As a junior at Pasco High School, I chose to work with my partner Grace VanBuren. We worked together to add our own input in making an opening scene in a drama, thriller. I enjoy watching movies that make my heart rate rise so the question of what genre of movie to film wasn’t a question. We decided to have her niece play the role of a child getting kidnapped at a park. We tried to come up with a title describing a lost but without saying gone and we decided on “The Vanished”. Getting ZiZi (missing child) to cooperate would be a challenge but the idea was too pure to give it up. ZiZi has to have a real reaction in order for the film to be more realistic, so we brought her to a park but didn’t mention that she would be taken. The kidnapper was a trusted cousin of Grace so we knew he would play a good role in taking ZiZi. The mom role was played by Grace which was a good decision so ZiZi wouldn’t be frantic or uncomfortable. We planned on ending the clip at a police station to add realism and show more of the plot and where the film could lead to if it were a full movie.
As I began my research I came across a pattern of suspense and anticipation. The opening scenes have enough information to start visualizing the plot but lead the audience to wanting to discover more. These movies usually include children, animals, or women getting hurt for the purpose of pulling on a heart string. The main genre conventions with drama thrillers desire to grab the audiences attention with characters that are viewed as helpless. For example children, women, animals or the elderly. The style of the drama aspect of the film draws emotion from the audience and uses realistic characters.
The Vanished 