2. Characters and Representation
in Thrillers in general (villain)
Hitchcock said he wanted the role of the
‘villain’ to be presented as a character that
appears to look normal to the audience
and to also be seen as quite attractive
within the audiences eyes. He wanted the
villain to be represented this way so the
audience wouldn’t expect that that
character is the one doing the abhorrent
behaviour and criminal actions.
3. Characters and Representation
in Thrillers in general (victim)
In most thrillers the victim normally is a
female character with a sort of innocence
about that. Normally they are of a young
adult age and are normally quite fair and
petite/dainty.
Hitchcock said “Blondes make the best victims.
They're like virgin snow that shows up the bloody
footprints.”
4. Characters and Representation in
Thrillers in general (Protagonist)
In most thrillers the role of the protagonist (hero) is
normally portrayed by a character that comes across
as ‘normal’ and ‘ordinary’ that has been put into
criminal situations. This causes the audience to at
first almost doubt the protagonist but then is
surprised with the success of solving the situation on
hand.
5. Gender roles: Female portrayal
Females are portrayed as the villain, protagonist and victim
with my thriller film Timor. This challenges the conventions
of the Thriller genre as although females normally play the
role of the victim, the female rarely plays the role of the
protagonist and only on some cases plays the role as the
villain. The use of mise en scene helped portray the victim
as someone who is innocent through the use of the
connotations of the colour white.
6. How does my thriller opening present
particular social groups?
In my thriller opening ‘Timor’, social
groups are represented through the idea
of sororities and dormitories within and on
a university campus. For example the
featured sorority focused and explored on
Timor is an all girl sorority called Alpha
Delta Pi which is the first and oldest
sorority to be created.
7. Representation of Age:
The age range within the characters of Timor is all
around 18-20 as each of the present characters have
just started university leading them to seek possible
sororities to join.
Each character is represented as young people who
are still trying to grasp adulthood whilst still trying to
have fun with their friends and find themselves.
8. Representation of Ethnicity:
Most universities are quite diverse and have
people attend of all different races, cultures
and ethnicities.
In my thriller opening Timor the characters present
were all of different races and ethicists in order to
show the diversity of the place in which they are
attending.
9. In what ways does my film opening
develop, challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
My film opening, ‘Timor’, develops the forms and
conventions of the Thriller genre. It develops the
conventions through:
Having a female(s) as the victim, protagonist and the villain.
Having the main events and problems previewed with the first 2
minutes of the film.
Use of flashing images within the first 2 minutes
High tension music
The contrast of high key and low key lighting in order to represent
the different characteristics between the victim and the villain(s).
The style of text is italic and the title (Timor) is shown at the end of
the open surrounded by blood.
10. Influence from other films
My thriller film ‘Timor’
was influenced by a
lifetime film called The
Hazing Secret (2014).
The plot of the film is:
Megan loses her long term
memory in an accident she had
five years ago as a sorority girl.
Every night, she has the same
dream of a party and the death of
a sister. When she's invited to a
Greek reunion, she realizes it
wasn't just a dream.
