Research ~ Script Draft 2

Fade in from black

Scene 1 – Int. Bedroom, Day

shot with a bloodied knife is seen, cutting to a close up of Kim’s closed eyes. Cut to a dead body lying on the floor, quick cut back to Kim’s closed eyes, moving more behind her eyelids. Cuts to Kim fleeing the scene and rushing away, finally cutting to a close up of her eyes moving more rapidly while closed, then shooting open. Kim sits up and holds her head in her hands before climbing out of bed and walking to the mirror.

Kim traces her finger over her scar, becoming lost in thought.

KIM

I can’t get away from it

Kim leans her head against the mirror and sighs. She places a hand next to her reflection before pushing off against it.

KIM

It’s all I can see when I’m asleep, this scar reminds me of it every day.

Cuts to see Kim sitting at her computer, a blank document on the screen, she can’t bring herself to write anything.

KIM

Jenifer isn’t helping. I know she means well, but she doesn’t know

what it’s like. I can’t write about how I feel, words really can’t express it.

Kim leaves the computer, the shot shows a knife in the foreground.

KIM

And I don’t think I want other people knowing what goes on in my head.

Kim checks her phone, then drops it onto the bed, turning her back to the mirror and sliding down it, leaning her back against it.

KIM

They ask me if I feel safe. Could anyone after something like that? I don’t care about my safety right now.

Kim has her head down, before getting up and grabbing her bag. The shot shows the knife in the foreground is now missing.

KIM

I wanted to keep the safe, but I was useless. Now, I just want to avenge them.

Kim leaves the room. Fade to black.

Research ~ Script Draft 1

Fade in from black

Scene 1 – Ext. Forest, evening

KIM is running clumsily and rushed through the forest. Her purple tinted hair is now a mess, and she seems ignorant to whether her casual clothes are caught or dirtied. Shots of her struggled attempts to avoid tripping over and panicked expression are shown, only taking a quick glance over her shoulder occasionally, focusing more on what lies ahead of her.

Quick cuts of some disorientated scene are included during the time she’s running, the black and white suggesting it’s a memory of KIM’s.

Panting and heavy breathing can be heard while she’s running, until she slows down, leaning against a tree to catch her breath. She looks round, terrified one last time before sliding down to sit against the other side of the tree. KIM brings her knees up to her chest and buries her head in her arms as she beings to whimper.

She brings her head back up and leans it against the tree.

KIM

(breathlessly)

Shit.

KIM is shaking and is having trouble controlling her breathing and tears.

KIM

Ok, calm down. Calm down. You’re safe now … their not though.

Realisation hits her as she breaks down into tears, digging her nails into her arm and speaking to herself in anguish.

KIM

How could I just leave them?! I couldn’t do anything, it was too late!

Why?!

KIM runs her hand through her hair and holds her head in distress before reaching for her pocket and bringing out her phone. She stares in a daze at the screen for a moment at the picture of one of her recently deceased friends.

KIM

I can’t believe this … it’s a nightmare, just a nightmare…

KIM goes to her contacts and tries calling her friend. As the dial tone continues and the phone isn’t picked up, KIM hangs her head and arms in defeat, feeling useless and void.

KIM

I have to get out of here… get up, damn it get up!

A sudden shifting of twigs and leaves can be heard behind KIM. At the noise, she jumps, carefully looking back round the tree before shock and terror appear in her features.

KIM

(Panicked)

Damn it damn it damn it, did he follow me out this far!? What does he want?!

(Determined)

I’m not letting him win; I won’t let you two die in vain. I’ll stop that psychopath,

He’ll regret what he did to you, guys.

KIM stumbles forward and pulls herself up, with one last look around and a pause for some breath she jets off further into the forest.

