Imaginary
The story follows the life of a girl, Annabel, who suffers from a lonesome childhood due to the daily rejection she feels from her parents and their coldness towards her.To find daily acceptance she creates an imaginary freind to play with in the gardens of her home, Alice.Years later, in her teens she finds she cant get rid of this friend and the prescence of her becomes haunting. She attempts to tell her to leave but Alice turns cold, if Annabel won't live for Alice's company anymore, Alice doesn't want Annabel to live atall.
The film begins with the two girls playing in the gardens, they are spinning and laughing, their hands break apart and they fall to the ground. Annabel looks up and alice is nowhere to be found, the only noise is her father calling her from the house, as he beckons her in for dinner she asks him if Alice can come too; Her father coldly demands that she grow up and stop creating imaginary friends as he pulls her into the house, the strength of his pulling suggests domestic abuse. 10 years on, we see Annabel in the bath washing herself in a seductive way, she begins to breathe heavily as she flashbacks to moments of her and annabel, as she remembers her fathers voice demanding Annabel to grow up. As she closes her eyes she mutters the words 'Go now, leave me alone, I don't want you here anymore... Alice' while her eyes are closed Alice approaches the bath and with no time to scream Annabel is forced under the water, as she emerges- Alice is gone. She pulls herself out of the water, wraps herself in a towel and descends towards the mirror, looking at her reflection she wonders 'is it just tiredness', and then she notices a figure behind her in the darkness of the room. Alice. Alice's hand reaches up and strokes Annabels wet hair, Annabel closes her eyes and when they open, Alice is gone.
Storyline in context with theory:
Propp's Narrative theory:
I believe that the characters of this narrative can be placed into narrative roles rather easily. The protagonist would be Annabel, as the story is centered around her and her struggle to abandon her childhood imaginairy friend. Alice on the other hand could be considered the helper or the Antagonist depending on whether the audience is watching the the scene in which they are younger or older. During the scene in which the two girls are younger Alice is a friend of Annabels and helps her cope with everyday life and what is
hinted as abusive parents. However as they grow up Alice becomes the antagonist, attempting to destroy the protagonist for making her disapear and soon forgeting her. The father also would be considered an antagonist due to his aggresive behaviour towards the protagonist.
However the roles could in fact be changed during the younger years of the video. Annabel could be seen as the damsel in distress, taking the princess role for the beginning of the story. Alice, on the other hand has come to help save her from the nightmares of her life and could be considered (at a stretch) the protagonist or a very strong helper.
Feminism:
The main roles of the narrative of the story have all been assagined female characters and therefore our target audience will be female due to the fact that male audiences prefer male protagonists (Most often so that they can project themselves onto the characters that they are seeing creating a stronger connection between them and the story being told). However within our story we have chosen for the bathing scene to hold many sedective elements of which you would typically veiw in a movie aimed at the male audience. We have chosen to film this scene in this particular way for a variety of reasons, the first being to entertain the male audience that decide to watch the film so
that our movie does not get classed as a chick-flick-thriller hybrid and will be seen as a horror-thriller hybrid as we intended for it to be. Yet in doing this it also raises the question of whether a scene exploiting the woman of the movie must be thrown in to attract the males attention to the movie, and suggests that without a scene of this nature the male audience will never accept the female being given the role of the protagonist within a thriller movie. Or maybe the exploitation of woman in a sexual way has instead become a part of the thriller
genre and is almost expected to be placed within the movie, whether or not the target audience is of male or female.
Another reason we have chosen for this scene to be preformed this way is to symbolise the character
growing up, to show that she is no longer the innocent young girl shown throughout the beggining of the video. There could also however be a link in how there is evidence that the father use to abuse her to how she is bathing herself, in that as the time has gone by the abuse became sexual abuse and is has become natural for the girl to bathe in a way that would be considered sexually pleasing.
Semiotics:
Much of our filming will be taking place within the setting of a bathroom. We have chosen this as a bathroom is considered to be a private place, a place in which you can be alone and will not be disturbed, whereas anyone can gain access to other rooms such as the kitchen. When Alice gains access to the bathroom whilst Annabel is inside it is as if she has penetrated her privacy.
Within our video we have chosen for the murder weapon not to be a knife or a gun, two very typical weapons within the thriller genre, but bare hands. Alice places her bare hands on Annabel in an attempt to kill her mimicking the action in which her father used to handle her when she was younger, using his bare hands. Using hands as a murder weapon is a very personal form of killing someone and Alice is essentially a part of Annabel and therefore we decided it would be an interesting decision and could also raise the question of whether Annabel is killing herself and the possibility of it being a suicide attempt or mental illness.
