Our opening sequence represents a social group that are typically associated with the psychological thriller genre and these are males aged in their late 40's who have reasons and motives for their behaviour; they are mentally disturbed. Another social group we haven't shown in the opening sequence but is incorporated in the entire film are the busy, career driven parents who are too focused on their work to worry about their daughter. We felt this is a very relatable social group as due to society today, men and women are working more to provide a better lifestyle for their families; their children in particular.
An influential character that already exists within this genre is "Jigsaw" the killer from the films Saw 1-6. He is old like our character and his motivation for killing people comes down to giving them the one final choice between life and death, as they have abused their life in the past. This is very similar to our Toymaker who gives the parents one last chance to prove their love for their daughters. The actual person we used for our Toymaker character was my brother who is aged 21 but we managed to make him look a lot older through the use of different camera angles and movements. This proved to be incredibly useful because my individual role within the group was the director and having my brother as the only character he communicated well with me; giving his own opinions as well as taking our directions. I feel that if it had been anyone else they may have been a bit more rigid to work with.
CHARACTER PROFILE - Toymaker
- White British male, aged 47-50
- Very simple features nothing too distinctive, dark hair and eyes
- Clothing consists of a plain and simple black coat with black jogging bottoms and a peculiar pair of white trainers. This represents his unclear thinking as he doesn't want to draw attention to himself yet he wears white shoes with all black clothing.
- His movements are very slow, precise and detailed to create an eerie effect. It represents and illustrates his care for the doll he is making during the opening sequence, relating to his care for little girls. Even as he walks to the house at the end of the opening he walks with a dazed essence to him like he cannot see what is wrong with what he is doing. In his disturbed mind he's teaching the parents a lesson.
- The lighting throughout is very subtle and dim. The workshop scenes are supposed to be staged within a cellar/basement atmosphere and we achieved this by putting up blackout boards for walls and tapping/pinning newspaper cut outs, pictures, drawn images all relevant to little girls and the death of innocent children. Pictures of dolls were also put up in order to represent his mental issues.
- The only real interaction we have in our opening is between our psychotic Toymaker and his beloved doll. We aimed for creepy and quite frankly, spine shivering shots/angles by having our actor caress the doll and stroke it as if it were a pet. Through these directions we managed to feel a sense of obsession and portray this to the audience. Similarly to Hannibal Lector who is obsessed with eating human flesh. Additionally, the image "Hannibal" shows the representation for our character is definitely suitable for the psychological thriller genre.
CHARACTER PROFILE – Amy
-White British, female aged 6-7
-She is represented as a sweet and innocent school girl through her costume and hair. She is wearing a red and white checked dress that is her Primary School uniform, and she has her hair in plaits. This is in the photograph we use and on the doll we have as her replacement within the film.
-She is very independent because of the lifestyles her parents lead and this is represented through her walking to and from school everyday. Obviously we haven’t shown this in the opening as it is not relevant to this part of the film, but we would represent Amy as a shy and quiet girl who is used to fending for herself and being on her own is like second nature to her. The idea of her thinking nobody knows she exists makes her the perfect victim for our Toymaker as he is also lonely.
-Her character would know not to talk to or approach strangers and this is represented in the way she walks head down and staring at her feet. Even at school she avoids eye contact with people because through the ignorance of her parents, she is not accustomed to communication and interaction with even the people she does know. This is similar to the character of Vincent in House of Wax. He has a deformity on his face that since birth has left his mother ashamed and determined to let him know he is “different.”
So similarly to our film, the parents have an involvement in the characters personality. However, Amy hasn’t got any actual abnormality about her but her parents ignore her so much, it leaves her unconfident and unable to speak for herself. This is represented through her body language and facial expressions.
CHARACTER PROFILE – Parents
-The mother and father are obviously, female and male and both are aged in their early 40s.
-The mother is a stern and hard working woman and this is represented through her costume, hair and make up. She always has her hair pulled back tight into a formal bun, and wears smart suits and blouses for work. She is represented as a successful business woman however when the key plotline changes and her daughter is snatched in the film, her hair is always messy and matted due to the stress of losing her daughter. Similar to her costume she goes from a pencil skirt and a blazer to sweatpants and a jumper. This represents her as a caring mother after the turning point of the film because her true colours are shown. Her make up also changes as she used to have natural make up that made her presentable within the workplace. However, following the absence of Amy she has bags under her eyes illustrating the lack of sleep she has had, and her face has altogether dropped its fixed serious look and has turned into one of depression and despair. Altogether representing her as a worried mother, desperate to have her daughter back.
-The father is very similar to the mother in the way that he is always formally dressed in suits with his hair combed and gelled but as the film persists and Amy is still missing, his appearance becomes messy and unorganised. This represents him as a father who loves his children and wants to do all in his power to keep Amy safe. He also has bags under his eyes and he grows a beard to represent him as a man losing will to get up in the morning. He slowly loses the hope and faith that his daughter will one day be returned to him.
Concerning directing, we literally showed our actor how we wanted the shot to turn out. We were very clear on how we wanted it and why, and by telling him this he could have an understanding himself and on a few occasions give his own input. For example, there is an extreme close up of the Toymaker’s mouth licking the thread to put it through a needle. We showed him how we wanted it to look so the actor would know what to do. However, he also suggested how if we took the shot from a different angle getting the pictures in the background on screen we could enforce a hidden meaning. So the words “DEAD BABY” were on full view of the shot which represented the Toymaker as a sick minded character.
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