Opening scene Narration - Miss Miller

Description of our opening sequence:

The sequence begins with main character Brittany who is also portrayed as the victim within our thriller film standing on a bridge about to commit suicide. As the sequence progresses the audience becomes more aware of Brittany's reasoning's for wanting to take her own life as well as the situation  she is in so for her to think within this manner. 

So to help the audience have a greater understanding of the place Brittany finds herself within mentally we have added flashbacks to our film as we decided this would be the best way to introduce themes of the past which are haunting Brittany as well as to display the harsh seriousness of said events and why she has lead to dealing with them in the way of which she has. 

The first flashback shown illustrates Brittany sitting at home of an evening seemingly to be on her own, she is enduring her free time by watching a film, we chose to have this as a fairly innocent film so to make her appear furthermore innocent and to juxtapose the situation which the audience later discovers her to be in. This technique makes the scene appear more frightening as the themes of innocence contrast the concept of her being watched via an unwelcome figure (a hidden identity). Brittany is wearing a long sleeved grey top the colour grey is often associated with comfort clothes this further adds to the idea of her being rather sweet and innocent, as well as the fact that she is wearing long selves as she isn't wearing anything revealing female audience members are more likely to grow towards her. As she is being portrayed as something more than a typical thriller film queen is who is set there to play the victim and look pretty. On her bottom half Brittany is wearing fluffy pjyamas bottoms again these display her to a warming, comforting person as well as displaying how unprepared she is for such a situation. The audience is shown Brittany noticing the strange figure watching her through her window and panics adding to the technique of the film of choice (finding Nemo) making her seem rather young and childish at heart, rather sweet and innocent which makes her much more likable to the audience as well as showing how truly vulnerable she really is. After her panicking reaction however the audience witnesses a change in Brittany although she noticeably remains terrified she some how manages to get herself up and make her best attempt at trying to redeem the situation. She runs from the sofa into the kitchen where although moving with very unstable movement she manages to grab a knife for protection (this weapon of choice also being a piece of iconography) and charges to the window where in total panic and disbelief she finds that there is no one there this foreshadows a later point within the sequence. Throughout this scene there will be different shots taken from different camera angles as well as different areas within the scene which need to be more displayed at different times so we will have to cut all of this together whilst doing our editing. The editing techniques we can use involve straight cut, jump-cut, linking of a section, wipe and dissolve to name a few. Wipe could be a good technique to use as it is a clear indication that a change has taken place however it may be better to use this technique when the scene is changing completely this will have to be something that I discuss with my group.  

After this the audience returns to yet another of Brittany's flash backs this time she is walking home via a forest route which in itself is conventional to a thriller as it is a very deserted and for many people quite frightening place to be alone. As she walks she feels that she is being watched even hearing noises which she cannot account for and sound like something much more frightening than just a typical woodland creature however Brittany never actually witnesses anything which could potentially be something she should be afraid of. This is the scene for many audience members where they really begin to question whether Brittany is in the right place mentally. Is she really seeing these things or are they simply figments of her imagination? However this is more than just one scene however they both take place within the same forest during the same walk home we will transfer the audience from the first scene to the second through the use of a jump-cut we will do so as these are two sequential shots displaying the same subject yet they are captured from camera angles which vary slightly.

The third and final flashback scene showcases Brittany coming home from a night out, hence it's pretty dark on her travels she is walking down an alleyway on her own when she hears footsteps, the audience is showed her fear through close ups of her facial expressions as well as reaction shots. As Brittany prepares herself to be facing the worse as this person behind her begins to sped up until eventually over taking her where she learns that this person was in fact no one to be afraid of but simply a every day runner. The runner is dressed in grey sports wear the colour grey will highlight her paranoia as it's clearly nothing to be afraid of being dressed so friendly if they was someone to fear they would be dressed much more as the antagonist is in dark clothing hiding any personal traits to them such as facial expressions flashes of skin etc.

After all of the flashbacks the audience is transferred back to present day where the victim Brittany is preparing herself to end her life. Not much sound is heard throughout this scene as it is unneeded and may even take away from the seriousness of the moment. Without unneeded sound the audience is able to focus more clearly on what is happening within the scene and it is able to have more of an effect on them. Just as she appears to have fully plucked up the courage and settled on her decision a passer by enters the scene. This woman is dressed in rather innocent appearing clothing, looking rather comfy,cosy and just generally dressed as a rather friendly approachable person completely contrasting the clothing of the antagonist which highlights this character further as our antagonist. This characters name is Carol her role within the film is to stop Brittany from killing herself hence she is taking on the role of the protagonist throughout our film. Although little dialogue between Brittany and Carol is shown it becomes apparent to the viewer that more talking has gone on than they have been shown and that the pair have really bonded further saddening the death of Carol. Not only did our protagonist die as a result of her doing something kind and caring for someone she didn't know but she also become fairly close to Brittany her death would be yet another thing to damage her. Carol is presented to the audience as a caring character from the off set as as soon as they meet her she drops her bag (an important prop to the film) as she is so disheartened to see someone in such a way as is Brittany. She didn't even need to know her personally. Other passers by in the situation might be to afraid to get involved perhaps for selfish reasons or see it as someone else's problem but not Carol. The audience is really built up to like her for many reasons not only does it make her death all the more worse, but some audience members may see this as a flash of hope, a chance that everything will now be alright as Brittany has Carol to look after her and confide in her death symbolises the end to all hope.

After her first appearance it appears that all has been resolved and the audiences mind is taken away from train of thoughts of the antagonist however it is later hinted that he has been watching the entire time as an innocent Carol is murdered and her body is left for an already traumatized Brittany to discover.