This document discusses influences on the authors' thriller film from three media texts: 1) The Ring influenced the costume design of the main character, a young girl dressed in a white gown to create mystery. 2) The Women in Black influenced the forest setting at dusk/night to generate tension and mystery for opening scenes. 3) American Horror Story influenced the narrative by including a psychologically troubled main character escaping from a mental institution, pressing audiences to think deeper about the character's motivations and backstory.

1. Influences Towards Our
Thriller
Here are examples of three media texts that
have influenced us

2. The Ring influenced our thriller massively in terms to mise en scene, within the
area of costume. As a group we decided to have our main character of a young
girl dressed in a white gown, this gives our thriller a dated tone which is present
in many thrillers. The white colour contrasts the dark persona of the film and its
narrative, alongside her long black hair masking her identity. The unknown
unsettles the audience which creates a well suspended thriller which we are
aiming for. The pale skin represents the detachment from society and the
possessive nature of the character. This influenced our thriller as our main
character featuring in our opening scenes is one of our groups younger sister, as
we believed this would match better towards the connotations of a thriller well.
Her younger sister being smaller and more childish like then members of our
group creates a more believable character. Being dressed in a white gown we
will acquire through purchase and have her walking through a forest at low key
lighting for one of the sequences. This will hopefully create a mysterious and odd
atmosphere that makes a good thriller.

3. The women in black influenced our thriller in terms of location. The
vastness of the landscape suggests vulnerability and unsafety, creating
tension within the audience. Filming in a forest at dusk or night as a
current idea as it has much mystery surrounding the narrative of our
opening scenes. A forest at a time of day with limited lighting fits the
connotations of a thriller well and will hopefully create the atmosphere
we are aiming for, the use of editing and sound will manipulate the
audience in this way. The Women in Black being set in the 1980’s and
in partnership with good prop use, the time period quickly becomes
apparent to the audience and leads them viewing the film with much
more understanding. With everything corresponding with the time
period chosen creates a good thriller and it is more believable therefore
proving more appealing towards the audience.

4. American Horror Story influenced our film in terms of the narrative and deeper
meanings behind our film. American Horror Story containing a possessive
nature and psychologically challenged characters fits well as this thrills the
audience. The inability to understand how the characters think and are unable
to predict what will happen keeps the audience on edge, leading them
wanting to carry on watching the film. We have adapted this idea as our main
character will be psychologically challenged and one idea as a group we are
deciding as a possible narrative is to have the character running away or
escaping from her mental institution. This urges the audience to think as they
don’t just watch it, they need to be able to understand what is actually
happening. The absence of explanation to why the character is in the state
they are in and how they got there presses the audience to think deeper,
separating our film from a typical horror thriller which would heavily consists of
murders. This more thought may allow the audience to enjoy our film much
more and help us create a successful thriller.