Casting

Hey, All!

Our creation of our two main characters, who we plan on being seen in the opening sequence, Naomi and Aiden, are based on a variety of characters from various films and TV programs that we watch as a team.

Naomi: Naomi's character is the stereotypical beauty queen.

• Popular 
• Very appearance-conscious 
• Attractive
• Confident
• Reckless
• Attention-seeking
• Friendly - with close friends

She's meant to reflect the typical British-American teenage girl, who the target audience can relate to regarding behaviour, how they live and how they act e.g. she has an air of confidence about her when she walks from the hallway to the bedroom. We also included a variety of the interior panning shots which take in objects like Vogue magazines, beauty products such as VO5 hair spray and Boots nail polish, and popular books like 50 Shades of Gray trilogy and other romantic, girly literature which make the chracter relatable to the target audience through a sense of similarity.

She's Caucasian with light-coloured hair due to the choice of actress but also to relate characteristics of other well-known characters to her character, through the fact that they look visually similar. We won't have to individually display all the different typical characteristics of a female protagonist because of the image is similar and so will give the idea they have like-minded personalities, or at least traits. We kept the traditional aspects of the romantic-comedy female protagonist fairly unchanged because, in our research and general experience with Romantic-comedies, the protagonist, in each, are fairly similar.

We decided that I should play Naomi's character as, although I'm not blonde, I am Caucasian and can play a sassy, confident beauty-queen in our opening sequence (traits I do believe I have ;). Our actress also needs to be dedicated to our project, (which I am) and have the time to commit to filming, (which I have, as I'll be filming even if I wasn't acting).

Our female protagonist was inspired by these four characters:

Freya Mavor, portraying Mini ("Skins")

Anna-Lynn McCord, portraying Naomi Clark ("90210")

Reese Witherspoon, portraying Elle Woods ("Legally Blonde")

Candice Accola, portraying Caroline Forbes ("Vampire Diaries")

The male protagonist, initially planned to be included in the opening sequence, shares traits of other romantic-comedies, such as popularity, a reputation for being promiscuous "Playa", being attractive and cocky as a result. Although this character is revealed to be bisexual at the end of the film, he's experienced and a hit with the ladies, as shown by his interest in Naomi at the beginning. The creation of 'Aiden's' character is inspired by actors such as:

Aaron Johnson-Taylor, portraying Robbie ("Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging")

Alex Pettyfer, portraying Freddie ("Wild Child")

Jack Harries, from JacksGap (YouTube.com)

We had two people in mind to play Aiden's character. Daniel Walsom, a friend in my form class at college, and Theo White, another media studies student in our class. They both fit the character profile of being Caucasian, blonde or dark hair, play sports *jocks* (both are on rugby teams) and generally have quite arrogant personalities (not in a mean way, they're just both very self assured and it shows. They both have the appearance we can promote as a 'bad boy' and as we have two options, we shouldn't have problems if one of them drops out.

Exhibiting these qualities, plus a flair with the ladies *wriggles eyebrows*, we chose to approach Daniel first as Theo is a media studies student and will be busy organising and filming his own project. He's also going skiing during the time we are filming and so there'll be a clash! Lucky for us, Daniel said yes and since he's only involved in a minor portion of the film, it shouldn't be difficult to arrange a time.

Pheebs, OUT!!! ;)