Trick of the Dark- Characters: Scott

While writing my films I like to take my characters and think of what similar characters there are in other films, in doing this it helps to flesh them out more but also helps me to think of how these characters would react to certain things based on how similar characters react in other films. This doesn't however mean that they are a direct rip off of another character as they are often hybrids of them or they are based on real people I have known. I don't think that any character is truly original because theres so many variations of people in the world and in film that of course some will be similar but when we factor in the actors portrayal and different people's writing styles, I also believe that no two characters are the same either. Anyway, the point of this was not to tell you that characters are similar or different, it was to tell you about my characters and how I made them and where I draw comparisons from. So without further ado:

Scott
The first and most important of my characters is Scott, the protagonist of the piece and the one who we are supposed to be most aligned with is an amalgamation of a few characters and people, the first of which is myself. Look, I said this was based on experience, but I don't want to make it overly personal so much so that I only I get something from it, however, the starting point for this whole process was my own experience and as such it would only be logical that a part of my own personality has gone through to the final character, so I will say this, the character's experience of being alone and isolated stems from my own experience of these feelings and some of his actions stem from my own. However, I did not want to make Jack Blakeley the movie, so I tried to mould the character into a person different from myself, the first way I did this was by giving him a family and a wife, unsurprisingly I am not married and as such this means then that I would have to push the character away from myself and draw upon other influences, A very useful experience in making the character more three dimensional, for me the inspiration for this aspect was Tom Hardy as Ivan Locke in the 2013 film Locke, a film I mentioned in my pitch it is a powerful character study that cleverly highlights a man's inner turmoil and mental battles, though again Scott is not an exact replication of Ivan Locke, there are obvious comparisons such as his problem solving mind that is still prone to emotional influence and the fact that he tries to please everyone at his own expense often. There is also his passion, he is a reserved person but when it calls for it he is also a passionate character. And finally he is also emotionally conflicted throughout the film and this is something he shares with Scott.

The difference however, between Scott and Ivan is that Ivan Locke is having a bad time but seems to have his life and health together aside from this bump in the road. Scott however is much more of a mess, though outwardly he seems fine, beneath the exterior he is damaged and isolated and he feels as though there is no space for happiness in his life, he has the outwards appearance of a man like Locke but however underneath he is hiding a lot of inner pain and loneliness that the film will serve to highlight within the overarching metaphor of the cave. In terms of the character though I would suppose that this aspect of Scott would be closer to someone like Ed Norton's 'Jack' from Fight Club, while this is the unofficial name of this character in the film for clarity I will refer to him as Jack, in particular I am referring to the character at the beginning of the film before he meets Marla and Tyler, as this sparks a transition in the character. In particular, to get back on track, I am referring to the manner in which Jack coasts through life with no purpose or joy or even without anything other than his monotonous job to give him a reason to keep going. In this character, though to his peers and anyone even remotely close to him (though he doesn't really have anyone) he would seem like your average joe with not a care or worry in the world, in actual fact he is emotionally damaged and he loses sleep over his issues as well as the fact that he tries to find joy in purchasing furniture though it does nothing to help him out at all. 

The final character I would like to very briefly talk about is Jennifer Lawrence' character in Silver Linings Playbook: Tiffany Maxwell, of the three of the characters I have mentioned, she is the one that explicitly is dealing with depression, the film is about two people who suffer with mental health issues who find each other and as such it is made clear why she is the way she is, while in my film it will not be explicitly clear why Scott is the way he is but this will be the same reason and it is interesting to see in Tiffany how like Scott she is very unstable but still seeks to make people happy and he has a lot of love to give people despite often wanting to be away from people. Essentially both characters are just looking for someone to help them escape from themselves and move on from the damage that has been done to them, that essentially is the crux of what I want to portray, no one want to be in their situation but its something that is a constant battle to escape from they just need the help of people around them and they need to be forced to not isolate themselves, though this contradicts what they will be telling themselves to do.

This has been something of a messy post about Scott as a character but it has been useful for me to identify similarities with other characters so that when it comes to rewriting the script and evolving the characters then it will mean that I have a much more solid idea of what the character would be like on screen and how they would react to scenarios.