Planning Characters - Miss Miller

Planning Characters


Without characters, the audience of a thriller film would not be able to understand or connect with the narrative in the same way. Characters are what bring the narrative to life, and act the narrative out for the audience to enjoy and appreciate. Usually, the characters will use their dialogue to tell the audience a story, building up the narrative as the film goes along.


Our antagonist will be called Cameron and is the only male character to be featured in the opening sequence. He is an 18 year old school drop out who lives with his mother. To the audience he will appear worn out and emotionless, due to the amount of time he spends fighting his split personality. In the sequence he will be seen either wearing a white shirt to show his vulnerability and guilt, and then black to show his dark and violent side. He is naturally a very quiet yet disturbed person who behaves in a passive way. He prefers to suffer in silence than to open up about the way he is feeling. At the age of ten he lost his father, but the murderer was never found. This was the prime event that led Cameron to become the angry, unstable person that he is. His character is stereotypical of the thriller genre as without the antagonist we would be unable to build tension and suspense within the sequence, or be able to create an enigma of who the killer is. The audience are able to build a relationship with Cameron as they will feel pity and sympathy for him during the suicide scene when he is guilt ridden. But they will also fear his dark side and the things that he is capable of doing.

The first victim to be seen in our opening sequence will be Grace, the antagonists mother. Her name represents her innocence and her peaceful nature. The mother is around 44 years old and worked as a primary school teacher but quit her job in order to dedicate her time to looking after her son. Her brown hair is beginning to turn grey in places, but overall she is quite young looking. To the audience she will appear tired and stressed from all of the years that she has had to spend looking after Cameron on her own. She has a very nurturing and caring personality, which Cameron will find annoying. He will see her constant nagging as too overprotective. Grace was once happily married and had Cameron when she was 26 years old. When she was 36 her husband was murdered, which left her a widow and alone to deal with Cameron all by herself. Her character is stereotypical of the thriller genre as there is typically a female victim who does not deserve to die, and this will help the audience to build a relationship with her as they will feel sympathetic towards her and her situation.

The final character to be featured in our opening sequence is Harmony. A young girl who attended the same school as Cameron, and became close friends with him and his family. She is 17 years old, and very girly looking which the audience will see as an obvious target for the antagonist. As the sequence goes on she will become more and more paranoid about Cameron. Harmony will be more of an obvious, typical victim who the audience will be able to build a relationship with as her innocence will make them feel sympathetic towards her. Her character is stereotypical of the thriller genre as she portrays the character that the audience expect to be the victim, due to her innocence.

In conclusion, the three characters that will be featured in our opening sequence are all, in their own ways, conventional to the thriller genre. To start with, Harmony, the girlfriend of the antagonist, will come across to the audience as an obvious choice of victim for the antagonist. Her slightly stupid characteristic will suggest that she is going to get herself into a dangerous situation involving the killer, therefore the audience will view her as an easy target. The mother of the antagonist, Grace will be the first victim featured in our opening sequence. The audience will feel more sympathetic towards her due to the fact that she was trying to protect her son the same way any mother would, therefore she could not have expected such a violent reaction in response. Finally, the antagonist, Cameron is conventional to the thriller genre as he is the reason behind the main narrative of the film. Had he not killed his mother or committed suicide at the very beginning of the sequence, the audience would have nothing to watch or no questions that they want answers to. The fact that the antagonist is twisted and mentally unstable will make him more of an interesting character to watch, and the audience will want to know more about why he is the way he is.