Planning characters

The purpose of characters is to have someone for the audience to relate to, whether they are fearful/dislike the character or can relate to the character due to them liking/being similar to them, the audience enjoy watching a character they relate to. The characters are needed to make it easier for the audience to follow the narrative by the characters using dialogue, this all needs to be planned before the film is shot otherwise the narrative may not make sense, ruining the film.

The antagonist named Marius (played by Alfie) is going to be a 26 year old male, he will have dark hair, brown eyes, is 5'11 and have a scar across his face, his identity will be kept confidential until late into the sequence, he is mentally challenged and this condition has not been helped by the fact that he recently lost both his parents, the fact he is mentally challenged causes controversy/ a rift in the audience, some may say it isnt his fault, it is down to the mental illness and he cannot control it while others may argue and claim he should be responsible for his actions, this will cause the audience to really engage in the sequence, causing them to watch on, he is trying to get rid of the pain and anger he is feeling by viciously attacking/killing anyone that has offended him/he has a grudge against. This character is conventional to the thriller genre as he is a typical antagonist, male, serious mental health issues, has a scar on his face, possibly from a previous encounter, he is seriously dangerous and will be feared by the audience due to his clear dominance, the features he has will create more fear of him, the dark hair only adding to the enigma of him and matching the dark clothing he will be wearing, making him really mysterious and setting the tone of the whole scene, the background of the character will make the audience sympathise for him slightly but really fear him due to him wanting to inflict the pain he has felt for a lifetime on others, the fact he is a male will make it more likely the audience will fear him due to the antagonist usually being a male.

The protagonist named Chloe (played by Amy) is going to a 25 year old female with dark hair, blue eyes and is 5'5, she will be an innocent university student who appears to have no enemies, she has never intentionally hurt anyone in her life, she is a young women and would be around the same age group as our target audience, this helps the audience relate to her, causing them to become much more engaged in the film, they will also be really sympathetic toward her due to them possibly putting themselves in her shoes, realising that could be them, this will create much more suspense and shock. There may be a bit of enigma surrounding this character, the fact someone despises of her so much they go out of their way to kill her makes the audience question whether she really is this innocent girl they assumed she was at first, this engages the audience as they want to find out more about her as a character. This character is conventional to the thriller genre as the victim is usually a young female, this really emphasises the amount of power the antagonist has over the victim, causing more fear of him in the audience.

The antagonists assistant named Tony (played by me) is a 36 year old male with dark hair, brown eyes and is 5'10, Tony is a well known man in the local community, unfortunately not for the right reasons, he is essentially the 'local drunk', rarely seen out of the pub or without his pet dog, Tony is a very impressionable man and due to his current unemployment will do pretty much anything for money, however small the amount, this man is a very suspicious character and an enigma surrounds him as well, the audience wonder how he got to this stage and always get the feeling he is up to no good, he will be the man that does most of the dirty work for Marius, apart from the actually murder of Chloe, for what the audience assume is money. The audience will feel very suspicious of Tony due to him at first seeming a simple, harmless character with little relevance, this will cause extreme surprise within the audience, realising anyone could cause harm, even the most harmless looking people. This character is conventional to the thriller genre as there is usually an assistant for the antagonist, a person who seems to be doing little for the storyline and mostly in the background of the narrative when in fact they are the cause of most events within the film.

In conclusion, all the characters are conventional to the thriller genre in certain ways due to their roles, each one engages the audience in their own way as well as relates to them in one way or another, each causes surprise, shock and suspense, helping emphasise the genre we are trying to create, all the characters here are essential to our opening sequence and without them the sequence would not be as powerful. The planning of characters was key to making a good thriller, we needed to really create our character in detail, giving them a background and key characteristics, each contributing to the effect the character has on the audience. Overall I feel every character is important and is contributing to the quality of the thriller, without one of these the storyline would not be as engaging.