Fade to black

Research ~ Thriller Character Creation B

Lisa – Read Eye
Both Lisa and Kim hold traits of strong will and determination. Lisa is seen to be a 'people pleaser' as her job requires it of her. That aspect can e given to Kim as well, since she tries to befriend most people, and goes out of her way to make sure she doesn't offend or upset new people she meets.I'd say that their emotions are on par, Lisa can stay strong and keep a smile on her face even in dire times, as she did when faced with an assassin on her flight home. She refrained from making a large fuss, and held in all her emotions until she was alone and had a small breakdown in the bathroom on the plane. Kim also shares this trait of staying strong and holding emotions in. She can keep things bottled up for as long as need be, but if given a great burden like Lisa would, she would probably have a breakdown as well. I believe Kim would have a breakdown on a larger scale though, as the difference between the two characters is that Lisa knows the hardship of life. After being previously attacked, Lisa knows that bad things sometimes happen to good and innocent people, Kims in the clouds with her ideals, and hasn't been through anything life changing and extremely serious before.  Because of this, she probably wont know what she's supposed to do, or how to cope, causing her to lose grip on her emotions far worse than Lisa does.Both of them seem to have similar morals as well, where Lisa persists for trying to find a peaceful solution for her terrifying situation – she doesn't hesitate to turn to violence when she's provoked. Jackson drove her to the brink of shooting and stabbing him twice due to putting her Fathers life in danger. Though she did attack him multiple times, she never aimed to kill, only to slow him down for the police to take care off. This shows she'll attack when her loved ones are in danger, but she wont take it upon herself to end another persons life, whether they seem to deserve it or not. Kim would have similar morals, she wont attack someone without good reason, but I’m certain she wouldn't be able to go through with ending someone’s life. In the end, she'll want to appear to be higher than them, and not stoop to their level in fear she'd become like them in a way. She may take the nice approach to this type of scenario, but she could have ulterior motives as to why she wouldn't kill. If she lost a close friend because of someone else’s doing, she'd probably believe that death was to quick an ending, and to nice for a punishment. To get revenge she'd want them to keep living, they'll die eventually one day, so why take away any pain and suffering they could endure in that time?

Ariadne – InceptionAriadne is a very intelligent young girl, who also has a sense for adventure and a large curiosity. Like Ariadne, Kim loves adventure, and wouldn't be able to turn down a chance for something new and exciting in her life. Both are likely to be drawn into some sort of fantasy world due to this and their curiosity. Ariadne's curiosity did lead her to a bit of danger inside Cobb's mind, but that didn't stop her from trying to understand his problems and help him. Just as Kim would do, she doesn't care whether her life's put in a it of danger if it's for the sake of her friends.Unlike Kim, Ariadne has a greater grasp on reality, and is usually in tune with what's going on around her, and prepared for worst case scenarios.Again, the two have differences in terms of their emotional display. Ariadne usually has a strong face on, not showing over emotion and keeping her head about her. She'll show shock, fear and amazement easily, but the only time I remember seeing a lot of genuine happiness shown on her face is when Arthur kissed her in the second level of inception.Kim seems to show joy and happiness a lot more than a serious or fearful face.

Research ~ Theory and plot

The plot of my preliminary task is as follows:
Kim has just seen her two closest friends get brutally murdered before her eyes. Out of fear, she flee's, disgusted with the sight, and petrified for her own life. When she reaches a quiet part of the forest she ran into, she falls to the floor as depression and sadness over take her. 
This doesn't last long as paranoia and determination and the need for revenge sinks into her, making her move on, believing the murderer has followed her. But she states she wouldn't think that's a bad thing, as she wants to avenge her friends and make that psychopath pay. 
The most obvious theory that would fir Kim would be the victim role from Propp's theory. She's had this unwanted scenario thrown upon her, and there' no easy way to resolve that sort of trauma. Even after what could potentially be her final actions, she can't be seen as a villain for wanting revenge, as anyone would agree that a person who murdererd their two closest frie

EDIT

From the new script, the plot has changed slightly. Instead of seeing Kim have a break down at the time, i moved the time period forward one week. We see Kim has donned a scar from the dreaded event, and we see how she's coping with what's happened. From her dialogue it's obvious she's still obsessed with the event, and by the end of it she finally caves in and goes out to find the murderer, taking the knife she has on display with her. 

