Q2

 Sam played the antagonist or the victim/hero. We looked at other heroes and victims to see what they looked like and how they dressed, we looked at taken first as we knew that it is a popular thriller which uses lots of conventions of traditional thrillers so we thought that it would be a good place to start. We then looked at the Bourne identity but we couldn’t find any characters that were similar to our character so we decided to use the one we had found in taken. We chose to use normal clothing, this fit in with the narrative as he was supposed to blend in with civilians as he was on the run from the men so if he was dressed in army clothes or like a soldier then he would be easily recognised and they would easily be able to find him. Having him dress in normal clothing makes him seem not important and not part of the main plot. We chose to have him sitting down away from the men or running, this symbolises weakness, and being a coward and trying to avoid all conflict by hiding inside of the cabin in the construction yard until the men find him where he then runs away to another hiding place.

I compared this character to “Kim” from Taken; both characters play an important yet lesser role in the films the story couldn’t exist without them however they aren’t constantly in the film and aren’t constantly referred to. Although one character is male and one is female, they are similar in other ways than appearance. They are however different ages, one is a 15 year old teenager and the other is a young adult aged between 20 and 25, they are both wearing similar clothing, they are wearing casual clothing that you would wear when you go out with family or when you just go out with friends. The man from our thriller is only known as the wanted man in the opening he plays an important role as he is wanted by the other men for a reason that is currently unknown to the audience, however you don’t know from the opening if he is the only man they are after or if he is even the main character. In taken Kim is the daughter of Liam Neeson, she plays an important role as she gets kidnapped so the film follows Liam Neeson as he tries to find her and get her back. It follows where Liam Neeson goes through Paris so it follows both characters but mainly it covers Liam Neeson so she only plays a side role. Both characters display similar characteristics and they both act similarly. It seems that neither are trained or want to try to fight off the men that are coming after them. Both characters try to hide from the attackers that are after them and both are alone and look worried like they can’t look for or ask for help in the fear that the men might find and kill or kidnap them. The shot is fairly similar as they are both mid-shots that show most of the characters appearance however they only show the top half of the character so you can’t see all of the characters clothes. Both are filmed inside and inside a house, the angle of the camera shows weakness in the character. Both are in well light rooms however from the shot you can’t see what time of day it is outside.  

The character don’t display similar facial or physical features yet the rest of their features are similar and they   both have very worried looks on their faces which could mean that they both recognise the danger that they are in which would mean that  they are intelligent characters. During taken the girl is in a house with her friend and then she sees her friend get grabbed by some unknown men, this triggers her to ring her father and hide under the bed. This is similar to our thriller as the character is calm and fine until he hears and sees the men coming towards his hiding spot which causes him to leave his things and run out of the place and find a new hiding spot. The narrative of the films is similar because they are both doing the same action however one character is older and one character can ring for help which the older man can’t do that.

Our thriller film is also similar to a film called man on fire as in this film an ex assassin is contracted to protect a family that could be in danger, the main character builds an unusual bond with the family’s daughter, she then gets kidnapped and has to go find her on his own. This is similar to our thriller as all we learn from the opening titles is that there is a man that is on the run from a group of soldiers and we don’t know what his motive is or what he has done wrong, however each different audience member will have a different view and representation of how they picture the rest of the film. The main characters in both films are similar as both have a motive that is why they are doing their mission, however a difference is that the character from man on fire is trying to get something back that means a lot to him whereas we don’t know the motive of the main character from our thriller. They are different in their personalities seem different as one of them runs away from danger and the other one seems to be attracted to danger and action because of what he wants back. One of the men is being hunted by soldiers of an unknown organisation whereas the other seems to be hunting men from an unknown organisation.   

Glen played the role of the main attacker/villain/protagonist. He wore dark clothing so that he could blend in with the time of day and it would be hard for the people he was going after to see him. We decided on what he would wear and how he would wear it by looking at other villains from thrillers to see what they wear normally the first film that we looked at was lone survivor and we looked at the soldiers from that to see the typical clothing that soldiers have to wear. We then looked at the film Bourne identity as it contained soldiers and it was in a city setting so we could do a comparison to our thriller. We compared this shot and character to Mark Wahlberg in lone survivor.  The characters are different in the sense that mark Wahlberg plays the hero and from the opening it seems that the other character is the villain. However both characters wear similar clothing and they both wear body armour, we got the idea to use body armour as many soldiers in films wear body armour to give a more realistic effect.  One character wears a hat to cover more of his face and one character wears a balaclava to hide all of his face and so nobody knows who he is. Despite one character being a hero and one being  a villain, they do display similar features, both shots are done in the outside. One shot is at night and the shot and character is only visible because of the lamppost or lights that are above his head.







The difference in lighting between the two characters symbolises the different kinds of tasks that they have to do and what kind of character they are.  Both of the camera shots used are close ups of the characters faces, they are used to show facial detail and to show the audience what they look like. Both of the characters use the same prop, a gun, it symbolises that it is an action thriller and that they are soldiers.  

We also found that our character could be compared to the villain in Bourne identity as we wanted to compare it to someone of a similar motive and of a similar mind-set; this gave us a better idea of what they wear and how they act in comparison to heroes.  In the Bourne identity the antagonist is trying to recover his identity as he suffered a head trauma which caused him to have brain damage and memory loss, he is also trying to remember why this villain is after him and trying to kill him  as he doesn’t remember why he is being attacked. The characters are similar as they both have a stern face and they are concentrated on looking directly at something.