Character Development Ideas

 Developing the Antagonist:

Since The antagonist is going to be very mysterious, the development of his character will not be explored too deeply. The antagonist will be portrayed through his mystery elements, which will make up the majority of his screen time. Props such as his calling cards are going to be the main element we will focus upon, and his personality and character will be illustrated in the riddles that are in the calling cards. Additionally, his costume will be made up of entirely black or black and purple (we are still deciding), which will be used to highlight his signature colors and emphasize on the unknown.

The antagonist will be shot from various angles, but, we will show him either without showing his face, or showing him with a mask on. We are choosing to hide his face for 3 reasons. Firstly, not showing his face will allow the audience to use their imagination to fill in the blank which can hopefully make the film opening a bit more mysterious. Secondly, the mysterious effect of the film will be highlighted and the protagonists will have a harder time trying to find and pinpoint who the antagonist is. And Lastly, since all of our actors have softer facial features and exemplify a teenager, we just decided to not show his face entirely which will make the villain look more sinister and intimidating (example in the picture below).

Developing the Protagonists

Starting off, The protagonist's setting will be a small, cramped room where they will spend their entire screen time. We will have minimal conversation between them to emphasize the obsession they have with the case, which ties back to our intention, which is to illustrate the protagonists as obsessed people that are entire focused on the case. One of the protagonists' will have a girlfriend, and then he will leave the room to talk to her. We added this element to show that these are grown people with an outside life but are still very obsessed with the case. This can also appeal to a certain audience / those who can relate.

Moving on, the protagonist's room will be messy and dirty (filled with empty ramen cups, empty coffee packets & mugs, and paperwork everywhere), which is done to further cement the protagonists as preoccupied adults. The detectives will also have one singular monitor which they all share, this is done to again, make them look like obsessed adults. The costume the protagonists will have are just basic pajamas and some will have glasses. Adding all of these mise-en-scene elements is done to project the protagonists as messy and out-of-tune with the world. Meaning, the only important thing on their mind is the case and nothing else.