Media Evaluation Q1 AS Level

2. Within a thriller there is usually a battle between the protagonist and
antagonist once there has been a disruption to the equilibrium, this follows
Tzvetan Todorov’s Theory. Our media product (‘POSSESSION’) also follows
Todorov’s Theory as the equilibrium is disrupted when the main character
becomes possessed and intent on killing her lover. The fight between her
and her lover emulates the convention of a battle between an antagonist and
a protagonist. This builds up tension and makes the audience want to see
the rest of the film. Our thriller film opening follows the route of a
psychological thriller as the main character has a form of mental illness
(possession) that effects her in a very serious way, it’s set in a dark and eerie
setting, there is also a sense of danger and enigma which is established by
the ‘cliff-hanger’ ending. Furthermore, the main character is often on her own
throughout our thriller opening which gives of a sense of isolation, this is
typical of a psychological thriller. An example of a psychological thriller that I
looked at for inspiration was se7en (1995) starring Brad Pitt, Kevin Spacey
and Morgan Freeman.

3. In Se7en there is a battle between the
protagonist (Brad Pitt) and the antagonist
(Kevin Spacey) after Kevin’s character disrupts
the equilibrium by going on a killing spree. The
antagonist is enigmatic until the end of the film
and is isolated. The entire film is dark and eerie,
which follows the same conventions as our
thriller opening. Furthermore, the antagonists
has a mental illness which isn’t necessarily
known and he plays mind games with the
protagonist as well as the audience. Despite not
being told what the antagonists illness is, it’s
clear to the audience that he displays some
signs of psychosis and megalomania. In our
thriller film we wanted to follow this convention
by making the main character lose her mind but
we didn’t want it to be directly obvious how or
why and to what extent she would deteriorate.

4. We have been unconventional in our Thriller in the respect that our
protagonist is female which goes against the stereotypical male
protagonist role. Most Thriller films tend to avoid having women as
protagonists due to the fact that they’re stereotypically seen as the weaker
sex. In our film we wanted to go against this idea and show that women
can play strong characters and we also thought that it would be interesting
to put a twist in the story by challenging the gender stereotype. In the
three case studies I’ve looked at (Se7en, No Country for Old Men and The
Silence of the Lambs.) two of the protagonists are male. However in ‘The
Silence of the Lambs’ the protagonist is female (Clarice Starling).
Following the example set in ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ our main
character (played by Gina Wilby) is shown as strong, independent and
loving from the outset. However, for our twist, as the Thriller progresses
she becomes more and more agitated, eventually ending with her mental
state completely deteriorating as if she’s becoming possessed.

5. We chose ‘psychological’ as a sub genre of thriller as we thought it would be
interesting to manipulate classic psychological human behaviour. We knew
we could interpret this genre well and in any way wanted, as I studied
psychological thrillers for my case studies (Se7en etc.). By choosing
psychological we could incorporate all our previous ideas into our final
project. We really wanted a strong psychologically unstable female presence
in our film such as ‘Nina’ from Black Swan portrayed Natalie Portman.

6. Todorov’s narrative theory states that most plots follow the same pattern.
There are 5 steps in this pattern:
1) Equilibrium: Everything is as it should be in a state of equal balance
between powers.
2) A Disruption: The story will feature a problem or some thing will
disrupt the happiness.
3) Realisation: This part of the plot is when everyone realises the
problem and it is chaos.
4) Restored Order: This part of the plot is when the characters attempt
to repair the damage and restore the equilibrium.
5) Equilibrium finally restored: This is the final part of the plot where the
problem is resolved and normality can resume again.
We have developed this convention for our own thriller as we have
equilibrium at the start when the couple are happy and in love. Then we
also have the disruption when the female character becomes
possessed. The reason we haven’t included the other 3 steps is because
we were only creating a film opening, not an entire film.