Narrative - Mrs G

Thriller Narrative

My ideas for the thriller narrative:

1. - Involving a internet/online chatroom,after a brief dicussion between the the main and the "unknown" person, the main character mentions they have to leave and then turn off the pc, but the pc screen turns back on and the text appears "I'm not done yet", this is followed by the lights instantly go out and then the main character fiddles around in the darkness looking for the light switch,but once the main character does and turns the light switch on, his shoulder is instantly grabbed by the other character who he had just been speaking to on the online chat room and then the screen fades to black fastly followed by the credits at the end.

Advantages and disadvantages with this narrative idea (1) :
- The advantages this narrative idea has is it can create suspense and tension on certain parts of the narrative, specifically the part where the computer screen switches back on and the text appears stating "I'm not done yet" and then the lights instantly go out.

- The disadvantages however for this narrative idea is that we believe it cannot be stretched out to around 2 mins long, (which is required as a min requirement) and that it is not too interesting or unique in terms of creating tension or curisotiy from the audience.

2. - Based around a car, The main character is in the house getting ready for a night out and then after getting ready, approaches the car after closing and locking the doors to the house. Once in the car the main character starts the car but however the car dosent fully start up. The character then decides to get out of the car while leaving the keys in the ignition and investigate to see what is causing them problem and sees no physically damage to the car or any signs of the car being sabotaged, so the character gets back in the car and tries again but notices the keys are missing, so the character searches around the front of the car, but is then shocked after hearing the rattling of his own keys, he notcies something in the rear view mirror, which is actually a person who is just partly seen from the shadows/darkness and then the screen fades to black

Advantages and disadvantages with this narrative idea (2) :
- The advantages for this narrative idea would be that we have a stronger and more interesting narrative than our first idea. And unlike the first one, it does question the audience or the least creates curiosity or questions to where did the keys go, and then what happens once the character sees the unknown person in the mirror who was the one rattling the keys.

- Sadly the disadvantages however, is once again it cannot be stretched out to a 2 min duratation which is the main requirement needed. That, and we still believe we need a more interesting or something that creates suspense and tension as well as in a sense, confusing the audience.

3. - Based in a forest, The main character is exploring/hiking, after a few seconds in the scene, he looks up at the sky and notices it is getting very dark and decides to head back home and follows the path he came from. But to his surprise, he keeps ending back to the same place as he was before. To add to his worries, he also hears someone elses footsteps in the distance and the rustling of leaves/shrubs as well. The character paralized by fear slowly walks backwards while keeping his eyes starring into the distance and direction he heard the noises from. But then suddley bumps into something and turns around quickly, but luckly notices it is just a tree trunk. But his relief is short lived as a hand grabs onto his shoulder and then the screen fades to black.

Advantages and disadvantages with this narrative idea (3) :
- The advantages for this narrative idea would be that it focuses on the narrative more greatly than the previous two in terms of both more interesting and can be stretched out for a longer period of time.

- However, the disadvantages for this narrative idea would be that the camera we may be recieving to record with will not be able to record nighttime/low light scenes.

Group Idea for thriller narrative:

- Set inside a house, With credits on the screen while during the scenes, the protagonist enters the home frustrated, throws camera to the side and sits down, holding his head in his hands and rocking slightly.
He then ruffles his hair, and whispers incoherently to himself before hearing a muffled voice.
He then looks around himself, realising it has stopped, he stands and turns on a television by remote control, but however the TV does not turn on. Pressing the button angrily, he eventually gives up and walks to the kitchen and into the fridge, and then hears the whispers again.
He then furrows his brow, closes fridge, questioningly glacing around but sees nothing, he scratches his head in confusion and heads to the bathroom.
He turns on the shower and glances to the mirror seeing a hooded person, when looking again he finds his own reflection.
He starts to sigh nervously and locks the door in fear, he turns once again to the mirror but this time the reflection is himself with the hood and his real self is holding a knife. He checks self for injury, looks up and the mirror self smiles at him, he looks down again and the screen cuts to black with the character screaming and a sound effect of a slash is heard.
Then a photo of a knife is shown held by a white gloved hand, looks up from the photo "Another one..." and then the title screen.

Narrative Theory
There are 3 theories made by 3 different people which explain most narrative concepts for movies/films.

- Vladimir "Propp", a russian critic, states that the characters of a film can explain narrative within a film more effectively than just the narrative on its own. In short, he believes that it is all about the characters in a movie that will impact the narrative dramatically.

- Tzvetan "Todorov", in a nutshell is basically the opposite of Propp, he believes that the narrative of a storyline will set the stage for the movie rather than just the focusing on the characters. By editing the narrative to make it more interesting and effective, this is done by the use and adding of equilibriums and de-equilibriums, plot twists, and other major points of interest within the narrative.

- "Aristotle", States and only states that only the theme should matter in setting a narrative. The reason behind this is because Aristotle explains that once you create a theme, you can then in turn start to build up your characters and the narrative from there more easier than from a blank canvas.

The narrative theory our group is following/using:
- The narrative theory our group is following would be "Todorov's", or more simply put, focusing on narrative/storyline, which in turn will allow us to then develop our characters and theme (Minus the fact we are restricted to making a thriller genre). As seen in our group narrative example above; You may be able to point out that the way the narrative is put or explains the situation of the scenes, it then in turn allows us to then develop characters and their role in the movie, which then in turn the theme. for example in mentioning a "hooded person" in our narrative, this has set the costume for one of our characters already.

- The idea of focusing strongly on narrative also appeals to us, especially with how our narrative goes. Aside from it allowing us to then build up interesting characters to react to the scenes and themes to go with it, we plan our narrative to in a sense, confuse the audience but at the same time, make them curious in order to try to link the scenes or what is happening together, which at the end of the scenes at the last part of our narrative, the audience can have a chance to link all the random occurrences to then figure out what is really going on.