We used drama students to act in our thriller opening without much preparation time. This resulted in a very realistic performance, as we aimed to capture. For the scene of a girl running down a corridor, we used a student from our year since she was a real student who could suit the school setting. Her acting appeared authentic due to the limited preparation.

2. We used three A level drama students to feature in our
thriller opening. After explaining the script to them,
we gave them five minutes to understand the story and
get in character. Due to the elimination of the usual
preparation time for a performance, the acting
resulted in a performance very true to reality, which is
the product we aimed for.
For the ‘girl running down the corridor’ we approached a
student from our year and asked if she would feature;
to which she agreed. We asked this girl as she is a
student in real life and would suit the setting of a
school.

3. Jess’ character is positive and upbeat. She
engages in a long conversation with
Charlotte when she is undecided of what to
wear to the party at the weekend. These
features of her charcter portray her as a
typical teenager.
Jess is also the character who shares the
unexplained vision of the girl running down
the corridor. This similarity to Ellie’s
dreams comforts Ellie.
Her body language is very realistic. This is due to the limited preparation time
which we purposefully gave to produce acting as true to life as possible.
Jess is shown as the character who links all three girls; this is enforced by her
positioning in the middle.

4. Ellie’s character is seen as quiet and pre-
occupied. She is constantly fiddling with
her fingers showing she is nervous. She
is also hunched over portraying her as an
unsure character. This behaviour is
explained when she describes her
unexplained dreams. Ellie then seems to
become more assured when Jess explains
how she has been having similar visions.
This is emphasised as she starts talking
louder and faster to Jess when disussing
‘the girl running down the corridor’.

5. Charlotte’s character is very sociable. She is shown
talking to Jess a lot when discussing a party at the
weekend. Her body language is also very relaxed,
showing she is confident in her surroundings. These
features represent Charlotte as maybe the group leader
due to her loud personality. This feature enhances the
true-to-life portrayal for the characters we aimed to
create.
When Jess and Ellie are discussing their unexplained
visions, Charlotte dismisses their worries and calls them
‘crazy’. Her irrespective behaviour mirrors many
teenagers behaviour when regarding serious matters.

6. The girl always seen running down the
corridor is played by Magaly, another fellow
student.
She is the feature of Jess and Ellie’s visions
and evokes fear and tension in our thriller
opening. The short clips of her running are
shown to hint what could happen to the
characters, but also create tension and
mystery; a common convention of a thriller
which was included in a lot of thriller
openings we analysed. The way her face is
never seen and the reason for her running
also creates mystery and causes the
audience to want to watch the whole film
so they will find out, increasing success.