Week 5 - Character Design

When designing a character there are many aspects to consider. These include the style, genre, appearance, their interaction with other characters, what the character does and their dialogue.

This is Saoirse Ronan, she plays Susie Salmon in the film The Lovely Bones. Susie is a 14 year old girl who has been murdered and watches over her family and her killer, from heaven. The character is naive, inquisitive, happy, carefree and just a like a child should be. This is portrayed well in the clothes that she wears and the things that she says. Susie is the protangonist in the story with a lot of her dialogue being a voice over, explaining or offering the scene from her eyes. She starts off in the story as this young child whom is happy and inquisitive yet careful. She later misjudges the intentions of an almost stranger who ends up killing her along with lots of other children. As the film progresses the dialogue of Susie Salmon becomes more grown up, as if she is growing and maturing in herself in order to make the right decision. This shows how children are not just unknowing, how they can understand even the most complicated situations. In my opinion Saoirse Ronan plays this character really well. Her naivity, her childish voice offer some sort of comfort to the audience, in which we can grab on to and hope that everything turns out right. The overall storyline works superbly with the voice over of a child. It's refreshing not to be told by an adult.