Characters: who will play the male and why?

The actor to play Becky’s boyfriend is yet to be decided on. At this moment, I have no idea who I am going to use. I have contemplated using a friend of mine who I was in a music video with a few weeks ago. His looks are perfect for the part; quite tall, strong build, dark hair and eyes and subtle facial hair. However his acting skills weren’t too professional or convincing. But the lead male in this will not have to do much acting that needs to be convincing, it’s all quite casual. So, he is a strong possibility.
The character of the male is being based around my perception of a male who is caring yet also a bit of a joker. He is less focused on compared to the female character. Whoever plays the part of the male will wear jeans and a t-shirt -I decided that a polo top would look too smart for this character- with possibly a jumper over the top. His shoes will be smart casual. I want the male to look quite strong and manly, to almost pretend he’s the protagonist.
For the moment, there isn’t much I can say about the male character as I haven’t decided who I want to use and why.

Characters: who will play the female and why?

The characters for my opening sequence are going to be a boy and a girl, who are a couple. They would both be classed as being “normal”. I would define the term “normal” through their middle class background, general lack of deviance but strong realisation for respect and obeying the law, also through their aspirations of achieving well in their life through working hard and having well respected jobs.
The female is a white, 16 year old girl from a middle class background, her name is Darcy. However we do not discover her name in the opening sequence.  Darcy is on a picnic at a haunted battlefield on with her boyfriend Freddie. Freddie is a white 18 year old, also from a middle class background. The narrative context of the opening sequence will involve Becky acting really sweet, then being scared, whilst Freddie is quite boisterous and a bit of a joker.
I’m basing one of the characters around a friend of mine called Becky, who -after deliberation- I have actually decided to use in my opening sequence. The leading female character role was between two friends of mine, Maddy Davies and Becky Evans, both chosen for similar reasons.
Maddy is a white, tall, slim girl with brown curly hair.

Becky is an average height, slim, white girl with long brown hair and a fringe.

For appearances, the choice between the two was matched; both are attractive girls who look good on camera. To help me make my decision, I decided to film both the girls acting out some of the dialogue I am thinking of using in the opening sequence.
These clips have made it clear to me that Becky is a more talented actress that Maddy. Therefore, I chose Becky to be the female. Additionally, Becky is smaller and has a fringe; I think that both of these attributes assist in creating a more vulnerable character. I think a fringe is usually associated with children, therefore emphasising this vulnerable idea. Similarly, Becky is smaller which means she looks like she’d need to be protected from the protagonist, enhancing the idea that the protagonist is powerful and frightening.
I’ve decided that Becky will wear clothes that will suggest a sense of her having a unique style, but also looking susceptible. She’s going to wear a floral dress, coloured tights and a pair of “dolly” shoes or “pumps”; however the exact clothes are yet to be decided on due to sizes and availability. The associations usually made with that sort of style are usually young girls. This will reinforce the idea that she is weak and vulnerable, making her a more convincing antagonist. Her make-up will be natural, yet still enough to see that she’s a teenager who has taken the decision to wear it.
Her dialogue will be very innocent and good natured to suggest that she doesn’t deserve to feel frightened; we don’t watch to watch her being scared as it makes us feel scared watching. I’m actually basing her facial expressions and body language around the Disney character Bambi. In the film Bambi we see a real contrast between the protagonist and antagonist through their distinct differences in character. The pureness and sweetness of the antagonist will emphasise the danger of the protagonist.
I want to create Becky as looking like a small character in both meaning and body proportions. I will do this through various shot types. I will use medium shots and medium close-ups so that I can clearly show her facial expression, but also I want to show the space around her in a shot so we feel like the space is closing in around her. I will use very long shots to make her look small and almost an easy target.

My decision to make Darcy an innocent character came through conversations with other media students. We all collectively decided that when the protagonist is scared, we as an audience feel more scared. For example, in Action films, teh protagonist is brave and fearless, so we follow their attitude and feel more calm. This makes us a passive audience; letting what we watch decide how we feel.

Audience profile.

General:
Jennie is a 17 year old girl who lives at home with her parents and 6 year old brother. She has a fairly good relationship with her parents, only arguing about the standard issues like staying out late, smoking etc. She has 10 GCSEs and now goes to her 6^th form studying philosophy and ethics, psychology, English literature and media studies. Jennie lives an average teenage lifestyle; her mother is a social worker and her father is a doctor. She actually gets on quite well with her little brother, his innocence and naivety amuses her. She’s quite a confident person, but isn’t overly brash or out-going. Her attitude towards most things would be “i don’t care”; she has a very nonchalant persona. However, her life being a stereotypical lifestyle, Jennie isn’t a stereotypical type of girl; she does things in her own little way. She likes unconventional things, for example she’d enjoy rain and bad weather or wearing something different to what is classed as “fashionable”.

Style:
Her appearance is very much her own style and she doesn’t tend to follow trends. She isn’t extremely self-conscious and is actually. She has a vintage look to her clothes and accessories.

Hobbies and past-times
She spends most of her time doing typical teenage things: doing school work, seeing her friends and boyfriend, going to pubs. Her school work is important to her and she does want to succeed, but she often lacks the determination to do complete her school tasks. She has a small group of friend whom she is very close to. Her boyfriend is the year above her, and they met at the local pub, she spends a lot of time with him, she has quite an intimate and close relationship with him. She would most likely be found down the pub on a Friday or Saturday night, never at a bar or club. Her music taste would be classed as classic/modern rock listening to bands like “Young Guns” “Pink Floyd” and “The Who”. She also enjoys festivals, particularly the Reading/Leeds festival. She is never without her mobile phone or IPod. Her DVD collection consists of classics like “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” but also classic and modern horror films, her favourite being “The Ring”. She simply enjoys being scared as she’s a secure enough person to say “it’s not real”.

