Convention of Theorists Propp and Todorov

These are two theorists well known in the filmmaking world. They categorize films, claiming that they all, or mostly, follow certain patterns in relation to characters and plot.

Propp

Propp's list of character types states that 8 different roles are taken up. He studied Russian fairytales to find these roles, although they do apply very well to many films today. They are: 

• The villain
• The hero
• The donor who provides an object with some magic property
• The helper who aids the hero
• The princess, reward for the hero and object of the villain's schemes
• Her father, who rewards the hero
• The dispatcher, who sends the hero on his way
• The false hero

Although our thriller opening is only short, it is clear to the audience that we have a villain, but Propp suggests that the villain is always out to get the princess, a role we do not have in our film, and even if we did, the killers motives are unknown, and supposed to remain that way.
However the victim in our film is not the 'princess'  and is just their as a prop to show what the antagonist is like. This is the only relevance the victim has in the film, they are not a main character like the 'princess' or the 'hero'. However the rest of our film will probably establish these popular roles making it similar to Vladmir Propp's theory.

Todorov

Todorov's studies concentrated on narrative, and he resolved that every film began with equilibrium, which is then lost, and then a new equilibrium is found towards the end. Our film begins with complete disequilibrium, and the death of the main character is something very rarely done, although I believe it works well as a talking point so early on in the film. Also, most indie films end on a more realistic tone than "fairytale Hollywood endings" and so our thriller would be likely to follow the same path.
Our thriller opening starts off with equilibrium where a normal woman comes home from work and there is nothing out of the ordinary. It then changes to disequilibrium where the radio news report comes on explaining that there is a killer and then the reveal that the innocent looking woman is actually the killer. However, in our thriller opening we never actually go back to the equilibrium and we would like to think that if the storyline to our film ever did continue that at the end of the film the new equilibrium would be apparent. However when that would be revealed there would then be a shocking and unanticipated surprise to finish the film off. I think that this will make it a good film as a whole and will portray the thriller genre well.