Casting Character Roles

Cast

Nathan:  Lewis/Nico Cavaliero 

Inset: Lewis Cavaliero

The role of the protagonist Nathan will be played by twins Lewis and Nico Cavaliero. Nathan's character's back story is that he grew up suffering at the hands of his abusive mother, after his father died when Nathan was just eleven years old. Unable to cope with the daily abuse that he suffered from his mother, Nathan ran away from home when he was just fourteen years old. After being taken in by character Freddie, Nathan found himself a new family, and was soon plunged into the world of drink, drugs and partying. Nathan first begins to experience blackouts and hallucinations during Luna's party, not realising that he is developing a mental, personality disorder, and the film trailer shows Nathan trying to come to terms and figure out what is wrong with him. After sending Lewis a copy of the film trailer synopsis and character profile, he was more than happy to help me and my media partner April out. The decision to cast Lewis as the main lead role was decided between me and April. We decided to cast Lewis as our lead role as he has similar character traits to Nathan's character, for example both Lewis and Nathan are confident and popular amongst the social and partying scene. Lewis is also very good at transforming into character quickly when he is needed to. I also know Lewis on a personal level so there would be no awkward and tense atmosphere on set, and Lewis would be able to approach me if he had any queries or problems with the role. Although Lewis has a full time job, we managed to sort out a filming schedule so that our filming can work around his working hours.

Inset: Nico Cavaliero 

Because me and April chose to have our lead character go through and experience a mental personality disorder, we thought it only fitting to have an 'evil side/personality' of Nathan's character that acts as a sort of narcissistic, 'evil' conscience type figure. This 'dark side' of Nathan also influences and encourages Nathan's extreme outbursts and disturbing behaviour. Me and April made the decision to cast Nico as 'The Other Nathan' as Nico has studied Drama in previous years, and has gained a lot of acting experience that could prove beneficial towards our media product. Like Lewis, Nico is also able to get into character very quickly, and has the ability to memorise character traits and learn lines very quickly. April also knows Nico personally, and after sending him the plot synopsis and character profile Nico became interested in taking on the role. Both Lewis and Nico have minimal dialogue, so they will not have much dialogue to learn in their scripts. Nico also has a full time job so we have managed to schedule our filming hours around his work schedule.

Tori: Becca Powell

Inset: Becca Powell

Tori is the main female lead of the film and will taken on by Becca Powell. Unlike Nathan, Tori comes from a wealthy, stable family, although she too comes with her own set of problems. Tori managed to get herself kicked out of her all girls private school and now attends the local college. Tori is quite a headstrong, clever young woman, who is often described as 'the black sheep' of her family by totally disregarding the rules and choosing to live her life the way she wants to. Tori is also quite secretive and cunning by concealing the party fuelled life style from her parents. Tori character is in an on/off relationship with Nathan. As Nathan's condition deteriorates, you see how Tori's character becomes affected and changes due to Nathan's extreme behaviour. Me and April made the decision to cast Becca as the lead female role as Beccas has studied Drama for a number of years, and has taken on many, challenging roles in various school productions that her experience and knowledge allows us to feel confident that she is up to taking on the role. Becca is also familiar with the social, partying scene. We sent Becca a copy of the film synopsis and character profile, and within a few days Becca responded and agreed to take on the role. Becca's character also has minimal dialogue, so she wouldn't have too many lines to learn for the role. After casting Becca as our lead female role, we had to consider her college timetable and working hours, so that we could come up with a filming schedule that worked around her commitments.

