Inspirations - Miss Miller

Inspirations are important before creating an opening sequence as they allow you to incoroporate ideas into it, they also enabled me to see what I need to put into my film in order to make it do well. Overall inspirations were used to improve my original ideas. Inspirations can be taken from other thriller films that have been successful, it is important that I look at the key features that have been used within this film. The inspirations that I have took have been from the following films, The Strangers, Halloween and Saw.

From The Strangers I took the inspiration of having hidden identity for my antagonist. In The Strangers, the several antagonists that there are all have their identity hidden with a mask, I thought that this matched the conventions of the thriller genre as it creates an enigma as to who the killer is. I though this would be a good feature for my opening sequence as it leaves the audience in fear and allows the antagonist to be recognisable to them. Using an unknown killer makes it easier to relate to most people as they can imagine who they want as the antagonist.

I took the inspiration of having a point of view shot through the antagonists mask, this came from the opening sequence of Halloween in which Michael Myers puts on his mask and the it looks as if the camera is wearing a mask. In Halloween we see only the eyeholes in the mask, meaning that vision is slightly restricted. This inspired me as it made me feel tense as I wanted to shout out to the victim but she was helpless. I will use this shot when the victim is being stalked by the antagonist. To go hand in hand with this shot I will also have an unsteady camera, this will create a shaky effect and connote to the audience that the antagonist is unstable. This is conventional of the thriller genre as it creates a lot of darkness on the screen, this creating low key lighting. Using this point of view shot will also create an enigma as the audience can see from the antagonists perspective, but they are unable to know the true identity of the killer. This also allows the audience to see things from the antagonists perspecticve, creating a chilling sort of atmosphere. I am also hoping that this shot will sort of disorientate the audience as they do not have full vision, this will put them in an unstable situation, much like the victim is in.

From the film Saw I am going to use the idea of a handheld camera when the action begins. In Saw we see three victims tied to a bed and they have to race to get free, when the action begins the camera goes into handheld, this created a sense of chaos. This inspired me as it really emphasised the action that was taking place in the scene and it made me feel as if I was involved when I was watching it. This shot will happen when my victim is being chased by the antagonist. This inspiration will be good for my thriller as it creates chaos, putting the audience in the same position as the victim. Putting the audience in the same position as the victim also allows them to relate with the victim and sympathise with her as they know how she is feeling. This therefore makes my thriller seem more realistic to the audience and also creates suspense and tension.

I thought that looking at these films has been very useful for my narrative as they have allowed me to incorporate new ideas, making my opening sequence more conventional and also allowing me to appeal to my audience much more. These inspirations that I have taken from other films have made my sequence better as they have allowed me to enhance the profile of my antagonist and at the same time make my victim look more inferior.