2. Craig McDermott
Craig McDermott is in his late
20s, was married and had a
daughter a couple of years ago.
After a traumatic event, where
his wife and daughter were
kidnapped and killed, Craig
wanted his revenge. He applied
for a job as a caretaker in the
local
primary
school,
but
throughout his time there, his
inner
personality
will
be
revealed. He will kidnap and
murder young girls to get his
revenge for his wife but most
importantly, his daughter.
Craig McDermott fits in a social group where
many people can relate to. He is a young man,
with a young, new family and is looking for a job
to support them. Many young men can relate to
this character, as they want to make sure they do
everything right for their family. We wanted our
audience to relate to an extent with Craig, but
then as he starts to murder young girls, the
audience will react and understand that traumatic
events in life can really change someone‟s
personality. Craig now belongs to a social group
of people with psychopathic disorders, which our
audience can less relate to, as we do not come
across psychopaths everyday.
George Harvey
“The lovely bones”
George Harvey is an enigmatic
neighbour who is in his late
30s, with gorgeous rosebushes
and
intricate
doll-houses,
seems gentle and isolated from
the outside world, but inside
his own world he harbours the
itch of a serial killer. After
several
young
girls
are
murdered to sate his insatiable
desires, which seem to subside
for various lengths of time, he
is the catalyst who sends the
Salmon family on their journey
for answers and revenge.
George Harvey fits in a social group of men,
with no family, who lives alone in a big house,
taking care of the garden but keeps away from
the neighbourhood. There are a lot of people
like George, whether they‟ve never had a family
of their own or maybe like Craig, who lost his
family and is now alone. Similarly to Craig,
George seems to be a genuinely nice man and
he doesn't seen eerie and dodgy in anyway.
What does seem a little strange, is the fact he
keeps to himself quite a lot, and doesn‟t like
anyone being in his house, reflecting the
personality of a psychopath.
3. When we first had to come up with a storyline and characters for our opening
title, I straight away thought of „the lovely bones‟ and what a great psychological
thriller it was. Here, we can see a great similarity between our character Craig
McDermott and the character from „the lovely bones‟ George Harvey. Firstly, their
costumes are similar, the only difference being that as our movie is set in the year
of 2013 whereas „the lovely bones‟ is set in 1973, meaning our costumes are more
modern and trendy. Yet, they are very similar. Their costumes are casual everyday
clothes, which do not show any signs of eeriness which would give away who they
are and their actual personalities. They have similar coats, large with a neckline
which fold outwards and made from a different material. They both have loose
trousers, with the difference being the colour, blue making it in trend for the year
2013.
When looking at both these characters posture and appearance, we can again see
similarities which therefore link to the appearance, posture and behaviour of a
psychopathic man. We can see they have similar expressions on their face. A
blank expression showing they don‟t have anything to care about. We can see
there is an age difference, where Craig looks more fresh and looked after than
George. Their posture is for both characters straight, which shows they are
powerful but also the main characters in the movies but what is more interesting
is the fact they both have their hands in their pockets. This could connote the fact
they don‟t quite know what to do with themselves when they are not in the
middle of plotting their next move.
4. Both these shots are long shots of the characters, showing more of them, what
they are wearing and how they are standing, enabling the audience to get an
insight of their character, what social group they come from and also see a little
bit of the surrounding they are in.
Here, they both seem to be somewhere isolated, with no one around them,
although George Harvey is in a forest, which is even more isolated than the area
Craig McDermott is in, which is on a road with a field behind him.
I feel the mis-en-scene in this shot from „the lovely bones‟ shows more that the
movie is a psycho thriller as a forest in an isolated place, where many psycho
films are set, away from everything and a little eerie. On the other hand, we could
say that the fact that there are bright leaves in the background makes the
location more happy and colourful, denying the fact that George may
be doing something wrong.
In the shot from our movie, the location seems to be somewhere
where more people would be, as there is a road, a field and houses
in the background. But we van also tell that it is a grey, dull day, which
could connote the fact that there is danger or trouble, making the
atmosphere more tense when the audience are watching.
In our opening sequence, we have used sounds such as children talking,
playing and shouting, the noise of seagulls as well as a heart racing
melody, to increase the tension of the audience, to emphasise on the fact
that we have done a psycho thriller.
