Developing Characters

 Character Development!

Character development is an important aspect of any story, especially a Coming-of-Age story. Yes, we are only producing an opening, but knowing both the plot of our film and how the characters grow throughout that story is vital in creating an opening that reflects both aspects. 

"So... what is character development?" is what you may be saying. And to respond I'd say "You seriously don't know?". Later on, I'd regain my manners and explain that character development is the development of a character! Alright, let me be more specific.

To make characters interesting, story creators give them growth throughout a story which may change some of their traits or behaviors for better or for worse. The growth takes place over the entire story and a character endures this change due to the events of the story and the challenges they or others have faced. Character development creates dynamic characters and therefore a dynamic story. Without GOOD character development, a story tends to fall flat and no one wants to engage in a boring flat story. 

Our Character Development!

With this knowledge of how important character development is, me and my group have come together to talk in-depth about how we plan for our characters to develop and came up with solid ideas and have a strong plan to foreshadow that growth in our opening. We plan on having all three of the main characters within our opening and therefore have planned out all three of their developments. So, let me break it down for you.

Sam/Atticus:

Sam, aka "Atticus", is our main character. He is an artistic 16-year-old high school student whose passion is creating fantasy comics. He loves everything about the fantasy world and even sees himself in the fantasy world. He relates everyone he meets to a type of fantasy character and he copes through hard times by imagining himself going through an action-packed adventure in the fantasy genre caused by these events. His main inspiration for his comic is his across-the-street neighbor Aurora, who he's been in love with for most of his life.

Escapism can be a great coping mechanism for many! It isn't necessarily a bad thing as long as it doesn't take over one's life. Unfortunately, that is what is happening to our main character. He is letting this fantasy take over his life. It starts as something innocent but then it begins to hurt the people he cares about. In the end, he grows to understand when it is time to leave this fantasy behind, but since it is part of who he is, he still enjoys going into it time for time. But he grows into knowing when it is time to leave the fantasy for his comic and behave properly in the real world. Properly being his normal self and not forcing any cliches or archetypes from the fantasy genres onto others.

What causes this change in his mindset is mostly seeing the way he hurts the girl he is in love with, Aurora. She and him become friends through their enjoyment of the arts. Her with photography and him with traditional drawings. However, he sees her as a princess in need of saving from a monster (her boyfriend) and begins to treat her as so. He forces her into a box when he once allowed her to fully express herself. Sam/Atticus begins tampering with her life because of all of this and in turn, she stops being his friend after a big fight. This makes Sam take a step back and realize how he affects others through these fantasies, including his own mother. He reflects on himself and through the therapy that art provides him Sam realizes who he really is and who he wants to be. 

Aurora:

Aurora is also a 16-year-old high school student. She used to be a very outgoing and popular girl at her high school, being the president of the photography club. However, she became a lot less social and less herself after getting a boyfriend. Now her outgoing nature has been subdued and her passions have been lost to her. Her personality has been dulled out to everyone, but her across-the-street neighbor Atticus.

Aurora's storyline tackles the very important topic of toxic relationships. Her boyfriend, Kai, is a complete jerk to her and to everyone around her. But, he will then go on to make very big and romantic gestures to essentially love-bomb her. He also guilts her a lot of the time to make her stay with him which of course is a clear sign of a toxic relationship. He makes her feel dependent on him and that she can't leave him. Alongside that, she adopts some of his interests and styles due to the suffocating nature of the relationship. The end of her story has her finding the support and resources she needs to stand up for herself, leave her toxic relationship, and leave the boxes everyone has been putting her in.

This change would happen slowly and be caused by several things like her giving back her passion for photography thanks to Atticus, gaining back friends old and new, and finding the strength needed to stand up for herself. At the beginning of the film, she's very passive and very suffocated within the relationship she has with Kai. She may give him sass, but it is all bark and no bite. However, as the story develops she grows back into who she once was, letting her own personality and own interest shine back through. She now won't let anyone put her back in that box.

Kai:

We have another 16-year-old high schooler but his name is Kai. He has a very large ego and is just a jerk. He does seem to have some interest in music and cars, but it is nowhere near his love for himself. He doesn't truly care about anyone but himself. He likes the idea of having a girlfriend, but does he like his girlfriend? He enjoys tormenting Atticus because he finds him very odd and thinks that things and people he doesn't understand deserve the treatment he gives them. He is very destructive almost to cover up something vulnerable inside of him.

Kai has a smaller character arc than the other too, because although he goes through some change, he's too stubborn in his ways to completely change. Kai likes control. Not just likes it, but needs it. So while losing control over his own girlfriend he becomes very irritated. He was always a jerk but now he becomes a straight-up bully especially to Atticus because he views that as his only way to get control back. But when he ends up finally losing everything he did have control over, even his girlfriend, he begins to understand that his behavior isn't right. He started a jerk, got worse, and then got better. But he won't ever be a "good" person. At least not in the film. He would just let loose a little and leave behind some of the control he once had. But his mean-spirited nature won't ever go away.

Tying it into our Opening!

The main use for creating these storylines for our characters and understanding how they are going to develop throughout the entire movie is to make our entire opening feel full. What do I mean by that? What I mean is that I want to fill the opening full of mise-en-scene elements to represent who the characters are (soon to be fully discussed in upcoming blogs) and for them to behave appropriately according to their narrative. Fully understanding our characters lets us set up the scene perfectly! 

Showing Sam/Atticus's fantastical side but leaving some of it behind as he leaves his room, showing old pictures of Aurora being bright and outgoing next to her dulled out side, and Kai having full control over his car is just the surface of representation we aim at doing in our opening. I'll be doing a further dive through of the mise-en-scene elements and their tye into the character development, so stay tuned!