Character Development

    Hi Blog! For our character development, we have specific plans for each character, as a coming of age film focuses heavily on the development and maturity of the characters. When we planned out our entire film, we also decided on the path that we wanted every character to take, and how they would progress throughout the film to depict certain themes. The changes in each character will follow the plot diagram below, specifically during the rising action, which is the bulk of the story.

    For Sam, we are going to establish in the beginning that he is clearly not confident, or very happy with his life in the real world, so he uses the fantasy world as an escape from reality. The symbolism for this feeling is Sam's wizard cape. He only wears it when he is inside his room/house, as we will show in our film opening. Once he pretty much only leaves his house for school, because he does not have very many friends, but once he is inside where he is the most comfortable, and authentically himself, he puts on the cloak. Throughout the film, when Aurora gets closer with Sam, and he realizes that the real world isn't so bad when you actually have people to experience it with, he stops wearing the cloak, as he no longer feels like he needs to hide from the real world. That is the major character development that will happen, because Sam is the main character.

    Aurora's character development was especially fun to create, because her character is so layered. In the beginning, we know that she is dating the "dirtbag" Kai, and although his aggressive behavior does not rub off on her, she definitely feels restrained in how she can act, since Kai has such a strong reputation that she feels obligated to support. As his girlfriend, she dresses in darker clothing (which I will get into in my next blog post), follows Kai everywhere, and never argues with him, despite knowing how cruel he can be. Over the course of the film, Aurora will become more independent from Kai, before she breaks up with him after finding out about him inevitably cheating on her. She will also become more herself, as Sam shows her that she doesn't have to hide herself to fit in with her boyfriend's friend group.

    Lastly, we have Kai. Since he is the main antagonist of the film, he will not develop much, in term of maturity, however he will develop to be more hostile towards Sam. Although it is not a positive development, it is a development none-the-less. In the beginning of our film, Kai just sees Sam as a loser, and is not concerned about him whatsoever, but as Kai's girlfriend hangs out more with Sam than him, he cares more and more about Sam. This is because throughout the film, Kai's main theme is the need to fit in and protect your reputation, which he feels is being threatened by Aurora being around someone of lower "social status" than them.