Creating | Characters

When thinking about the characters we knew we wanted a stereotypical female and a stereotypical villain. This is so the characters would be identified easily in our opening scene. We thought very carefully about our characters for the opening scene as they needed to be clear so the rest of the movie would be clear and easily understood. We first thought of the main characters which are the victim and the murderer.

Character 1 – Victim

When thinking about how we could portray the victim we thought that it should be played by a female. We thought this because we wanted the character to be shown as weak and unable to save themselves. By having a female play this role we felt it would show weaknesses and fear better than having a male play the role. We wanted this character to be a stereotypical female, as we wanted her to be shown as weak and useless. You could call this character a stereotypical damsel as they are shown as weak like our character. This character is played by me and she is the main character in our film. We wanted a female to be the main character as there are many things you can do with a female in films. If we were to make the entire film we could have experimented with friendship groups and relationships which could have linked in with the murder.

Character 2 – Murderer

When thinking about how we could portray the murderer we thought that it should be played by a male. We thought this because we wanted the character to be shown as powerful and strong. However, we didn’t have any access to a male for our film so we decided to use a female instead. But instead of having a stereotypical female, we decided to have a female that isn’t very stereotypical but she is still a stereotypical villain. When deciding to use a female instead of a male we actually thought it would be a good idea and work out well because they are contrasting characters. Also it could link in well with certain things that could have happened throughout the movie if we were to create the entire thing. This character is played by Nadine and she is another main character in our film.

Character 3 – Friends

When thinking about other characters we could involve in the opening scene, we thought about having friends of the victim shown somewhere in the opening scene. We thought long and hard about when to include them in the opening scene and how many friends we wanted. We went for two friends in the end so the total of the friends would be 3. We also chose a total of 3 friends (the two friends and the victim) because it is known as a stereotypical number of friends, like the “Three Amigos” or the “Three Musketeers”. We wanted the friends to be stereotypical females as well so they would link in well with the victim. We thought that the friends could be walking home from somewhere with Becca and they could leave just before Becca walks down the alleyway. We also thought about what they could talk about and what they could be doing. That’s when the idea of one of the friends having her phone out and the others talking about school work and gossip as that’s what teenage girls talk about. We had Victoria play the friend with her phone out and we had Claire play the friend who is talking to Becca. We had them play the friends because they are quite stereotypical teenage girls.