Freddie: Isaac Brading-Cornish

Inset: Isaac Brading-Cornish

Taking on the role of Freddie will be Isaac Brading-Cornish. Freddie is described as the leader of the pack, and proves to be 'the rock' that everyone seems to lean on for support after trying to deal with Nathan's shocking and disturbing mental state. Freddie's character is confident and fearless, but he also has a sensitive side and is a fiercely loyal friend to have. Freddie is an independent character having moved out of his family home, which he shared with his parents and brother and sisters. Unlike Nathan and Tori, Nathan has never had to deal with any adversities or got himself into any serious trouble, but uses drugs and alcohol as a form of escapism from his over protective parents. Nathan's condition will see Freddie's character go from being calm and in control to becoming desperate and powerless as he tries to reach out and help his friend. After many discussions, me and April thought that Isaac would be an ideal candidate to take on the role of Freddie. We made this decision as like Becca, Isaac has also studied Drama for a number of years and we thought that he would be interested taking on a more challenging role like Freddie, to show off his acting skills. I sent Isaac a copy of the film synopsis and character role and discussed his role in the film with him more in depth, and he seemed interested and keen to take on the role of Freddie. Freddie's character has hardly any dialogue, but his presence in the trailer, is vital to the film's plot narrative. As Isaac attends college, we created a filming schedule to work around his college hours.

Luna: Rowan Treagus

Inset: Rowan Treagus

The role of Luna will be played by Rowan Treagus. Luna's character isn't as essential to the narrative of the film trailer as the other main character's, but Luna still plays an important part in the film synopsis. Luna's summer party is also significant in terms of the plot narrative, as that is where Nathan's problems really began. Luna is quite a kooky and eccentric character that lives life to the full and has big heart. Luna is an art student and lives with her mother and step-father.Like Freddie, Luna has never had to deal with any adversities or overcome any form of serious problems. Luna is less involved in alcohol and drugs, but still gets involved with the partying scene as a way of staying close to her friends. When Nathan's health starts to deteriorate, Luna becomes more withdrawn from her friendship group, as she becomes afraid as Nathan's condition worsens. Me and April decided that my close friend Rowan should take on the role of Luna, as Rowan shares similar character traits to Luna. For example, Rowan is quite kooky and ditsy, and is there for anyone who seems distressed or is dealing with a serious problem. Rowan has also starred in a previous production that I have created, so I know how she acts and behaves whilst on set. Because I know Rowan on a personal level it was easy to approach her about starring in our film trailer. I gave her a copy of the film synopsis and character profile and she was happy to take part in our production. Luna has no dialogue, but like Freddie her presence in the film trailer is essential to the film's narrative.

Amber: Amber Cook

Inset: Amber Cook

Taking on the role of Amber will be my close friend Amber Cook. We decided that Amber would be an ideal choice to take on the role of Amber as she shares similar personality traits to the character, such as being very loud and outgoing, and being at the centre of the party scene. Amber is one of Nathan's oldest childhood friends and has been there for him, and helped him with every adversity that Nathan has had to overcome. However, unlike Nathan, Amber has a sensible head on her shoulders and is often helping Nathan out of some dangerous and risky situations. I was able to talk to Amber about the role, and gave her a copy of the script and synopsis to look over, and she decided that she wanted to be a part of our production. Amber also knows Lewis on a personal level so there would be no awkwardness whilst filming on set.

A video introducing the cast members that will be starring in our media production

Looking For Cast Members

On a mission to look for potential actors for our media product, I emailed one of my old friends Emily Scotcher to ask if she knew anyone that would be interested in starring in our film trailer. I trusted Emily's judgement as she has starred in films herself as an extra for 'Les Miserables' and upcoming film 'Pan', and has great film connections. Emily is also on social media, regularly using social media sites such as 'Facebook' and 'Twitter',  which allows her to advertise and get in contact more accessibly with potential actors. 