The story follows the life of a girl, Annabel, who suffers from a lonesome childhood due to the daily rejection she feels from her parents and their coldness towards her.To find daily acceptance she creates an imaginary freind to play with in the gardens of her home, Alice.Years later, in her teens she finds she cant get rid of this friend and the prescence of her becomes haunting. She attempts to tell her to leave but Alice turns cold, if Annabel won't live for Alice's company anymore, Alice doesn't want Annabel to live atall.
The film begins with the two girls playing in the gardens, they are spinning and laughing, their hands break apart and they fall to the ground. Annabel looks up and alice is nowhere to be found, the only noise is her father calling her from the house, as he beckons her in for dinner she asks him if Alice can come too; Her father coldly demands that she grow up and stop creating imaginary friends as he pulls her into the house, the strength of his pulling suggests domestic abuse. 10 years on, we see Annabel in the bath washing herself in a seductive way, she begins to breathe heavily as she flashbacks to moments of her and annabel, as she remembers her fathers voice demanding Annabel to grow up. As she closes her eyes she mutters the words 'Go now, leave me alone, I don't want you here anymore... Alice' while her eyes are closed Alice approaches the bath and with no time to scream Annabel is forced under the water, as she emerges- Alice is gone. She pulls herself out of the water, wraps herself in a towel and descends towards the mirror, looking at her reflection she wonders 'is it just tiredness', and then she notices a figure behind her in the darkness of the room. Alice. Alice's hand reaches up and strokes Annabels wet hair, Annabel closes her eyes and when they open, Alice is gone.
Storyline in context with theory:
Propp's Narrative theory:
I believe that the characters of this narrative can be placed into narrative roles rather easily. The protagonist would be Annabel, as the story is centered around her and her struggle to abandon her childhood imaginairy friend. Alice on the other hand could be considered the helper or the Antagonist depending on whether the audience is watching the the scene in which they are younger or older. During the scene in which the two girls are younger Alice is a friend of Annabels and helps her cope with everyday life and what is
hinted as abusive parents. However as they grow up Alice becomes the antagonist, attempting to destroy the protagonist for making her disapear and soon forgeting her. The father also would be considered an antagonist due to his aggresive behaviour towards the protagonist.
However the roles could in fact be changed during the younger years of the video. Annabel could be seen as the damsel in distress, taking the princess role for the beginning of the story. Alice, on the other hand has come to help save her from the nightmares of her life and could be considered (at a stretch) the protagonist or a very strong helper.
Feminism:
The main roles of the narrative of the story have all been assagined female characters and therefore our target audience will be female due to the fact that male audiences prefer male protagonists (Most often so that they can project themselves onto the characters that they are seeing creating a stronger connection between them and the story being told). However within our story we have chosen for the bathing scene to hold many sedective elements of which you would typically veiw in a movie aimed at the male audience. We have chosen to film this scene in this particular way for a variety of reasons, the first being to entertain the male audience that decide to watch the film so
that our movie does not get classed as a chick-flick-thriller hybrid and will be seen as a horror-thriller hybrid as we intended for it to be. Yet in doing this it also raises the question of whether a scene exploiting the woman of the movie must be thrown in to attract the males attention to the movie, and suggests that without a scene of this nature the male audience will never accept the female being given the role of the protagonist within a thriller movie. Or maybe the exploitation of woman in a sexual way has instead become a part of the thriller
genre and is almost expected to be placed within the movie, whether or not the target audience is of male or female.
Another reason we have chosen for this scene to be preformed this way is to symbolise the character
growing up, to show that she is no longer the innocent young girl shown throughout the beggining of the video. There could also however be a link in how there is evidence that the father use to abuse her to how she is bathing herself, in that as the time has gone by the abuse became sexual abuse and is has become natural for the girl to bathe in a way that would be considered sexually pleasing.
Semiotics:
Much of our filming will be taking place within the setting of a bathroom. We have chosen this as a bathroom is considered to be a private place, a place in which you can be alone and will not be disturbed, whereas anyone can gain access to other rooms such as the kitchen. When Alice gains access to the bathroom whilst Annabel is inside it is as if she has penetrated her privacy.
Within our video we have chosen for the murder weapon not to be a knife or a gun, two very typical weapons within the thriller genre, but bare hands. Alice places her bare hands on Annabel in an attempt to kill her mimicking the action in which her father used to handle her when she was younger, using his bare hands. Using hands as a murder weapon is a very personal form of killing someone and Alice is essentially a part of Annabel and therefore we decided it would be an interesting decision and could also raise the question of whether Annabel is killing herself and the possibility of it being a suicide attempt or mental illness.