In our media product we chose a young girl to be one of our main characters and an older male for the other. The young girl's age is supposed to represent her innocence and her overall character represents a typical victim character. Her age is supposed to cause an emotional impact on the audience as the young girl represents a typical child that maybe our audiences have themselves and plays on their parental instincts to make them think about what it'd be like if something happened to their children. Our actor represents a stereotypical young school girl. She has her hair plaited back since typically most schools require girls with long hair to tie it back to prevent the spread of lice. She has a standard primary school uniform on, school shoes and a large backpack which would carry all of her school books.
A similar character that we compared this character to is Pita from Man on Fire. Like our character, Pita is a normal, everyday young school girl. She has a similar costume to our character as well. In this particular screenshot, she has her hair tied back, a white blouse, a green cardigan and a skirt. This is similar to our character who wears the same clothes but just with a few colour differences. Her hair is also tied up like our character's. She also has blonde hair and blue eyes which makes her appear more innocent and fair. This is similar to our actor who also has light coloured hair and eyes. In the film, Pita's role is that of the victim. She is abducted in the movie and the goal of the film's story is for her to be rescued. This is similar to our character's role in the film, which is that she falls victim to a kidnapper and the goal of our story if for the mysteries of the missing children to be sold. We also have looked at real kidnap cases in the news such as the Madeline McCann disappearance.
Within our opening we used a lot of long shots of her running and close ups of her face. This was to emphasize the fear that she felt that she was being chased and show her frantic attempts at trying to escape him. The longshots also make her appear small compared to her surroundings which makes her therefore appear vulnerable. We didn't use any makeup on our actor because its something not usually worn by children because they're viewed as too young to. Although we did use makeup to make her look dirty after she'd fallen over. This was to show that she was so set on trying to get away that she is being careless as she runs and keeps falling over because she's trying so frantically to escape.
We filmed her in the forest because it is a large area that she could get easily lost in because it is unlikely for her to have the knowledge needed to be able to maneuver through it. We also used lighter lighting when showing her compared to the antagonist because she doesn't pose as threat like the antagonist does. The lighting is natural that came from the sun through the trees. It added to the realism of the setting and made our character appear innocent and vulnerable because light is often associated with good things. Audience might like this type of film because it is exciting and it challenges the typical conventions of a thriller movie which is usually dark and it is evident that someone is in danger but thrillers like this are unpredictable.
For our captor's appearance we made him appear much older than our victim. We wanted him to look like he was menacing and that he was quite a tall, intimidating looking person. We dressed him in dark coloured clothing such as black and dark green colours. We also wanted to dress him and make him appear like an everyday person who doesn't look like they should pose any danger so that we bend people's ideas of what a typical abductor or stalker may look like. We used a lot of shots from over his shoulder or looking at him from the ground to emphasis his height and we showed close up shots of him putting on gloves or gathering items such as ropes to make him seem even more menacing. We show him looking through newspaper clippings that he has collected and make him walk throughout the scenes to make it seem like this is something he does regularly and he does not feel remorse for it and he seems to treat it like a game. The walking helps to emphasize these because he seems so calm despite what he is about to do and it shows that he is dragging on the fear within the girl by pursuing her at a slow pace so that she doesn't get away but she is also still trying to escape him.
A character that can be compared to our villain is Jack Torrance from The Shining. Like our antagonist, he wears dark colours, he is male and he is quite old. Stereotypically, it is seen that men are the more stronger and more dominant of the genders which makes them seem threatening and frightening. This therefore creates fear towards the character. He is also wearing dark coloured clothes but they also seem like everyday clothing. This makes him look like he's just an average human being that couldn't possibly be as menacing or evil as he turns out to be. Unlike our character though, he is much more older and his role in the story is to be the father figure who becomes crazy. This twists the typical view of fathers who are expected to protect the family from danger.
Some props that we used with him were gloves, a cloth and a bottle of liquid, and rope. The gloves were supposed to represent him hiding his fingerprints so that he cannot be traced by authorities and it suggests that perhaps he's skilled at what he's doing and has done it before because he has learnt the precautions needed to been taken through in order to prevent him being found and done for the crime. The cloth and liquid are supposed to represent chloroform and something that would be dangerous for the victim. Chloroform can also be a deadly liquid if too much of it is inhaled and so it shows that the villain has access to a wide amount of deadly weaponry and poisons etc... and finally the rope is supposed to represent how it is going to put the victim into danger. It insinuates that she is going to be strangled to death or tied up. All the props appear as very dangerous and deadly and therefore strike fear into the audience. We also filmed him within the forest to chase after the young victim. But aside from the forest we also filmed within a garage. This garage was supposed to represent his place where he stalks his victims, keeping collected information about them and where all the weaponry is located. It was supposed to represent how he leads a daily life but there is a secret dark side to him that is hidden away within a room that isn't usually accessed by anyone else but him and the victims he brings there if any. The lighting in these scenes is quite low-key too, this is to hide his idenity and make him appear mysterious and menacing.
In comparison, our victim and our antagonist are complete opposites. The antagonist is portrayed as being strong and dominant. He seems threatening and dangerous. Our victim is very young which makes her seem very vulnerable. It creates tension because people fear for the child who is supposed to be innocent and not exposed to such dark themes like this and so fear is created between the massive age gap.
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