Our Ideal Target Audience Member

Our ideal target audience member would be someone from a lower middle class background which suggests that they would come under C2 or D on the demographic scale. The Isle Of Wight doesn’t provide much entertainment for younger generations, so our young person’s interests and weekend activities would  include going out to parties or nightclubs with friends, or just hanging out with friends to avoid boredom. Basing my thoughts on our plot synopsis, I think that our film trailer will strongly appeal to our target audience and allow them to relate to our product, as the plot uses realistic locations and settings and also reflects their own life which includes partying with friends and drinking alcoholic substances. Socialising with friends and attending parties/raves are stereotypical common activities, particularly with the audience’s age group, suggesting that our target audience member is a part of the main streamers category on the psychographic scale. In some ways, our audience can connect to some of the characters. For example, our audience are happy to follow the crowd by going along with whatever pleases others in order to avoid conflict, which ultimately  places them in the mainstreamers category. The drama side of our product could also categorise some of our audience into the strugglers category on the psychographic scale, as they would be watching a near enough version of their own recollected teenage memories that have been blow completely blown out of proportion and emphasised for dramatic effect and entertainment. Referring back to the point I made earlier about the Isle of Wight being considered ‘boring’ by not providing enough entertainment for younger generations our film trailer would allow the audience members to seek escape from their own lives, and would allow them to divulge into a more exciting, intense version of their lives

Homework Task

Our teacher set us a homework to look at a previous student media blog of our choice and to grade the blog based on our own thoughts on the blog, and without reading the examiner's marks and comments. The grading of the blog was broken down into four parts: Research, Planning, the Construction of the media product and the Evaluation. Looking at a past media blog will also give us an idea as to how much detail and effort we would need to put into our own media blogs. The media blog that I chose to analyse was http://steeldeathproductions.blogspot.co.uk/ , which was created by a student named Ashley. 

Research

• Good research into horror generate ideas 
• Good research into horror influences
• Thorough research into other films that belong or are similar to the horror genre 
• Detailed presentation on the codes and conventions of the supernatural sub genre
• Detailed presentation on the history of the horror genre 
• Clear, strong definition of the horror genre 
• Clear definition of what a trailer is and the purpose of the trailer
• Explains the differences between theatrical and teaser trailers 
• Compares each of the narrative's of the trailers analysed and looks at which target audience each film trailer is being aimed at.
• Clear analysis of film posters 
• Clear and very detailed presentation on studio influences and justified reasons for choosing these specific influences

Planning 

• Clear and detailed planning of character profiles (considers age, gender, the actors involved and the number of actors involved). 
• Film synopsis
• Consider using internal/external locations (shows creative decision making)
• Considers what will be shown in the time limited trailer (in terms of the plot) 
• Shot List 
• Considers editing/styling effects
• Considers several options for the film's title
• Includes a lighting test and full Flickr album of the lighting test
• Very detailed blog post on location scouting, reports photos of internal locations
• Very detailed and descriptive shot list 
• Detailed blog post on location scouting, reports and photos of external locations
• Clear storyboard
• Detailed costume decisions
• Make up sketches
• Detailed presentation on inspirations for various editing skills 
• Includes the 'Sinister' trailer and the opening title sequence for 'American Horror Story' to demonstrate her chosen inspiring editing skills
• Clear prop list 
• Clear production schedule 
• Risk assessment forms
• Very clear description of the film plot summary
• Studio Lighting 
• Framing ideas
• Very detailed scene ordering and time schedule 
• Video feedback
• Survey Feedback

Research & Planning:- 19/20

Construction

The Film Trailer

•  Clear film planning and video of discussions of meetings to begin the filming process
• Clear 'Photoshow' presentation of makeup and costume 'behind the scenes' footage
• Includes video of outtakes and  'bloopers' from each day of filming
• Production Filming Photographs (including a Flickr album)
• 'Behind the scenes' room tour of character's bedroom set 
• Very detailed shot list and timings sheets
• Description and clear screenshot images of the editing process
• Description and clear screenshot images of apply the sound to the chosen footage
• Clear description of the final decision for the music, with justified reasons (audio clip is also included in the blog post)
• Clear screenshots of  the footage ordering, footage cuts and music and footage adjustments
• Detailed presentation of 'Behind the scenes' editing effects
• Very detailed and informative descriptions of the deconstruction of 'first edits' and shot types with clear images included
• Explanation of applying the same effect on the poster to the trailer to establish the relation between the two 
• Editing examples
• Video of character costume choices (which then also featured in the film trailer) 
• Draft version of final film trailer
• Clear explanation of the trailer uses, challenges and developments (along with various images)

