Group Narrative - Miss Georgiou

Group Narrative

The point of a narrative is to know 

In Media Studies, it is important to tell the difference between narrative and story. A story is a sequence of events, known correctly as the plot. While a narrative is the way those events are put together to be presented to an audience.Therefore, when analysing a narrative we analyse the construction of the story eg. the way it has been put together, not the story itself. You also need to consider what the story is about in its most basic terms, eg. the theme, for our group the theme is Thrillers.

Alex's Idea

Their are a group of people who are dared to spend the night in and old abandoned house, however there is actually a maniac who lives in the house who lock the group in and slowly hunts them down one by one. Using all the techniques that I have mentioned, about the group of people who are trapped in an abandoned building in the middle of nowhere at night. This all creates the conventions typical in a thriller genre, in my film I would also like to attempt to break the 180 rule which has been done in "Psycho" which I would like to replicate, this would give a 360 view of the setting which will draw the audience in and help them empathise with the characters.

The advantages are that it is conventional to the thriller genre, as well as being simple but effective. Also He has related his own idea's to other movies which has helped him find a well planned narrative. However there are a few negatives, such as, the abandoned location and how we would find such a location to film on. Plus parts of the plot are repeative and might not leave the audience wanting to see more, as well as needing a big group of people  to play the parts and people filming.

Noah's Idea

I have created a small plot. A couple go to a closed hotel. They didn't know this and they start to argue. The woman leaves the man stranded there over the winter and begins to lose his mind in the cold attic of the hotel. He then murders new guests in the summer with blunt objects while wearing a phantom of the opera mask that he had found. I got the location from the shining, the suspense of him killing from pet semetary, the mysteriousness from v for vendetta, the isolation plot from misery and the iconography from Texas chainsaw. Hopefully these ideas create an element of shock, suspense and surprise amongst the audience.

With Noah's idea, it would be very easy to acquire iconography which are part of the scene. Also, the amount of people needed to be able to make the opening sequence come alive and realistic is minimal. Another positive would be that the story line is long therefore, we wouldn't be showing the whole film in just the opening sequence. However, on the other hand, it will be hard to find a location once again to film such a piece, as well as timing of the weather will be hard, unless we were to create artificial weather, which might become unrealistic.  Also the narrative includes too much to fit into an opening scene and might ruin the rest of the film leaving the film with nowhere to go. 

My Idea

A group of girls go camping on Halloween night. They start to hear strange sounds from outside, coming out of their tent the sounds start getting louder. The girls are scared and have no idea what to do. A group of boys jump out on them. Once the boys go home, the girls plan to go to bed, however the sounds start again, they think its the boys, although this time it isn't...

As a group we decided that, the location I have chosen is easy to located with no permission needed, as well as no specific time zone being needed, so it could be filmed at anytime of day or night. The narrative it very simple but effective. Although to be able to film the properly we would need a big enough group, also it might have too much dialogue which could ruin the eerie feeling. 

Choosing a theory...

As a group we looked at several different theory's. The first being Vladimir Propp, who's theory is mostly seen in children's fairy tales, such as Shrek. Propp believed that above all, characters were the most important when it came to planning out a narrative. His ideal characters consisted of a hero, seeking something he has been sent to find, a villain to get in the way of the hero's task. As well as these two characters, Propp found it important to include a donor, dispatcher, a false hero, a helper, a princess and the princess' father.

When looking at this theory, we decided that it didn't really fit into a thriller narrative, although parts of the theory, such as a villain could be given a different name as a killer. We also said that Propp's theory relates more to children's folk or fairy tale films and not horror or thriller films. 

Final Idea...

It took our group quite a while to choose an idea. We came up with several upon our own induvidual narratives, which either didn't seem possible or were very unrealistic. Finally after several ideas, we thought of one which wasn't only possible but would be effective and simple. 

The scene is set in the woods, late in the day. Two young teenagers sneak into an abandoned building to do ... While the teens are in the building, they start to hear strange sounds from outside. One of the teens acting all 'Big' goes out to see what the sound was, leaving the other in the building. After about 5 minutes of silence, the other teen goes out to see where their friend has been. As they open the door to walk into the woods, they see their friend hanging from a tree dead. The camera swings round, to show the teen screaming and also showing a tall figure behind the character, could it be the killer?