Character planning is the best part

Character design is easily the most fun part of any film or project. Having the power in your hands to make a personality from scratch and giving them their quirks and traits to make someone completely opposite of yourself or anyone is just exhilarating for me. 

We have a main character but also an unseen character. We decided to change the name of our main character from Anne to Layla, when we researched names Sam found the name Anne meant solitude in another language which was perfect but we later found out it means the exact opposite so we settled on Layla as Layla in Arabic means "Dark one". Layla will be set in the present time and our unseen artist, Cam, will be set in the past. 

The character Cam is seen as eccentric as they strictly stick to art and are secluded most of the time. They started out doing art as something they enjoyed as a hobby but started getting recognition through it, which was never enough, and always wanted more, ultimately leading to their downfall. We chose the name Cam as it's very gender neutral and being an artist most painters tend to be very open and free (along w VERY eccentric) so we felt that name best represented them. 

Cam Dream board:

Cam Immediately reminded us of David bowie so their looks/clothing is mostly inspired by him. They're a very flamboyant character. They're very egotistical, if their work isn't the best of the best they lose it.  They're a bit rough around the mental edges as they always strive to be first regardless of how popular they've gotten,  they always need more which will be shown in our opening through old pictures spread around the room during the credits. 

Layla Dream Board: 

Layla is the main character of our story. She's a bright-eyed excited and passionate artist. But very obsessed with Cam and his work from the past. She ASPIRES to be exactly like cam without knowing the path cam ultimately went down. Layla is the borderline stalker type of obsessed. She has all of his old artwork, old magazine interviews, and newspaper pages with Cam's name/face on them.