Magazine Front Cover 

• Clear draft layout of the magazine front cover
• Creative choices with magazine front cover (using 'TOTAL FILM' magazine as a template/draft) 
• Detailed presentation on magazine influences 
• A detailed and thorough description of how the creating the magazine front cover was completed with included images 

Film Trailer:- 40

Magazine Front Cover:- 9

Film Poster:- 8

Evaluation

Good use of different forms of ICT. Lots of creative use of ICT for question 1, using images to help demonstrate and support her response to the first evaluation question (although some of the text is difficult to read). Question 2 and 3 need to be explained more thoroughly and more in depth, to get a more substantiating answer. The Powtoon software was an excellent choice in terms of creativity. Question 4 was answered in depth, however the speed of the video for question 4 made it unable to fully focus on what was going on, in terms of looking at the how the various technologies were being used.

Total Mark- 86/100

Actors And Actresses That I Would Consider Starring In Our Media Production

Actors And Actresses That I Would Consider Starring In Our Media Production

Character Profiles

Character Profiles

Our Film Trailer Synopsis

Our Film Trailer Synopsis

Characters From Teen Drama Series Who Suffered With A Mental Illness

Before me and April chose to explore personality disorders, we looked at other teenage characters from various Teen Dramas and other programmes that suffered with a form of mental illness, to analyse how the characters were portrayed in each Teen Drama series. Here are a few that we discovered. 

Effy Stonem (Skins)

The fourth season of 'Skins' saw one of main lead female characters Effy develop psychotic depression and later admitted to a psychiatric hospital. Before developing mental health issues, Effy's character was portrayed as confident and independent, and was admired for being popular and for her beauty. Since developing psychotic depression, Effy began showing signs of manic behaviour and attempting to commit suicide. After leaving the hospital she is seen transformed into a completely different person, by rejecting her old life including her friends and even her own identity. 

Tate (American Horror Story) 

'American Horror Story' character Tate's mental illness is unknown however it is clear that his character is very mentally disturbed, by killing several main characters in the programme, along with causing a mass shooting which killed fifteenth students.




Silver (90210)

Silver's character is first introduced in season 1 of '90210' as a strong, independent character who resents the stereotypical cliques at 'West Beverly High School' and their lifestyles, and makes fun of her peers on her online blog. Her character begins to change after becoming romantically involved with one of the male lead characters Dixon, where she makes a sex tape of the two of them, breaks in and vandalises a teacher's home and attempting to run away to Kansas. After these incidents occur, Silver's character is diagnosed with bipolar disorder and is seen residing at her sister's house and being taken out of West Beverly High School.







Newt (Hollyoaks) 

Newt's character was introduced to soap opera 'Hollyoaks' in 2007 as a teenager who had a rough start in life. Newt is quite a shy, reserved character. Not long after his arrival in Hollyoaks, Newt begins having hallucinations of his childhood friend Eli, (who had committed suicide a few years earlier) who Newt thinks is real, and who proves to be a bad influence on Newt. He is also involved with a suicide pact with another friend Rae (who also turns out to be a hallucination). Newt is later hospitalised and is diagnosed with schizophrenia.




Rae (My Mad Fat Diary)

Rae is introduced to the audience as quite a quirky, funny character, despite her past. Her character has just been released from a psychiatric hospital for having mental health and body image problems. We see her character struggle to fit back into a normal routine after leaving the hospital, and watch her overcome her demons. Initially shy after befriending a local clique, they all begin to accept Rae for who she is, resulting in Rae feeling more secure in herself and overcoming her mental health issues.   

The Film Title Of Our Production

Together me and April decided to call our production 'The Cluster B Effect'. The reason that we chose to call our production this is because the plot of our film trailer centres around a popular, seventeen year old guy named Nathan whose life takes a dramatic turn for the worst, as he has recently developed the 'Cluster B' personality disorder, but remains unaware of this. To get more of an insight of the disorder, we did some research and found that the Cluster B disorder is made up of a series of different types of the disorder. 