Lifestyle:
Her lifestyle is quite unhealthy. She’s a smoker, but I would class her as a “fashion smoker”. Although she smokes, she doesn’t do or agree with drugs. She’s also quite a heavy drinker, but only drinking spirits and beer, never “alco-pops”. She eats very little healthy meals, only snacking on sugary and salty foods like crisps and chocolate. She spends a lot of her time up late on the internet, so gets very little sleep.
I think I would class Jenny your regular teenage girl but she knows her own mind. She isn’t afraid to be herself but doesn’t make a big fuss about it. I chose her as my target audience as I want the film to come across as scary, but in almost a subtle sense. For example, nothing like Cradle of Fear, I want the film to see realistic and believable, and people like Jenny would be able to appreciate it for it’s simplicity.

Chosen genre and initial ideas

My decision came about through simply the most random event.  I went for a run through a field near my house last night, it was getting dark and I fell over. As i picked myself up, I could see the field through a different view to what I did before. This new view created an idea for my opening sequence. So, with this idea and after a lot of deliberation, I’ve decided that my chosen genre will be Horror. I think that although it might be more of a stretch to create something individual, I will be able to display the true depth of my media strengths through a variety of methods. I want to be able to demonstrate that I can follow the general conventions of horror but interpret it in a personal response. 
The idea for my opening sequence is still quite sparse, but it has a general foundation to it. The plot will be based around a spirit that’s haunting a field where he was killed. A couple go for a picnic on the field, but the girl feels a bit uneasy, as she knows it’s haunted. The guy says he has a surpise for her and runs away into the trees. The girl starts to panic and tension is built, the sounds we hear suggest that another creature is coming into the scene, as she walks around looking for her boyfriend, when actually it’s her boyfriend coming back. The use of music will be a key aspect in creating a convincing piece.

Conventions of horror

After a lot of deliberation, I’ve finally decided on my chosen genre; Horror. I decided to do this as I feel it would be a worthy challenge for me to come up with a storyline that obeys the conventions of horror but also for me to interpret the genre in my own way. When analysing the 3 horror films, I found that the conventions were interpreted in various ways but still abided by.

• The characters aren’t given a name: this has a variety of effects. The lack of names could create a mysterious atmosphere, not knowing who the characters are; raising enigma codes. It could also dehumanize the characters; for example in Cradle of Death the character being without a name creates a sort of monster, instead of a person, therefore emphasizing the idea that it’s horror. It could also be a way in which if characters are going to die pretty quickly within the opening sequence, we don’t become too attached or familiar to them. The characters aren’t established in too much detail. We get the basic foundations of what they’re like through shot types that enhance their facial expression and dialogue that suggests their persona. We do not hear any diegetic sound  that does any explanation of their background or what they’re like in detail. Everything we know is simple yet does create an overall view, nothing is personal.
• The narrative context is usually quite different to what the rest of the film is like, however the Cradle of Death is an exception. The opening sequences usually are quite misleading, this might be used to create an element of suspense. It also could create a different idea of what we expect to get from a horror film.
• Shot types:  there are various shot types used to convey different emotions and establish different locations. I found that the use of close-up shots varies between different narrative context. E.g. in Cradle of Fear close-up shots are used to give us a clearer look at what “The Man” looked like, similarly in 30 Days of Night, the first shot was a close-up of his face to show the intensity of his emotion.
• Iconography: There is very little iconography used in opening sequences that are horror. The props and clothing worn is carefully considered, but there isn’t too much that indicates the rest of the film.
• Special effects: the use of special effects varies in relation to the narrative context. These special effects are used to enhance the atmosphere. Lighting is a main effect that conveys the mood of the opening sequence.
• Sounds: The diagetic sound is usually used within relevance to the narrative context. The sounds are often emphasized through clear, vivid effects to enhance their  echoes
• The titles are usually fonts that are either quite bland and simple, or really extreme, for example fonts that look likr they’re dripping with blood. The simple fonts suggest that the film is going to be misleading and not be how you think it is, whereas the fonts that are dripping with blood suggest more about the film will be about. The titles usually appear quite slowly, often fading in and out. This adds an element of tension to the titles. They appear in various places throughout the opening sequence.

Pros and cons of Horror

Personally, I find that creating a horror piece has more pros than cons, and generally appeals to me more than social realism. The aspect of horror that I find scares me the most is suspense, therefore I will be able to create an opening sequence that creates an atmosphere of suspense. This will add to the quality of my opening sequence.

Pros and Cons of Social realism

The pros and cons of social realism vary due to mostly the availability of resources (characters, props etc) and the acting.

Even though my list of pros was bigger than cons, I feel that social realism would be harder for me to film, due to mainly two reasons. The first being I think creating an individual story-line that looks effective would prove to be a difficult task as there is lack of suitable locations in my area. Locations are a key part in social realism; they help to establish the general mis-en-scene of the opening sequence. I think it will be a difficult task to find a convincing actors. A lack of convincing actors will make my opening sequence look less believable, the bad acting might distract from the content and quality of the film shots and editing.