Research ~ Thriller Character Creation A

Kim Eilarhy

Kim is an intelligent young woman, brought up in a friendly village with a well treated upbringing.Her love for adventure and need to constantly find something new and interesting to pursue led her to begin travelling, meeting a few close friends along the way.Her personality may seem to be quite intense at times; she's spontaneous, thinks rashly, and although she is rather knowledgeable about the world, she lacks most common sense. Because of this, she also appears quite naive to the darkness of reality, her head almost always in the clouds, she believes things will always end well in the end, despite the occasional bump or disturbance.She over looks many things, focusing only on the bright side – which sometimes adds to her angelic charm.She has nothing but good intentions, and is kind and non judgemental to all she meets. She despises people being misjudged for being different or for choosing a different life choice than others, and wont hesitate to stand up for those she cares for or feels needs the help.She'll usually be seen with a smile on her face, or a dreamy look in her eye. She rarely gets angry, and is surprisingly good at keeping her deeper emotions under control. The only excessive emotions she possesses are joy and a sometimes intense way of showing it. Her love of cute things will usually result in an outburst, the same as a joyous occasion would.She may not like or appreciate laws and rules set by others, especially those that discriminate or put a limit on the fun she can have – but she follows a good path, and wouldn't intentionally break the law or go against others wishes unless it was for the sake of her closest friends. She's not used to outs of depression, so her morals and actions could go berserk if something happened to a close friend, possibly even taking things into her own hands to seek out revenge or punish who ever hurt them.Over the lessons, we had some role-playing classes to get in tune with our created characters a bit more. For one, some of us were put into a line at a shopping centre, being held up and being taken a long time to be served. While others got cranky or agitated, Kim remained pleasant and hummed to herself, in turn aggravating some people a bit more. She tried to calm down a small argument that was brewing also, but after her involvement sparked off an irritated diffuse, she went back to minding her own business and complimented another customer on their shoes.In the end, she ended up helping a rather controlling man at the front of the line, who wanted nothing more than to hurry everything up.From this I did see her calm and quirky traits come into play, but I don't feel like this setting suited her character at all. To really show off her naivety and pleasant nature, I believe a more dangerous or serious setting would be best.

We were also given a task to bring in items that would mean something to our characters. Kim holds three items dear to her, a necklace, a ring, and a 20 sided dice. The necklace belonged to an old friend who sadly passed away years ago. The ring was given to her by another friend who she lost contact with as the years went by. And the dice is a memorablia of her closest group of friends, since they often met up to play games and gamble for fun. If she ever lost any of these things, she'd go nuts trying to reclaim them and would become aggitaged and restless and extremely unnerved untill she had them back in her posession.

Similar Products ~ Misery Characters

Name: Annie Wilkes

About Annie: She is a lonely woman who lives out of the way of the rest of the town. She loves Paul Sheldon and his books, and has something wrong with her. Whether its a mental disorder, or just a terrible upbringing, we never find out. She constantly tries to keep Paul in her clutches, not wanting to share him with the rest of the world.

Throughout the film we learn a bit about Annie, and yet in some cases we learn nothing at all. The film is almost seen from Paul's perspective, so we see all off Annie's bad qualities and actions. It's revealed to us that she's done plenty of bad deeds in the past, and that she continues to do so and has very little respect for others who aren't Paul. On that note, she doesn't seem to have a lot of respect for Paul either. What type of fan would break both of their idol's legs? 

Seeing him as an idol though still shows through, and shows how childish she really is. At the start, and running a bit through the film, whenever Paul is nice to her in some way she turns into this excited little fan girl, and shows she can't be very grown up about the situation. Even when their having dinner together, she never seems to see it in a romantic sense, she's just ecstatic that he invited her.

Ethics and Morals: Annie really doesn't seem to have any morals to stop her from committing these sorts of crimes. She stalked Paul, thus able to save him from the storm. She kidnapped him and stopped him from contacting the outside world. She killed a man for finding him, and then broke both of Paul's legs so he couldn't escape. Then in the end there was a full out fight between them.

I think: Annie is probably one of the characters which i despise the most, out of every film i've ever seen. She's annoying and should of really gotten hit by a wayward truck at the start of the film. Honestly, i think watching Paul write his new book for an hour would of been more interesting than having to see Annie on screen. She has some sort of mental disorder obviously, but it's not showed off in any sort of clever way. She isolates her self, and doesn't even have any good schemes apart from kidnapping one author. She has extremely low intelligence and wisdom.

Name: Paul Sheldon
About Paul: He is the author of a successful series of novels about a character called Misery Chastain. But he wants to branch out his work, and finishes a new manuscript he's excited to publish.
After a road accident he is taken into the care of Annie Wilkes, he self proclaimed number one fan, who doesn't take too kindly to him killing Misery. He stays missing to the outside world, trapped in her nursing hands for what he is yet to realise is a very long time.   
Throughout the film we learn a fair bit about Paul, and not just from Annie and her stalking. He's a dedicated writer, and puts a lot of thought and effort into his books. Once he's set on an idea, it's very hard to deter his determination. (We can see this from his many escape attempts, and when he killed Misery off, there was almost no way to explain why she would be alive again.)  He's also rather cunning and can put on a fake act. He used this multiple times to slip past Annie or to calm her down so she wouldn't go on a rage. 
Ethics and Morals: Over all, i'd say Paul holds some quite strong morals, as he tried very humane ways to try and escape, and put his trust into his saviour for some time. Even after he found out he was missing to the outside world, he didn't threaten Annie. The only time he attacked her was after she had done so to him, and even killed a police man for finding him. 
I think: Personally, i don't like this character at all. He was far too lenient and polite to Annie, and took far too long to make a proper escape. That being said, it was his own stupid fault for driving in a snow storm anyway, he seems to have rather low wisdom.

