PreProduction Unit- Developing Characters and pre-writing

I recently created some character profile sheets for the characters I created for Inoculum, and after some thought I discovered that they were quite generic and wooden. I mentioned previously that making Delaney a "step-mother" allowed for an interesting dynamic between her and Abigail, but other than that, the Reed family seem too... perfect,with little to no differentiating characteristics or underlying personal conflicts to define them.
This was something I really wanted to work on improving, and as such I decided to do some brain-storming, which I hoped would lead to the creation of much more interesting characters, without having to change the overall story of Inoculum too much.
I feel that the most defined character is Delaney, and as such I shall begin with her. I wrote this character synopsis quickly today;

Delaney Reed
Delaney isn't Abigail's blood relative, and in fact, she and Abigail aren't very close at all. At times, it seems almost as if Delaney is vying for Douglas' attention. It seems very much that Delaney is a stereotypical modern day interpretation of the "Evil stepmother", commonly seen in fairytales (albeit not in the classic sense), not paying too much attention to Abigail and mostly wanting Douglas all to herself.
The fact Abigail is held in such high regard and how ABigail's deceased mother is still present in photos displayed around the house is something that intimidates Delaney, so much that she feels like she is merely a replacement. Eventually it is revealed that she merely wants someone to love her as much as she loves them, and due to Douglas' apparent disregard for her deteriorating health later in the film, Delaney leaves Douglas for her own safety, after he grabs her and becomes violent after mistakenly believing she had killed Abigail.

• There is potential to make Delaney considerably younger than Douglas, which would make it more realistic that she would be less willing to be what she considers "Abigail's replacement Mum", as she would still be young enough to want to enjoy her young life before settling down. She could resent Abigail for this reason.
• Delaney would prefer her relationship to be just herself and Douglas, and sees Abigail's presence as just "part of the package."

Something I would like to happen in regards to the evolution of Delaney's character throughout the film is for the audience to begin to feel a sense of sympathy towards her. As she is not a blood relative of Abigail, she suffers the same ill effects of her "cell-stealing" as everyone/thing else, and as a result, she begins to literally fall apart and rot away. This, in combination with Douglas apparently valuing the health of his daughter over that of his wife, and the losing battle for his affection she has with Abigail is something that I hope will cause a shift of who is the "bad guy" and "good guy" of the film, creating a very minor "twist ending."

I hope that an audience will at least begin to understand the reason Delaney isn't as close to Abigail as some mothers are because of this.

Douglas Reed

Douglas is Abigail's only surviving parent. Losing his wife made Douglas overly protective of his daughter, and she is very much the centre of his universe. There are hints that perhaps Douglas would like a replacement mother-figure for Abigail, which is why he quickly married Delaney after being together only a short time.

Douglas is seemingly oblivious to the tensions that sometimes occur between Delaney and Abigail, and is just happy that they are all somewhat of a "normal family" again. When Abigail gets ill with a life-threatening disease, Douglas immediately wants to give her the best care possible, but cannot afford the private health-care that would be needed in order to treat her. When Abigail suggests that she take an experimental vaccine provided by a pharmaceutical company because "mum would have wanted me to at least try" it, Douglas agrees.

When Abigail begins to absorb the cells of the living things around her, and Delaney begins to suffer for it, Douglas reassures them both that everything will be fine, and insists that they put all their faith in the scientists working on finding a way to reverse the process.

• Douglas appears to be still very much in love with his previous, deceased wife.
• He doesn't understand that what he sees as a sweet sentiment to Abigail's mother (having photographs of her mother still around the house) is actually affecting Delaney and making her feel uncomfortable.

Abigail Reed

Although she is very close to her father, she is very rebellious towards Delaney. She harbors an unspoken resentment towards Delaney since she married her father. She believes that her father remarried too soon after the death of her real mother, and feels that she is being pushed out.
When she becomes ill, Abigail immediately wants to take part in the OmegaPharm clinical trials (mainly due to wanting to avoid the possibility of having her arm amputated.)

• Abigail has fond memories of her mother, and brings her up quite often. This, along with the photographs of her mother around the house could be seen as a sign that she is merely trying to make Delaney feel uncomfortable, or not as important as her real mother.
• Abigail understands that her condition causes her body to "steal" the cells of all living things around her, and it frustrates her that she cannot control this, and that people are suffering because of it.
• Abigail considers killing herself in order to stop herself from harming others, but ultimately cannot go through with it.

I hope to continue developing these characters, and I also hope to discuss them with the cast members that will be playing them in the future so that they can really make the characters their own.