Characters/Actors

Characters and the Actors

Mark Steele – main character. A husband to a murdered wife and a father to a kidnapped son. This guy is a determined type who seems to fear nothing. The part of Mark Steele is to be played by our very own Jeremy Razzell – no doubt his GCSE achievement in drama will bring a refreshing quality to the final piece.

Un-named friend – in the storyboard we have previously made up this character has such lines as “you can’t keep living your life like this!”. This part will be played by myself (Jack Welch).

Alex Steele – this is the son of Mark Steele and we plan on using Jeremy’s younger brother to play this part. We have planned to use him in only a few scenes and will have to make sure we get those scenes at Jeremy’s house

The Priest – this is only to be a small cameo however there is quite a bit of dialogue required for the part in the trailer. We have asked someone outside of the media group at school to play this part (Thomas Harrington-Voigt)

Bad Guy – this part will be played by James Clark. Such planned scenes so far consist of him being chased and him attacking Mark Steele.

Extras – One scene that we have planned is the point at which Alex (Mark’s son) is being kidnapped. For this scene James and i plan on changing costume and wearing balaclavas to hide our faces – this being so that it isn’t noticeable that it’s us.

The will be an ever so brief shot of Mark Steele’s wife at the crime scene of her murder, however we need to choose an appropriate girl to play his wife.

 

Location, Location, Location

The Opening shot of our trailer was taken from a hot air balloon. I had previously been on a hot air balloon ride and thought the footage would be a perfect scene setter for the countryside - which is where the main character lives.                             Its a privilege to be able to get an opening image from this height and we were lucky to be able to get one. The following shot of the main character and his dog link well to this opening shot, as they are in a field. 

 

 A lot of scenes were filmed at Jeremy's house and its surroundings. This was because the location of his house was perfect for how i imagined the character of our film's home. The access to the woods around his house was great for further filming. I love the framing in this shot, the path centred with both characters imerging from opposite sides of the frame. The old garage on the left is a great illustration of the isolatedness of the location.

This shot was taken at an old church in Pembury, however the following scene was shot inside the chapel at school: We found that the setting inside the school chapel had better, lighting, avalible props and was easily accessable. However for an astablishing shot the old church in Pembury was much better. 

For the part of the trailer which showed the main character looking for his kidnapped son, we broke into an abandoned house in Pembury. The location was perfect as we wanted a location that reflected the dark, hopeless mood in this particular stage of the film. The abandoned house signified the isolated and unnervyness that the main character was feeling.

We had to choose carefully which classrooms to use in the school - wanting one that looked more like an office than a classroom. Even though we had a few shots located in the school, we plan on making sure we don't do much filming around the school as it is a familiar area; looking unproffessional.

Magazine Cover Research

I figured that this was a great magazine cover to analyse as it is very relevant to the genre of our film (Betrayal & Retribution). I think the single image of a man in flames is very effective. A magazine cover shouldn't be to busy with various different images - a single image is powerful enough.

When it comes to designing my magazine cover i think i will include some agressive flames, as it signifies well the agression and rage within the character.

It is also important that i include plugs to attract the target audience. Offering such things that appeal to them.