Claudia; Character Analysis + Research (Key Word, Mood Board, Colour Scheme)

I was debating whether I should use this key word for Claudia or for Quentin. At first I thaught it would be perfect of him as he exists only in her mind, she locks him in the little shed in her garden when she is upset etc. But then after putting more thaught into the world and trying to get into Claudia's head, I realized that 'Glass Prison' describes her best. This key word inspired me and made me question Claudia's actions and helped me to get her know a bit better.

 When Claudia, a 20-year-old girl, returned to her hometown and life she had before she had died, she never left her apartament. Mainly because she was embarrassed of what she did when she was in her untreated state, but because of the way she looked now, too. She is not only a prisoner in her own apartament, but a prisoner of her mind. She is very fragile and not a very strog person, and breaks down easily - just like glass. I would definitelly say she heavily suffers from a mental dissorder, all the signs are there out in the open, and I am talking about schizophrenia, of course. Schizophrenia is a mental dissorder when the patient can't see the difference with what is real and what is not. Common symptoms are; wanting to avoid people, hearing voices, paranoia, hallucinations and delusions. 

Clauda isolates herself from the real, outside world and all the people that once cared about her by living in this little fantasy world that she had created inside her head. Horror films are (were) her main escape from reality, so we can only imagine how frustrated she got when her biggest source of entertainment and joy started working against her, causing flashbacks and nightmares. These flashbacks would remind her of not one but two murders she had commited. She is very sensitive and Quentin is not really trying to make her feel better. He feels like he is constantly walking on eggshells, but since he never got the opportunity to be cured from his 'zombieness', he continues to bring out the darkest memories she has. Everytime he upsets her, she locks him away, hoping it would make her feel better, but it never does, and never will.  

The scene I see Claudia in is when she is sitting on a sofa in her apartament, she just put her favourite film on DVD and made popcorn (even though zombies don't eat, she made them because she likes the smell of them and is one of her rituals when watching films). The presses PLAY and the films starts, but only 8 minutes into the film she had to pause it. The flashbacks are back, she screams, cries and feels like she wants to crawl into a hole. 

As part of our key reading, we were given an article titled 'Horror: the film genre where men don't have all the fun' written by Anne Billson. In her article, Anne talks about how female characters are the ones with crazy, twisted, neurotic minds and not just playing parts of dumb blondes who get slaughtered. She mentions the term "The Final Girl", which Kat told us about in one of our seminars. The Final Girl is the girl that survives it all and makes it to the end. While men are using chain saws and chain saws, women are there to kill not only phisically but mentally, too. I think Claudia's character could easily be found on the list among with Julie Harris in The Haunting, Nicole Kidman in The Others, Catherine Deneuve in Repulsion and many more. 

Nicole Kidman

The Others

Horror Film

2001

(source: http://bsa-troop621.org/photographufm/nicole-kidman-the-others)

Amy Dyer (Emily Bevan)

In The Flesh TV series

Season 1

2013

(source: http://l7world.com/2013/06/in-the-flesh-review-season-1.html)

The word Glass Prison and Claudia's personality firstly made me research mental dissorders, what is schizophrenia, symptomes and how it is treated. I don't want to make her look like a crazy person, but I still want the audience to get that vibe when they see her character. All PDS sufferers are the dead, which reminded me of the death masks, Memento Mori. I reseached images of dead people, not only Victorians, but I think that some images wouldn't be appropriate for posting on the blog and I feel like that would be invading someones privacy. I also researched images of this series, In the Flesh (mainly Amy, who is a PDS sufferer) as well as a few others films such as Warm Bodies and The Dead Inside.

Woman lying in her coffin

19th century

Post mortem photograph

Photographer: unknown

(source: http://www.slightlywarped.com/crapfactory/curiosities/2014/april/memento_mori.htm)

The Dead Inside

Film

2013

(source: http://supervisee2.rssing.com/chan-1605414/all_p4.html)

Dawn of the dead

Image from a scene of a YouTube video for the song "Ballad of Worms" by Cage

2004

Film

(source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NSirMeeX3g)

My mood board is very simple. It consists of four images with hair and make up inspiration and the yellow outline represents the colour clothes that my character is going to wear, as yellow brings out the purple even more. All PDS sufferers were given make up and contact lenses to cover up, so her face will be pale, with a hint of purple under her eyes and a purple lipstick, and she will wear mascara. The hair will be crimped or curly and brushed out, frizzy hair is what I want. Her neck will be bruised - she was strangled to death. I want her to have a lost and blank look in her eyes, she is phisically here, but who knows where she is mentally. 

Mood board

These are the colours I feel would work well with my character and portray the setting quite well. Throughout the first season it wasn't sunny at all, in every scene the sky is cloudy and dull. Every single character is going through a struggle of their own and facing challenges they never thaught they would. A veil of anxiety, fear and depression has been put upon their comunity. The fact that the dead are among the living scares them to death and everyone is taking in this whole situation day by day, secretly scared to death. 

Colour Scheme

http://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/schizophrenia/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/halloween/11200852/Horror-the-film-genre-where-men-dont-have-all-the-fun.html
all reference and images  found on March 21st, 22nd and 23rd 2015