Planning:Character development evidence

Character 1: Elizabeth Parker (young)

We based the character of Elizabeth on Dakota Fanning's character Emily in the psychological thriller Hide and Seek. Elizabeth relates to Emily's character a lot as they are both young girls without mothers and have a complicated relationship with their fathers. They are both quite lonely and as a result end up psychologically messed up. Although the character of Elizabeth is more psychologically disturbed than Emily, there is a close link between the two chracters. They are also similar in height and physical appearance and we tried to make Elizabeth's clothes look similar in terms of innocence.

We based Elizabeth's behaviour on Emily as there is a scene on Hide and Seek where Emily plays with dolls, therefore we created a scene where Elizabeth is playing with a toy dog. We also replicated the idea of the stairs and therefore there a number of shots where Elizabeth is on the stairs, like Emily in Hide and Seek.









Character 2: John Parker

We based the character of Elizabeth's father John Parker on the character Malcolm from The Sixth Sense. Malcolm is highly dedicated to his career and by being so dedicated, is neglectful to his family. The character of John, played by Jack Highfield (pictured right), is the same as he is a neglectful father to his daughter which in turn leads to his death, similar to Malcolm in The Sixth Sense who also falls a victim to murder. Both of these characters are murdered due to someone they have hurt in the past therefore there is a strong link between them. Although Jack did not fit Bruce Willis' characteristics in age or height, he was able to convey a convincing perfomance of the character of Malcolm.


Character 3: Elizabeth Parker (grown up)

We based my character, Elizabeth Parker, grown up, on sally field's character Sybil. Sybil was a real life character based on a young women, who's childhood was so harrowing that she developed at least 13 different personalities. Similar to Sybil, my character Elizabeth had a tragic childhood that left her emotionally and psychologically disturbed. Although we did not take the actual childhood from Sybil and make Elizabeth's the same, we did use childhood as the cause of the mental breakdown. Although I do not resemble Sally field in terms of hair and costume, Field played this role for an older generation and as we wanted to speak to a younger generation I wore a top and jeans rather than a suit and glasses.