Melodrama: Research Into Setting And Characters.

CHARACTERS:

Lola
Lola is the main character in our film. She is a 17 year old girl who wakes up in hospital after suffering in a tragic accident. She is nothing out of the ordinary and was neither popular or unpopular at school. She is rather reserved in her personality and also feels quite depressed within her current lifestyle. She feels that her parents relationship is hanging on a thread, as they are constantly arguing, often leaving her ignored. Her boyfriend also seems to be becoming uninterested in their relationship, which is making her feel insecure and unsure of herself. The only person she truly confides in is her best friend. Other than that, she feels inferior and like she is a 'waste' - as if nobody truly cares about her. She is very pessimistic but has a dry sense of humor, which her best friend enjoys.

Violet from American Horror Story is a good representation of what we want our main character to be like. She also comes across as depressed and isolates herself on a regular basis, with a dark sense of humor

Lola's Best Friend
Lola's best friend is quite the opposite of her. She is a happy-go-lucky girl with an eccentric and lively personality. Despite the apparent differences between the two, they both have a very close and great relationship. Lola takes comfort in her best friends positive views of the world whereas Lola's best friend enjoys Lola's' mundane, realistic views and dark humor. She is often encouraging Lola to be more happy and be more outgoing. However, we find out at the end that Lola's best friends bubbliness is a mask of her own horrors and pain, when it comes to light that she killed herself after Lola's accident. This makes the audience realize that not everybody seems as they appear.

Lola's best friend will reflect the personality traits of Leah In Juno, who is Juno's best friend who has a very upbeat and comical persona, despite the current situation her friend is facing.

Lola's Boyfriend
Lola's boyfriend comes across as a little insensitive when it comes to their relationships. He is athletic and devotes a lot of his life to football and his friends rather than her. This makes him rather unlikeable throughout the film. He ultimately appears to be the 'villain' of the film when she goes to visit him after her accident and he's with another girl. This ultimately makes him appear sleazy and uncaring. However, we find out that her is devastated by her death and wishes he would have put more effort into their relationship. The girl he was with was a counselor, not another girlfriend. So the audience has a change of heart and empathises with him in the end.

Her boyfriend will resemble Duke from She's The Man, who is a shallow jock who's main interests are football and his friends, but he is later revealed as a caring, kindhearted young adult who enjoys the idea of close relationships.

Lola's Parents
Lola's parents will play a stereotypical, mother and father role. They care deeply about Lola but are often fighting over financial aspects of their relationships, which mean Lola is often left alone and unattended to emotionally. They are on the brink of splitting up after Lola's death, as it affects them on a greater level than Lola would have ever imagined, as she has always isolated herself away from her parents and never developed a close relationship with either of them.

The parents in our movie will reflect the parents of Elizabeth in Drop Dead Fred. They are still together at first but argue constantly over trivial things, leaving Elizabeth alone so she creates an imaginary friend to make her happy and keep her company.

SETTINGS:

HOSPITAL: Our first setting is a basic hospital room, from which Lola wakes up to her friend, encouraging her to go out. The room will be complete with a hospital bed, and a bedside cabinet. We will try to see if it is possible to have a drip machine and/or heart monitor on display to make the scene more realistic. We will try to personalise the room so our audience knows personal details about our character straight away, by sticking pictures up of her and her family. This setting will also be shown at the end , when she returns to the hospital and finds out she's dead.

LOLA'S HOUSE: This is where Lola returns to her house to surprise her parents. The house will be very average, but quite messy to show the loss of control the parents have suffered from due to the loss of their daughter. Beer bottles could be dotted around the house to show that the parents may have resorted to drinking as a comfort. This adds to the unusual and uncomfortable aumbiance of the parents in a heated argument, making the audience aware that something is strange about the parents behaviour.

ACCIDENT SCENE: This scene is used to foreshadow that Lola is dead. We will find an appropriate spot such as a lamp post to lay down flowers, teddies and cards to portray that someone has died there.




LOLA'S BOYFRIEND'S HOUSE: This is where Lola goes to visit her boyfriend to comfort her. Only the outside of the house will be shown, as Lola can see through the window that he is with another girl, then she knocks on the door in pure rage. The house will be similar to Lola's, as its not a far distance from her house.

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