the male character*****

THE MALE CHARACTER (ATTACKER)

The male character I want to contrast dramatically with the main female character as she looks particularly professional and hard-working and I wish for this character to be almost rough looking and not professional in the slightest.

I want him to portray an aggressive and violent side and I do not wish for the audience to relate to him, as he is the antagonist of the sequence and it is important that the audience relate to the female lead rather than the male attacker. This is an example of the kind of image I wish for him to put across to the audience, I want for the audience to believe they would find him intimidating if presented with him in real life, although obviously the female lead will not feel this intimidation so much due to the skills she has learnt over the years.

actor- female actress

THE MAIN FEMALE CHARACTER

For the main female I want her to look powerful and authoritative, but also have a sense of mystery about her, so not everything is given away. I wish for her to be the type of woman you would not expect to have the sort of fighting skills she does.

When researching strong and powerful women is when I noticed how they were always depicted in an almost provocative way, this is not what I am looking for as I feel as though the way women are represented within the media should be altered and the way the female in my thriller will be represented will be neither the usual vulnerable, fragile type, or the over-masculinised, butch type female that is often represented in the media.

         

Here is an example of the kind of female that when researching strong, powerful women comes up. This sort of tight, black outfit is not what I will be looking for in my female as this tends to sexualise the females, whereas I want the focus to be on the power the main character has, and her fighting skills rather than her physical appearance. I wish for the main character to be empowered by her abilities rather than the way that she looks, because I feel as though typically in the media women who are powerful are often sexualised, but I don’t believe this is necessary and I want to put that across within my thriller sequence.

I have decided on dressing the female in a suit as I feel as though this breaks the gender stereotypes and goes against the typically ‘sexy’ role women are often given within the media. Putting the main character in a suit also helps to display how she is a working woman, and the files she will be holding help with the idea of her being fairly high up in a government agency, which is additionally a countertype for women. However, I also think heels would be appropriate as I think this helps to display how women can enjoy feminine possessions, like high heels, but still obtain that power and authority that men are so often associated with. Furthermore, I want the female to be wearing lipstick to reinstate this idea of women having the ability to be feminine but also very dominant.

actors- choosing cast

CHOOSING THE CAST

As a group we were going through people we could potentially cast to be in our thriller. For the female we wanted someone who looked very feminine but also particularly fierce. When debating who to ask we thought of Grace and immediately found that she fit the role of what we were looking for. We then quickly moved on to emailing her and talking her through in person about what the role would entail.

            When talking to Grace we explained how she would be a very dominant and powerful female while still having a feminine side to her; wearing heels, makeup etc. She was excited by the idea and was on board immediately. We described that there would be no dialogue throughout which Grace was fine with and we explained in detail how there would be a fight scene and, at this point we were unsure as to who it was she would be fighting but we described the fight scene we had planned, and how at the very end she would be breaking his arm and Grace responded positively towards this.

            We then moved on to casting the male character within our thriller. This we found a lot more difficult as we needed somebody who looked older than a student and was bigger than your average student. However, our options were fairly limited, being in a sixth form college. We found Ollie and spoke to him about it briefly to which he responded positively also. Ollie is not necessarily bigger than your average student, however when in costume we feel as though he will look the part as his face is fairly mature.

            We then sat Ollie down and talked him through the whole process also, and explained in detail how he would be in a fight with Grace, which he would lose. Ollie seemed fairly enthusiastic and was excited by the idea of empowering Grace within the thriller sequence.

Grace - (picture)

Ollie - (picture)