Character Discussion - Miss Miller

Character Discussion

Introduction

It is important to think about the audience when creating your characters as the audience needs to have someone they can relate to in some way. Other wise relationships between the characters are harder to build. Empathy is a good emotion to have between the audience and characters which is what we have focused on in our thriller films.

Cameron - Antagonist/Protagonist
Cameron is the only male character in our opening sequence. He is 18 years old and is a student that isn't very successful at school. He always looks tired, almost as if he is done with life and everyone. He looks empty and emotionless. His costume involves wearing white when his innocent side is present and black when his very angry, evil side takes over. His very, very quiet and gives of the impression of being disturbed. His very passive aggressive when his evil and while he remains on his good side he is so depressed from all the things he does when his bad, he just ends up feeling guilty. This creates a very sympathetic atmosphere between the audience and the character. At first the audience are unable to know anything about him and are thrown off by the fact a young boy kills himself. This is to chilling and unsettling for the audience and they immediately grow attached to him as they want to know what caused him to go this far. He grew up in a very nice and 'normal' neighbourhood. He remained an only child and his dad was murdered when he was ten, this is what triggered his mental health issues. The murderer was never found causing him to feel very isolated and distrustful of everyone. He suppressed all his anger and emotions and created a whole new personality. He currently attends counselling sessions but he still struggles with his mentality. We decided to name this character Cameron due to the fact that this name is a unisex name and it could be said to display his two separate personality's as this name can be used for two separate people.

Grace - Mother

Grace is 44 years old and is Cameron's mother. She used to spend her time as a teacher at a local primary school but currently just volunteers at the church. She has brown hair with a tint of grey due to the huge stresses she had to deal within her early years. She remains very tired looking and drained and is going to wear an apron/baggy dull top in our opening sequence to show her domestic side. She is a very nurturing character and sometimes over protective towards Cameron. When Cameron's bad side is present he can often feel very smothered in the way she treats him. Overall Grace is a very caring character. In addition to this she was happily married and had Cameron at the age of 26. Her husband was murdered when she was 36. Leaving her to deal with the work and her son. The audience become very intrigued by this character as they may get the impression she is close with Cameron, in the way she talks to him. She asks him questions and often likes to know how his feeling mentally. She worries if he is coping well enough. When she is murdered this contributes to the sympathy that is present in our opening thriller film as the audience know Grace is a very caring character and didn't deserve to be murdered.

Harmony - Friend

Harmony is a 17 year old female student. Shes young with ginger hair and appears to be a very girly girl. Her personality is bubbly and bright. Although deep down she has a very bad case of paranoia over Cameron. She cares about his family and his well being. This is because she has known Cameron all her life. She was very close to the family and feels part of the family herself. Harmony has always tried to look out for him. The use of the name Harmony is to represent the peace and positivity of the character. This character is brought in to create mystery within the opening scene. The audience feel very interested in what happens to Harmony. We plan to have Cameron follow her but we don't see what happens. This is to leave the opening on a cliffhanger. Leaving the audience to question Harmony's well-being. The audience want to know what happens to her. She wear a black coat to represent the dark and chilling danger she is in. This is because although Harmony is a very innocent character at this point her life is in danger and the audience can guess this from just the atmosphere and her costume.

Conclusion

Each of our characters are used and presented in different ways to make up our narrative. Cameron is the conventional mentally unstable character. Very unpredictable and secretive. He creates enigma within the narrative as the audience are intrigued to know all about him and why he acts and does the things he does. Grace is the innocent character that remains to be the biggest victim of our opening thriller. She is brutally murdered by someone she trusted leaving the audience saddened at how someone can be violated in this way. Finally Harmony is used to create enigma in our opening. She seems to have an understanding of Cameron as the audience are aware by her reaction that she is worried and concerned at why Cameron is talking to her this way. As we leave the this characters fate unknown.