G321: Planning

Ellie, Joe, Beth and Beth

Establishing character profiles is extremely important in planning any film. The character profile is the backbone to the stories and allows the audience to have an insight into their backgrounds.

Character Profiles

Age: 39Gender: MaleDescription and Character BackgroundIn his hay-day our detective used to be a rookie on a case which involved the disappearance of a young girl. This case was eventually closed as there were no leads to the finding of this girl. However, he continued to be involved heavily in the case and pursued it in his private time. He was slowly driven insane as his mind was taken over with this case. He was dismissed from the police force due to inadequate working standards and opening a closed case without permission. 20 years have passed and he is still studying the case. He has converted his room into a make-shift detectives lab. The Detective was then sent to a mental asylum as he was deemed unstable and a danger to the public. He was released a few years later after managing to convince the hospital that he was sane. He now sees the young girl everywhere along with a strange paranormal figure that taunts him. He matched the typical detective background as he works alone, he’s single and a recluse.

Character Profile: The Detective

Character Comparisons

Our detectives personality is a merge of the two detectives from Seven. His state of mind is mainly based on that of Leonardo DiCaprio in Shutter Island. This is due to the fact this our detective may create characters to hid his own guilt/problems, much like Shutter Island. His physical appearance in inspired by Sherlock Holmes from the movies by the same name. However, his personality is not as eccentric as this as he has become a depressed loner.

Age: 12Gender: FemaleDescription and Character BackgroundIn order to come up with a name for this character we looked at names of other young girls (typically creepy girls) from other films. We looked at the name ‘Esther’ from Orphan but decided against this as we wanted an original name. We wanted a common name that could edge on the side of creepy if we used it with the right iconography. We decided the name ‘Charlotte’ as it is a common name. We also decided the last name ‘Adams’ as it is a common/ordinary name and we were inspired by The Adams Family.Charlotte was captured at the age of 12. At this age she would’ve been very vulnerable, however, this age is pre-pubescent so she would have been becoming more aware of herself. We have highlighted this because we want this girl to be a strong character. This would prospectively be shown at the end of the film when it’s revealed that she isn’t the villain. We also chose this age as younger age in children seems to be a common theme within thriller e.g. The Others, Panic Room and Orphan all have younger children who do not exceed the age of 13.

Character Profile: The Girl (Charlotte Adams)

Character Appearance

During our research we realised that most young girls in thriller films have either extremely blonde, or extremely black/dark hair. This hair is often tied in a Victorian bow which we hope to incorporate in our thriller. This bow will then be developed as a major part of our iconography. Our young girl will have gone missing 20 years ago and therefore be dressed in older fashioned clothes. This is also a common theme within thrillers. She will also hold cold facial expressions and lack affectionate body language. Again, this has been seen in many thriller films before. We have compared our profile to the characters seen on the right; The Ring, Orphan and The Shining

Age: UnknownGender: Unknown, presumed maleDescription and Character BackgroundThe Shade is a mysterious figure which follows the detective and torments his mind. To the audience it is unaware whether or not the Shad is real of a figmant of the Detetives imagination. The Shade is a psychoological villain and has no identity. It is presumed that there is more than one shade due to his ability to be in more than one place at once. Sometimes the Detective pictures himself as the Shade as this symbolizes his guilt. The Shade may also turn out to be a Red Herring, simililar to the plot of Shutter Island is which the Shad is created to his our protagonists guilt.

Character Profile: The Shade

Character Appearance

The appearance of the shade is based on the ‘dementors’ from Harry Potter. They also follow loosely on the Grim Reaper. The Shades following personality is similar to that of the villain, Slender man.