For our female protagonist we decided to cast Selma Hedges. The reason for this is because she is an attractive, young female who has stereotypical traits of a female in a thriller film. From my research I found that although most thriller films feature a stereotypical blonde female protagonist, there were also some films which include a brunette such as Split and London to Brighton. This was important to us as it enables us to remain conventional of the thriller genre. Selma is a confident individual which is perfect for our character as she is portrayed as confident and independent at the start of the trailer. Although Selma is only 17 years old, soon to be 18, we felt that she would be able to play the role of a 20 year old convincingly due to her mature disposition. This is key to our film as it helps to create a sense of relatability to our audience as well as making the narrative more realistic. After researching thriller films, we wanted to cast the role of the protagonist to a genuinely kind hearted and likeable person, as this would have the biggest impact on the audience when they are hurt or in an uncomfortable situation as the audience would feel greater empathy for the character.
We knew that casting a male antagonist would be difficult, as they would need to be able to convincingly play the role of an obsessed and alarming individual. We needed the two characters to have natural chemistry and be comfortable acting around each other in order to effectively convey the narrative across to the audience. From this we decided to cast Lewis Pitchford as the role of the male antagonist. Lewis took GCSE Drama and therefore means that he would be able to play this role in the most conventional manner, as he has previous acing experience. Lewis is a similar age to Selma (18), which means that he is young for the character he is playing. However, this will be overcome due to his mature disposition and due to the fact he has experience in playing older characters. Lewis is tall, dark and attractive which means that he fits the features of a stereotypical thriller antagonist perfectly. From my research I found that many male antagonists also have these features, most notably in Split and Red Eye. The tall, dark haired nature of Lewis connoted power and creates a sense of intimidation which emphasises the patriarchal world that is created.
Lewis and Selma have been a couple for many years now which means they have the natural chemistry we are looking for. The romantic scenes at the start of our trailer will be very realistic as a result of this. It will also mean they are very comfortable around each other, which is a benefit to both us and then during filming.
The last character we had to cast is the role of Selma's best friend. This character does not appear much in the trailer, however it is vital in creating verisimilitude. This character needs to act as the 'hope' for Selma (the protagonist) and therefore needs to be a compassionate person. We have multiple different options for this character, making it difficult to chose the perfect individual to play this role. All potential people are already friends with Selma in real life, which is important for the relationship their 2 characters have. One of them (Lois Hutchinson) has experience acting due to the fact she took GCSE Drama, making her slightly more suitable than the others, however, whether she is able to play this role in our trailer is dependant on her availability, which was a common issue during casting.
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