At first choosing a name for the antagonist was difficult as we wanted to make sure the name was ominous and mysterious. We originally thought of naming the antagonist something like "Phantom" because of the connotations of a ghost and of a phantom thief. However, we rejected this idea because we thought that it was overused in mystery films. Then, I decided to research alternative ghost-like names that were similar such as Poltergeist, Banshee, and Revenant, but ultimately decided to name him Shade.
We decided on Shade because it symbolically represents darkness, complexity, and anonymity which reinforces the mystery as the identity and motives of the antagonist are unclear throughout the opening. Since the antagonist is mainly going to be mysterious, we aren't going to dive in too deeply with his development. We are mainly going to portray him through the mystery elements, which will make up a majority of his screen time. The main element we are going to focus on will be the props such as his calling cards, as his personality and character will be indirectly developed through the riddles that are going to be inside of the cards. The riddles have the added effect of including the intellectual component of the film. Additionally, his costume design will be decided later as we are unsure if we want the main colors to be either entirely black or a mix of black and purple to be his signature colors.
The antagonist will be shot from various different angles, but we will either shoot him with a mask on or without showing his face. We are choosing to his face for 3 different reasons. First of all, not showing his face will allow us to engage with the audience's imagination as they will try to picture and imagine what he actually looks like and makes him seem more mysterious. Second of all, the mystery aspect of the genre will be emphasized as one of the protagonists' main goals is to find the true identity of the antagonist. Lastly, since all of our actors are teenagers and appear more childish, we decided not to show his face entirely which makes him seem more sinister and intimidating which solves two problems in one. (Example shown below.)
Development of the Protagonists "Matthew" and "Oliver"
For the names of the protagonists, we were originally going to do simple names like Cade and Dave. But we ultimately decided to put in more effort for at least one of them and decided to include subtle symbolic and religious meanings. We chose the name "Matthew" due to its origins as of the twelve disciples of Jesus. Another reason is because it is a common modern name as we don't want the connection to be blatantly obvious. For the second protagonist's name, we decided to research the most common names and found the name Oliver which is ranked third. To start, we will portray them in the setting of a small and cramped room which is where the entirety of their screen time will take place. We are going to have minimal dialogue between them as to emphasize their obsession and tiredness with the case, which ties back to our original intention of making it clear that they are entirely focused on the case. One of the protagonists will have a lover (undecided if married or not) and have that protagonist leave the room to go and talk with her. We included this element to represent that these are grown adults with an outside life but are still obsessed with their work. This appeals to a specific audience that can relate to this situation.
Additionally, we will have the protagonist's room be very messy and dirty with props like empty ramen cups, empty coffee mugs, and scattered paperwork to further emphasize their obsession and dedication to the case. For costume design we decided to have them in disheveled suits and clothes to make it clear that they stayed up working on this case. In conclusion, the inclusion of all of these mise-en-scene elements have the effect of portraying the protagonists as messy and out-of-tune with the rest of the world as the most important thing on their mind is the case.
Matthew (Disciple of Jesus)
No comments:
Post a Comment