We decided from the beginning we would have a brunette as our protagonist to go against the stereotype of having a blonde protagonist who is killed straight away. Also, our character has similar looks to Lisa (Sian Brecklin) from Donkey Punch who is the final girl. We did this to give a twist to the story, to make the audience think that she may get away and not get killed.
The Protagonist and the Antagonist
For the main characters we did not hold a casting session as we thought it would be to time consuming and we had a few ideas of people we knew who could play the parts. We had already decided to use a group member as the female protagonist.
The main male protagonist in the school scene was chosen because he creates a binary opposition between himself and the female protagonist, Mandy. This is because the girl is pretty and 'cool' as she has a group of friends surrounding her and the guy is not as attractive and 'geeky' by what he is saying and his mannerisms, in contrast to the female who seems cold and not as interested in the fact there splitting up.
The antagonist was chosen because again, he is binary opposition to the other male and female as he is a lot taller and bigger then the other two characters. It conotes he is more powerful and strong, making the female look vulnerable.
The main male protagonist in the school scene was chosen because he creates a binary opposition between himself and the female protagonist, Mandy. This is because the girl is pretty and 'cool' as she has a group of friends surrounding her and the guy is not as attractive and 'geeky' by what he is saying and his mannerisms, in contrast to the female who seems cold and not as interested in the fact there splitting up.
The antagonist was chosen because again, he is binary opposition to the other male and female as he is a lot taller and bigger then the other two characters. It conotes he is more powerful and strong, making the female look vulnerable.
Our cast is quite a narrow representation of the general public as all the characters are 17 years old, appealing to the youth audience. The characters are also all white, and middle class characters. But this doesn't mean it wont appeal to a wide audience as most productions who have no non-Caucasian characters, don't suffer for it commercially. Horror films which do include ethnic minorities, such as Scary Movie with the character 'Shorty Meeks' who dies in the first half of the film. This could show that films show a negative representation of ethnic minorities.
Eventhough we have a narrow representation of the public, we decided it would be more accessable to have teenagers playing teenagers, as it would be more realistic than having teenagers playing a doctor or police man. Although, it is not a big problem that we have only representated teenagers as many other successful films have done the same, such as Final destination.
A conventional slasher with middle class characters targets C1C2DE audiences. Films that generally appeal to a ABC1 audience are high budget with no teenagers, as our film is low/no budget and is based and teenagers, this may mean we have no appeal to ABC1s audience.
We could have gained a cross over appeal to an older audience by featuring a parent, even for a short amount of time just till the audience feels they can relate to the character. Or by using a song from the 70's/80'/90's era but due to copyright complications, this wasn't possible.
The Protagonist and the Antagonist
Mandy: 
Matt:
Matt:
No comments:
Post a Comment