Inspirations - Miss Georgiou

Inspirations

Since joining the media course, I have been analyzing many thriller films, in doing so I have been watching them differently as to the way I would be if doing so purely for entertainment. We need to collect inspiration from other thriller films before we can create our own so we can see what makes a thriller e.g. investigate the conventions of a thriller so we can add them into our own work hence we will then be clearly creating it to fit the thriller genre. Without disappointing those fans of the genre purely watching the film as they are expecting a true thriller.

From analyzing thriller film  'The Crush' I have decided that I find the aspect of a young mentally insane girl very interesting, I've noticed various different ways to explore said story line all of which can be related to the thriller genre as they display conventions towards it. The film explores themes similar to 1992 film 'Obsessed' starring Shannon Doherty like Alicia Silverstone in her role as Adrian in 'The Crush' both playing young girls obsessed with a man many years their elder. This approach to thriller really shows the psychological side to the genre which can scare people in a different way to what they are use to, not only is it a scary thing to watch but to also think about, these types of films really engage into the viewers thoughts and urge them to consider what it is like to be inside the thoughts of people who think like this or even those around them. Often within thriller films there is a character who is seen to be mentally unstable compared to everybody else, these types of characters alone are able to create the three s's - surprise, shock, suspense.

As shown within the above clip from 'The Crush' the wide range of emotions that these characters go through can be shown in a variety of different ways, within the film the audience is shown many different sides to Adrian's personality within this clip we see the side she is portraying to those around her, the innocent victim, the sweet young girl she wants everyone to believe she is and who she really is, we catch a glimpse of this as she flashes a nasty smirk at Nick as he is forced into the police car, although this shows the audience a rather nasty side to Adrian getting what she has sought out we are also shown a quite intelligent side to her. Yet the audience is aware that she is not of sane mind, this lours the audience into her state of mind even more, everything about her is both interesting and unknown to the average viewer for many audience member's this can make her even more frightening. Through all of this is able to create further suspense, her actions are constantly able to shock and surprise the audience until they realize just how serious her condition is.

This has  inspired me to really consider the physiological factors when creating my own thriller sequence. I have learnt how interesting these types of characters are too watch, often they are a clear antagonist yet we audience members still manage to feel some form of sorrow for them as they have a mindset which the normal mind simply couldn't understand.

As you can see that the very begging of the clip the music used is able to alter the mood of the film as it chances to fit the situation occurring. The music begins fairly happy displaying Nick driving down the street when suddenly it becomes harsher, much more intense and therefore scarier, the change in the music indicates how sinister what is about to happen is. This is just one example of how much of an effect music can have within the thriller genre. I plan to use music within my thriller both for the effect as well as possibly to apply hints or indications to the audience as to what may be about to happen.

Nick's lack of knowledge and confusion towards whats happening around him conveys innocence. However none of the characters around him are able to pick up on this which becomes very frustrating for the audience. This technique and many of the sort has been used often before in thrillers so to make audience members feel even more on the victims side. As well as making them feel as though they have a better understanding for Nick's struggle. This is a good concept to use when wanting to make the audience to sympathise even more with the victim by contrasting the way they are to the situation they've been put in.

For a very brief moment the music stops as the audience is displayed a close up of Adrian, this enforces how all of this was her doing and establishes just how powerful she is, it also reminds the audience that she is fully aware of just how nasty what she is doing is even though she is not of sane mind. I like the concept of how much a brief moment of silence can display onto the audience. I also like how the music leading up to this moments silence builds up the tension towards it making it scarier. This is definitely a technique I will be considering for my opening sequence.

Adrian's costume would make her appear much more innocent to those around her whom she needs to fool. She is dressed in rather sweet, young, childlike clothing hence people are likely to see her much more in this way rather than how she actually is. If she was to dress in darker clothes she would be seen as a lot less innocent, older and perhaps even seen as a slightly more devious girl which she in fact is. This displays the importance of costume as it shows how much a characters clothing can say about them. The victim in many films would be dressed similarly to Adrian for the general stereotypical opinion that is viewed of girls who dressed in such manner. Within my film I plan to have my victim dressed to present similar themes to the ones Adrian is giving off to those closet to her so to demonstrate my victims innocence hence making her more likable which can aid to help the audience build a stronger relationship with the victim.

The above clip from thriller film 'valentine' is inspiring for people considering the idea of having a hidden identity within their own film set of the genre. The scene illustrates the standard effects of having a hidden identity within a thriller film as the audience becomes fearful of the concept of whom it may be behind the mask after all as demonstrated within the above scene this could be absolutely anyone. It is evident from the very beginning of this scene that the antagonist is going to have triumph over the victim yet they still remain very distant, even in the way they walk it provides no personal information about this person simply that they are not of sane mind and clearly set on this task in hand, it's as though they've got into the form of a new character away from the person they would be in their every day lives and have had to remove any remaining traits once getting into this mode of action. Which suggests that more than likely this is someone who our victim knows, someone who knew where she would be that night and sought her out, with a mission in mind. The effect of this urges audiences members to find out what the victim may have done to the antagonist in order to lead them to taking out such an act upon them. As well as trying to work out who the antagonist may be in their everyday life even looking to characters they have already been introduced to to work out if this hidden identity may belong to any of them.

The actual mask itself can be viewed by certain audience members to be very frightening, it's the mask of an actual physical face rather than simply working on covering themselves its although they have a new face shaped for when they come into form of becoming this person, the mask itself can remind viewers of many frightening things. For instance some audience members who claim to be frightened of clowns may find this mask quite scary as they see it similar to one of a clown, other members might find that they find the face on the mask reminds them of that of a young child, children are often used within thrillers as the innocent they obtain creates a very frightening fear of anything wrong happening to them. However this could also convey to another element often used within thrillers of a mentally insane child. Which could indicate that something happened to this person as a child which lead them to behave this way.

A trait Valentine has used which I personally think is a really good concept to use when using the element of a hidden identity and would like to use in my own thriller film is that of providing the audience with clues as to who this person may be in their every day lives. For instance the audience  becomes aware that the young boy the girls tormented when they were young suffered with nose bleeds, as the scene progresses and the tension between the antagonist and the victim becomes higher the camera zooms into the close up of the antagonist were the audience views blood running from the masks nose creating a link between the two, emphasising the theory the film makers want the audience to follow of this innocent young boy growing up to become the antagonist. I think that giving the audience clues as to who is behind the mask is a really interesting factor to have within a thriller film and is certainly conventional as it highlights the hidden identity and makes this effect even scarier as well as keeping the audience guessing which is something many thriller fans claim to enjoy about the genre.

Throughout their chase scene the victim is placed within an environment in which they don't know very well hence they don't feel particularly comfortable making the experience all the more frightening for her. Not only does she not know where the antagonists next move may be or what he might do but she has no prior knowledge of any different routes out of even where the route she is on may take her. This adds power to the antagonist as it's as though she is a simply a puzzle piece playing his game following his rules and she has no way out of it. Often within thriller films power in added to the antagonist by providing them with advantages over the victim this courses the audience to be even more fearful of them and have greater sympathy for the victim as they are witnessing how difficult there situation is and how much harder it is with the antagonists added advantages. This is something I will consider doing within my own thriller as it adds emphases on everything you would want within a typical thriller, i.e it makes the antagonist appear more frightening and creates a much more victim vibe for the victim. Hence this will ensure that a film is conventional to a thriller.



Watching other films from the genre is a good way for me to make sure I have a good well rounded concept of the genre as well as being a good source to collect various different pieces of inspiration from.