These include: 

• The Anti Social Personality Disorder:- People who suffer with this form of personality disorder tend to develop a hostile and aggressive attitude, but are also very cunning and manipulative. They also often hold a reckless disregard for other people. Impulsive urges are difficult to control and people with this form of personality disorder are often putting themselves in dangerous situations, and take part in criminal activities such as theft and vandalism. They are also seen being a central figure in bullying ad harmful situations, and are known for not taking responsibility for their actions.

• The Histrionic Personality Disorder:- People who suffer from this personality disorder are unable to cope with being alone and crave a need for excessive amounts of attention. They are not comfortable in situations where they are centre of attention and will often become depressed when left alone. To gain attention from others, people with this personality disorder tend to act in a flirtatious and flamboyant manner and will emotionally express themselves to an excessive degree. Their expressions in most conversations tend to be very vague and lacking in detail, making the person come across as insincere. 

• The Narcissistic Personality Disorder:- People with this form of  personality disorder tend to believe that they deserve special treatment from others, as they consider themselves 'brilliant' and 'attractive'. They also believe that they have acquired 'super powers', which often leads to them to becoming obsessed with power and success. This causes people living with this personality disorder to not put as much effort into their daily life as they should do (as they are too distracted by their fantasies), and causes them to disregard and disrespect those around them. They also tend to come across as arrogant to other by constantly fantasising about the 'superior intelligence' or 'stunning beauty'. Their need to be admired and high status comes from their own fragile low self esteem. Once a person who suffers from this personality disorder realises that they do not have any form of 'super powers' , they begin to feel ashamed and angry, which sometimes they take out on other people.   

• The Borderline Personality Disorder:- People with this form of personality disorder have intense and unstable mood swings that shift dramatically. They tend to have angry outbursts which influences impulsive behaviours such as substance abuse, risky sexual liaisons, self-injury, overspending or binge eating. People with this personality disorder tend to vacillate back and forth between "all good" and "all bad" moods and attitudes, and struggle to remain consistent with their judgements. The radical changes that people suffering from this personality disorder make usually occurs without any warning or preparation. They also tend to  view the world in terms of  'black and white' or 'all of nothing' thinking. Their tendency to see the world in black or white (polarised) terms makes it easy for people to misinterpret the actions and movements of others. The intensity of their emotions, coupled with their difficulty regulating these emotions leads them to act impulsively.  

After researching each type of personality disorder thoroughly, me and April came to the decision that we wanted our character to develop a Narcissistic Personality Disorder. We chose to explore this type of personality disorder as we thought it would be an interesting angle to explore, and would allow the audience to analyse how the character's personality changes after developing this type of personality disorder. We also felt that the Narcissistic Personality Disorder was a disorder that people were less aware of and needed exploring and discovering, in terms of raising awareness.

Ofcom

Ofcom, formed as the Office Of Communications is the independent government approved regulator and competition authority designed for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom. The regulator was first established in 2002 by the Office of Communications Act, but was still in the process of formation during December 2003. Ofcom received its full authority from the Communications Act 2003. Ofcom is respomsible for addressing the interests of the citizens and consumers and protecting the public from harmful and offensive material. The regulator licences all commercial television and radio services in the UK. As well as having to agree to the terms of their licence, Ofcom have also enforced a 'Broadcasting Code' which includes a set of rules and regulations that all broadcast television and radio must abide by, or face being revoked. As part of Ofcom's regularity duties, they must analyse specific complaints that are at risk of breaking the broadcasting code. Ofcom requests response from the broadcaster to the complaint. On the basis of this response Ofcom will mark the complaint as either "upheld" or "not upheld", or alternatively simple "resolved".

 A mission statement made by Ofcom's 'Watershed' on November 28th 2011 stated that: "Protecting children from harmful or inappropriate material on TV and Radio is one of Ofcom's most important duties".