Similar Products ~ Protagonist vs Antagonist

In Batman Begins, most people would say that the protagonist and antagonist rivalry is between Batman and Rahz, or arguably Scarecrow. Though I believe that the back and forth between Rachel Dawes and Jonathan Crane is interesting, and shows off the strengths of the characters with little to no physical power, only intellect.

In the first scene we see them in together, the scene cuts to show Jonathan appearing in court, testifying for a criminal to be moved to his asylum. The mid shot of him shows his calm expression, and his dialogue also helps to promote the fact he’s confident and sure of himself. While we aren’t shown the reaction of anyone else in the courtroom straight off, we see the criminal in question smirking. This suggests that Crane is playing the court exactly how he wants, and doing an excellent job at fooling the judge. Immediately after, there’s a mid shot of Rachel, looking annoyed, packing away her notes – looking like she’s given up for now after losing the case to keep the criminal in jail.

The next scene proves this point right, as Rachel hurriedly chases after Crane, questioning him about why he admitted another criminal to his asylum. The two shot given shows them on equal grounds. Their both the same height, so neither has an intimidation advantage. Crane responds to Rachel’s questions but keeps looking forward, possibly symbolising looking ahead towards a greater goal instead of focusing on minor problems like her. Rachel’s attention seems focused on finding out Cranes intentions, determined to set the law down and keep the ‘thugs in jail’.

The two have a small over the shoulder shot conversation, showing Rachel standing as a block in the road for Crane, as his plans can’t move forward with her being so persistent. He simply keeps his cool and wears a smug look as he beings to use terms and knowledge from his job field as an excuse for his actions. This shows he’s very knowledgeable in what he does, and very confident he can get away with near enough anything he tries.

As Crane begins to leave, sure he’s won the argument Rachel’s final statement is “or the corrupted.” Hinting that Crane is corrupted and working against the law for some dark motive. As if to provoke her a bit, Crane then turns to Rachel’s boss and tells him to “check what implications [he’s] authorised [her] to make, if any.” And walks on, leaving her behind. This shows that he’s not only corrupted with ill intentions, but pretty much has the judge and jury in the palm of his hand, being able to push away questions and accusations in an instant.

At the end of this scene we also see Rachel’s reaction to her boss, Carl, saying he’s more worried about protecting her. She acknowledges his interest in her, but brushes him off, more focused on stopping crime thugs from taking over the city and living honestly by the law.

This isn’t the only scene where we see Rachel’s headstrong, law abiding attitude – or Cranes sneaky, psychological trickery.

In a latter scene, we see their rivalry once again, when Rachel comes down to the asylum to question Crane about Falconi. From the first mid shot we see, she has a very strong determined glare angled at Falconi. This shows her despise for him, and the fact that her determination to prove crane wrong has only increased since last time they met. As Crane turns up and another over the shoulder conversation begins, She questions his report, pushing Crane to slip up and give off a hint at what’s going on. Cranes dialogue in response to her question, what’s scarecrow?” seems very informative and almost rehearsed. He’s obviously had a lot of thought into this, and seems a little proud at naming the external tormentor.

Similar Products ~ Character Analysis

Red Eye is a thriller film directed by Wes Craven, released in 2005.The main antagonist is Jackson Rippner (Cillian Murphy),a young man introduced in what seems like a friendly manner. He first intervenes as 'back-up' for Lisa against an arguing passenger. He doesn't hesitate to step in, and remains clam throughout the dialogue - this can tell us that his character has a confident and collective manner about himself.He tries to explain things clearly and rationally, but you can see hints of the true nature of his character one the passenger begins to argue once again. He's instant reaction is to grab the mans arm discretely. This sudden and shrouded violent act grabs the passengers attention, and shows he's not afraid to turn to violence if people don't listen to him first time round. H continues a mildly friendly and calm speech, not changing his tone of voice, until his final line. After saying “a lot more thankless than yours.” The passenger's attention is drawn straight to his eyes. From the close up we then see of Jackson, you can see nothing but confidence and a threatening vibe in his sharp eyes. Usually, a low angle shot would show intimidation to the character, and show their vulnerable to the situation. But Jackson turns this situation around – even if he's shorter than another person, he's not intimidated in the slightest and holds his ground. This tells us a lot about him, and gives hints to any possible motives he may have further in the movie. His actions would be seen as heroic from Lisa and the airline worker's point of view, and he plays the passenger off as the 'villain' by making a face that suggests so.

