The backstory to my character 'Claudia':

My second character is Claudia. She is paranoid, mentally unstable, takes inspiration from gothic horror films and programs to put together her own outfits, and has an imaginary boyfriend. Her fashion sense is limited to black colours, as she's desperate to fit into a witchy world and earn her mothers respect. 

My character is the secret daughter of Fiona Goode and is hidden from civilisation. She has grown up into a young witch who is a social recluse – not that she has any choice. She has been kept in an annexe away from the coven by her mother, Fiona, who is embarrassed of her because her powers are weak. Without any powers to give herself a real life boyfriend, she uses her vivid imagination instead. 

She's almost a character who is in constant mourning, with smudged makeup and a sad expression permanently on her face. As she's trapped on her own in the depths of an unknown location in the coven, she has a lot of spare time. She trains her weak powers with great effort every day and eventually becomes a stronger witch. One day, her mother hears her causing havoc in her hideout as she breaks through her bedroom wall with her powers. Fiona, her mother, is furious. She attempts to kill her newly powerful daughter, striking her with her powers and causing her head to crack at the front. Claudia protects herself and her powers keep her strong, so she's left with the wound on her forehead but doesn't die. She can only see this as a good thing, embracing her gory wound and feeling more like a horror character from her favourite films even more. 

My Claudia design is going to feature a very uneven/unperfect black eye makeup look. The lips will be pale, almost deathly. I want to make the eyebrows roughed up, and want messy, uneven hair. In terms of styling, the model will be dressed in all black and she’ll have a black feather neck piece. I think I might spray the lower part of the white rose black, to symbolise her obsession with gothic, or equally I could distort it with blood to achieve the same effect.

I think the look will appeal to the target audience because it will match the confusion of there being an extra character in the series that no ones knows about! A character who has been rejected by her own mother won’t be looking much like a film star.

My chosen inspiring word: SAVE US

I chose ‘save us' because my character is innocent and untainted. She has not seen what the world is like outside her annexe, but has only lived in her imaginary fantasy world that is in her head. Her innocent and naivety is portrayed through anxious looks across her face and how she should be released from being imprisoned by her mother. 

The character would feature throughout the series, however for the final outcome I think she ought to be set up stiffly in her bedroom, looking slightly odd, wearing bizarre clothing and accessories, day dreaming about her fantasy life and unknowing to the real world, . I think I will use the studios to capture this particular image/scene, as I want the lighting to be really mysterious and dark.

In terms of styling, I have a broken black top with holes all through it (intentional!) and a neck piece made up of black feathers. I have taken inspiration for this from the idea that she likes to dress up as bizarre horror characters! I have bought some dark purple flower wallpaper to pin to the black reflector boards in the uni studios and will make it look like the bedroom she's been hidden in for years. I don't want the photos to necessarily look sad and like a prison, as she's unknowing that she's in a bad situation. She is fully content with her fantasy life within the walls of the annexe her mother has imprisoned her in.