and explanation is needed, to demonstrate further understanding. Also aim to explain, which theory, your group narrative will follow and why?