Whilst on the plane, Lisa finds he seat is coincidentally located next to Jackson's. As they sit down, he turns to her with a straight look and asks if she's stalking him.The close up shows the serious look in his eye, and a bit of worry or fear in his features. A mid shot, two shot then shots Lisa's surprised reaction, she also looks quite worried at this point, obviously believing he thinks she's some sort of stalker. The situation diffuses after a moment silence, when Jackson lets a laugh out, and apologizes for the joke, portraying him as a friendly and humour loving man. Since women usually tend to love these types of qualities, it shows that he knows how to act to gain a woman's interest.
As the plane departs, we can suddenly see a dramatic change in Jackson's attitude and personality. At this point, Jackson's character has the light on above him, keeping the audiences focus on him. This can also be seen as mise-en-scene, since Lisa is literally kept in the dark. She doesn't know Jackson's true intentions or motives. He has a small monologue about how some days things just end up going wrong, little does Lisa know, he's talking about himself as being that 'bolt that's not attached properly'. When he admits he's keeping the focus on her and her father, the non diegetic music starts softly in the background, giving the audience their first hints to his ill intentions. His outer appearance hasn't changed, he's still smiling as if trying to be friendly, and his tone of voice is still in bright spirits. His dialogue starts to dramatically change though, revealing little things he knows about Lisa that she's never mentioned. At the mention of his job, he also becomes more fidgety and can't sit still for long. This could portray that he's excited about what he knows, or he's eagerly anticipating seeing her reaction when she finally finds out the acts been a big set up.

He tells her what he does with a serious face, the same one he used when joking about Lisa being a stalker. From this and some suggested smiles, Lisa seems unsure whether to believe him or not, but soon gets scared when she finds he's being serious. As she goes through a list of 'top secret' jobs, he gets a more serious tons, ending with "the money's shit." In response to the mafia. At this point, Lisa realises he's not pulling an elaborate joke, and tries to diffuse the situation yet again.

Similar Products ~ Thriller Timeline

Here is a flash file of my timeline:
http://www.swfcabin.com/open/1333042661

Similar Products - Silence of the lambs analysis

Silence of the lambs follows the story of a young female detective, Clarice, who is trying to work on solving a case of kidnappings. To do so, she tries to enlist the help of Hannibal, a man imprisoned for cannibalism. There are multiple ways this film fits the thriller genre, including characters, themes aspects of the plot.

Typical thriller characters include; innocent victims, psychotic individuals, policemen/women, private investigators, criminals etc. Silence of the lambs fits many of these typical character types. Throughout the film we are shows clips of plenty of innocent female victims, who are unbeknown to the slightly psychotic kidnapper approaching them. One female is even tricked by having her kindness to help a man lift a sofa onto a truck exploited, and is taken and trapped in a pit at the basement of his house, ready for her flesh to be peeled form her body.

The two main characters, Clarice and Hannibal, also fall into these stereotypical character profiles. Clarice shows the air of a strong willed, independent woman working to become an FBI agent. This instantly involves the entire law enforcing force into the films themes, suggesting a lot of the darker side of life is going to be seen in this perspective. Hannibal, a clear psychotic, has a creepily bemusing sense to him. He remains completely calm all film, and has a very sharp mind, being thoroughly trained in psychology – to which he uses against people to get inside their head instead of them getting into his. A lot of his past and details remain a mystery by the end of the film, and you never learn anything about him other than his obvious traits. That air of calmness dissaparates as he is given the chance to get hold of a victim. We see him go berserk and attack one of the guards near the end of the movie, after he gives Clarice back some of her investigation notes.

I'd say the majority of the thriller sense comes from how well his character was portrayed, the feel of the whole film would fall apart if it wasn't for such an intriguingly deceptive character like Hannibal.

The theme of silence of the lambs fits the theme of pursuit of thrillers. Clarice is constantly in pursuit of Buffalo Bill, and seems to be in pursuit of any information she can get about Hannibal. Hannibal on the other hand, is in pursuit of an optimal time. He waits patiently, leading Clarice on, and in some way gaining her trust. Then when she's occupied with the murderer, he breaks out and ensures his freedom in a very clever way.