Film Trailer: Casting Shots

This is Ann who played our central protagonist: Alice. It was brilliant when Ann responded to the poster Ella and I displayed around our school as Ann matched the description of our fictional character. To fit in with our social realism genre, we wanted an actress that was similar to the character they were playing. Ann not wearing a lot of makeup is in keeping with the characteristics of Alice as I wanted Alice to be excluded from the makeup connection that many girls stereotypically bond over, this was to heighten the ideas of isolation for Alice.

This is Flo who played our central protagonist's love interest: Maggie. Floe and Ann both responded to the poster Ella and I made, together. Flo didn't ideally match Ella and I's character description of Maggie, however, we found Flo as Maggie's actress very effective as it reinforced the 'realness' of the characters. Ella and I's character description of Maggie was the stereotypical 'blonde' 'girly-girl', however, this stereotype isn't often replicated in real life and so if we had succeeded in achieving the 'perfect' actress, then we would have subsequently risked losing the social realist effect our film was supposed to portray. Maggie and Alice were supposed to be relatively opposites in the social hierarchy that is ingrained within school environments. Therefore, Maggie was supposed to be a 'girly-girl' who was motivated by what is often considered to be the materialistic things in life, like makeup. This was a feature that was supposed to heighten the idea of Alice as an outcast and Maggie as a unreachable goal, strictly to reinforce the ideas of tough love.

This is Ben that acted as Maggie's Boyfriend: Brad. Despite Ben being rarely featured in the trailer, his role as Brad was fundamental to the portrayal of our storyline. Ben didn't respond to our poster, however, Ann and Flo both recommended him and so Ella and I got in touch with him and he was very happy to help. Similarly to Maggie and Flo, Ben didn't ideally match the character description we had for Brad as originally Brad was supposed to fit in with the stereotypical American 'high-school jock' but obviously with a British take on the common stereotype. However, in doing this, Ella and I would have subsequently risked losing the social realist effect we desired. Ben as Brad's actor makes his character much more realistic and emphasises the element of true human emotion that I wanted to carefully portray in the trailer with soft-focus and dismembered shots. Brad not fitting the stereotypical 'high-school jock' character also allows for more character development in the full length film because his character isn't immediately explored with the use of stereotyping.