Stephen, Nigel and Ben's Foundation Portfolio: Ben- Evaluation Question 2

In our Thriller there are three main characters:

Geoff Ffoeg - The protagonist. A detective in mourning.
Susan Nasus - The running girl. The person everyone believes is dead.
The Assailant - The nameless antagonist. The attacker and kidnapper.

Geoff Ffoeg

Our protagonist is a white, male, police officer that makes a decent amount of money (assuming by his costume). I played this character because of ease, which is the main reason why he is as he. It made it easier for me to play a character as it meant there was one less person we had to bring in. We would have filled the character roles ourselves, however the other team members did not feel comfortable being on camera, plus there would be no hands on the camera.

The first scene is of Geoff mourning in the graveyard. He begins composed like a stereotypical man would. Keeping calm and going through any situation pragmatically. However he soon falls on his knees. This start was not done to follow any sort of stereotype, but rather to ease the audience into the idea that Geoff is not in his best moment right now.

There are not any stereotypes that this character abides to as far as I know, aside from physical stereotypes. We had no plans for him to be a doughnut savvy cop, or a macho hard man. He is just a guy that has lost his heterosexual love interest (Susan) in a series of tragic events.

The time scale is another reason why Geoff is not bawling his eyes dry right away. Between the present and the past shown in the flashback is a gap of over six months. He has gotten past the tears but isn't ready to let go. We can see a difference in Geoff in his flashback. Before he sees the crime scene, he is strides confidently, ready to do his job. But when he finds Susan is the victim, he falls to the floor.

A well off, middle class, white guy that most likely has next to no problems has his world flipped upside down. His standing as a confident detective is gone. And again, the only reason that he is a white male police officer is because I am the actor. Any other human being would have sufficed. However, a male actor would, in most cases, be preferred as this would give a small physical advantage towards more action scenes: e.g. a hostage stakeout with armed kidnappers. This flashback scene is primarily done in Close Up shots (ECU, BCU, CU, MCU). This becomes apparent as Geoff gets closer and closer to realising the victim, Susan. These often uncomfortable shots help convey the feelings within Geoff.

Not too sad, but still sad

ECU is weird and uncomfortable

Susan Nasus

Susan is the girl running in the forest, primarily seen in the flashbacks. A white woman keeping her health on track with jogs in the woods. She is the deceased/missing love interest of Geoff. Something which would be explained more clearly than just a rose on the grave. The reason we picked this actress is because of her height. She is just under five feet and putting the camera at her eye level makes any tall person look even bigger (with the right composition). Because we imagined Geoff and Susan to be in a long standing relationship, it is safe to assume she is also middle class. Her costume is standard jogging attire with a splash of colour which is nothing fancy. She is a regular person on a jog.

Like I said before, the actresses' small stature made unnecessary to use forced perspective to make her smaller and everyone else bigger. This same technique is used in the Lord of the Rings movies to make averagely sized actors Hobbit and Dwarf size. The final scene of the Thriller has her actual gagged voice in use. The punching sounds were done separately but despite that, it still sounds convincing enough to create some real discomfort in the audience.

The most obvious stereotype with this character is that she is the Damsel in Distress. A woman that has been kidnapped or harmed in some way by the antagonist, at which point, it is up to the Protagonist (Geoff) to save her. A movie example of this would be Carly, Sam's girlfriend in "Transformers: Dark of the Moon". She can hold her own in a tough situation and can be seen to move the plot forwards in some cases, but ultimately, she is kidnapped by the Decepticons, forcing Sam (the Protagonist) to do something he'll regret. Even after she is saved, her screams of terror are very audible over all the Micheal Bay explosions. This stereotype for Susan was not given on basis of gender. The plot has a character being attacked and considering I was already playing as Geoff, this character was made female.

Throughout the Thriller, Susan is very weak, with one exception. The reason she is weak is because she is running for her life. Something had her going in a full sprint to save herself from a pursuer (The Assailant). The pursuer is the powerful one in this situation. This is seen in the first shot of Susan, who is only a blur as she runs past, while the pursuer is methodically taking his time to catch up, perhaps treating it like a game. This is shown by having the focus on Susan moving at constant speed and only showing the pursuer a few times moving considerably slower. The one exception in power is when Susan strikes
Susan is the character that is believed dead, but is in fact being kept hostage of the Assailant. She is shown in a moment of crisis where self-preservation instincts would kick in. Fight or Flight, in other words. It needs to be understood that Susan, even though she remains unnamed in this sequence, was and is in danger and is currently in no position to change that.

Small and tall character - Thriller

Damsel in distress - Transformers

The Assailant

The Antagonist we didn't feel necessary to name. Why name a character when the coming movie is all about discovering their true identity. Naming the antagonist has worked in some cases, a prime example being "The Usual Suspects". We didn't opt for this as it might have humanised the character. He is a gruesome human being that is torturing another. As to what he is, a tall, white male wearing nearly all black. In our plans, we did not intend to divulge this much information. We would rather he be completely covered with a hat, putting his face in a shadow. However this was not possible due to costume and time restrictions. But back to him! He is a white male, that has, for reasons unknown to the audience, kidnapped a woman, leaving so little evidence, the authorities believe her dead. He belongs to no group that would be accepted by the social norms.

We tried to set up a identifying mark that when spotted by the audience would make sirens and red lights go on for days. We did this by having Susan scratch his face. The acting did not make this clear enough but we still kept it. The scratch is shown twice. In the flashback when it happened, and in the present when it healed. The scratch was done with a small amount of makeup creating what appeared to be scar tissue. Red pen was also used to make it appear somewhat raw. Makeup experience was limited, but the end product sufficed. Aside from the "hidden behind trees" shot on the right here, all shots of the assailant never went above his eyes or bigger that a Close Up. This is to keep Enigma going as the audience does not receive the Assailant's identity. Furthermore, aside from being hidden, he does not appear in many shots. Seven in total. Pair all this, with an improved costume and the character would be near perfect.

As for stereotypes, let's start with that he is a white male criminal, with accounts of assault and kidnapping with a possibility of sexual assault too. While it is true that the larger majority of criminal offenders are male, it does not diminish the stereotype. The reason this actor was casted is because of his height compared to Susan and that the two actors already knew each other, which hopefully made the attack scene a little less awkward to go through. Other stereotypes that I feel we might have explored further in the film are what I can only call "The White Neighbour". A happy and friendly white guy that helps his neighbourhood, recycles, helps seniors cross the street etc. A nice guy, but he has urges that have him do the most horrible things. He done this so much, that he's become good at it, really good. Like Earl Brooks in "Mr. Brooks". A fine guy that receives awards in public view of everyone, but has a split personality (or alter ego) that pushes him to kill and pose his victims in romantic/sexual manner to get a kick out of it. I imagine the Assailant being the same.

The Assailant holds the power in the intro, he is the one in control, and he needs to be. Having a victim escape can create tension, but it can make the antagonist look weak or sloppy. Instead, if everyone but him is out of control, it creates fear. Too much power in the wrong hands. He is not going to benevolent and give helps everyone he can, he's going to trod on all the people he can, making their pain last as long as possible.