Ofcom however are not responsible for regulating disputes between you and your telecom provider, complaints about accuracy in BBC programmes, premium rates services (including mobile text services and ringtones), the content of television and radio advertisements, the BBC TV licence fee; or newspapers and magazines.

The research that I have found shows that a quatre of the 768 teenagers between the ages of 12-17 had watched something on television (before the invention of the Watershed) that made them feel uncomfortable or that they had found offensive.  

The top five concerns measured as a percentage of all teens questioned were:

• sexuall explicit content=7%
• offensive/explicit language=4%
• violence=4%
• Nudity=2%
• News=1%
• Mistreatment of animal=1%

Although Ofcom is used to regulate and monitor television programmes some elements can be applied to various types of films. With our own media product all of our actors that will be starring in our film trailer will be 18 and over, which means that the actors that will be starring in our film trailer will not need to present permission forms from their parents. However our ideal target audience between the ages of 15-25 so when creating our film trailer we will have to take in to account what will offend or be considered too inappropriate for younger audience viewers.

The BBFC

Lucy Brett who works as an Education Officer for the BBFC (British Board Of Film Classification) came and gave a talk about her role as an Education Officer, and about the BBFC organisation itself. She explained the importance of the organisation’s purpose and how each film within the United Kingdom was issued the appropriate age certificate. We were also shown a series of film clips and were asked what age certificate we would issue each clip. The BBFC itself (officially known as the British Board of Film Censors when it was first established) was established in 1912, serving as a non-governmental organisation that is responsible for the national classification and censorship of films within the United Kingdom. The organisation is required to classify certain video games under the Video Recordings Act 2010 as well as videos and DVDS. To ensure that the company keep their independence, the BBFC’s income is obtained from the fees it charges for its services which is calculated by measuring the running time of films, DVDs and videos, and other forms of media that have been submitted for classification. The Council of Management is responsible for handling the financial affairs of the organisation. The organisation is made up of three significant groups, the President and Vice Presidents, the Management Team and The Examiners, along with associated bodies such as The Consultative Council, The Advisory Panel on Children’s Viewing (APCV) and The Video Packaging Review Committee (VPRC).

The organisations guiding principles are to:

• to protect children and vulnerable adults from potentially harmful or otherwise unsuitable media content.

• to empower consumers, particularly parents and those with responsibility for children, to make informed viewing decisions.

And the organisation’s mission is to:

· protect  the public, and especially children, from content which might raise harm risks

· empower the public, especially parents, to make informed viewing choices

· recognise and respect adult freedom of choice within the law

· respond to and reflect changing social attitudes towards media content through proactive public consultation and research

· provide a cost-effective, efficient classification service within our statutory remit

· work in partnership with the industry to develop innovative service models to provide content advice which support emerging media delivery systems

· provide an effective service to enforcement agencies

Considering our own media product, I would issue our film trailer with a ‘15’ certificate. Here is a list of what is expected to be found or shown in a 15 rated film:

· strong violence

· frequent strong language (e.g. 'f***').

· portrayals of sexual activity

· strong verbal references to sex

· sexual nudity

· brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence

· discriminatory language or behaviour

· drug taking

Although our film trailer is designed to be aimed at older teenage audience who are around the age of 15 and over, some of the points made above that certify a 15 certificate appear in the film trailer. These include use of strong language, drug taking and criminal behaviour. It could be argued that our film trailer should have been issued with an 18 certificate due to the drug taking, however none of the characters are actually seen taking drugs, but various narcotic packaging and alcohol bottles are seen scattered in various scenes, insinuating that alcohol and drug taking have occurred. It could also be argued that the film trailer should have been issued with a 12 certificate, as the trailer shows minimal drug packaging and includes minimal strong language. The plot narrative of the film however is focusing on a teenager who is dealing with his unknown mental illness, which we thought would be too inappropriate and sensitive for someone of 12 years of age to handle and process.