Character Research

Looking into the characters in the plot and how they are going to be stereotypical of the teenage cultures, we have looked into the teenage tribes.

Main Protagonist:

As our main protagonist is going to be a geek/ nerd, we are going to make sure that the character has the characteristics and costume of a geeky/ nerdy child.
To this we have searched images on google for stereotypical geeks and looked into the characterisations of geeks in films.

Firstly we found the definition of a geek and nerd on wikipedia:

This suggests to us that the protagonist must look intellectual and therefore have props that replicate this and have a personality that annoys people. This could be illustrated in a form of dialogue or even his accent could have a part to it to which is annoying, however the sounds still need to be looked into.

Using this terminology matched our view, we have looked into images of stereotypical nerds and geeks onto google images:

Looking at these images it is clear that the use of prop is generally a book of some sort or pens and pencils and generally the thick framed glasses, with a safety tape stuck around the bridge. The clothing seems to be the patterened shirts tucked tightly into the school-style trousers/ shorts with a tweed sweatervest style over the top of the shirt. 

This type of costume would be easily mimicked because there is access to these types of clothes in charity shops, particularly the interestingly patterned shirts and even the vest may be found there. In terms of the glasses, these could be actual glasses (if the main character has them) or the lenses out of 3D glasses could be pushed out and they would mimick them.

In terms of dialogue for the narrative we went onto Youtube to get clips of a "geek" character speaking, for this I used a stereotypical geek to whom is a character off The Inbetweeners:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xqr8yPipfJ8

The above clip would be a lot similar to the introduction of our own narrative choice, following the life of a college student's day at school where bad things happen.
As this is for a comedy series, it is something we would be replicating ourselves as opposed to replicating real life nerds, this is due to the fact that comedy focuses on stereotypes and can take them to the next level and potentially over the top, however this is the comedic aspect of it.
The standardisation of the language is stereotypical for a geek, alongside the swearing to which would be associated with the teenage aspect- however this could be him pushing the nerd boundary. In terms of mimicking this however if would be easy in terms of formal scripting put into use of standard English dialogue, alongside a received pronounciation.
Antagonist:

For this teenage stereotypical antagonist, the character would be the level of the tough sporty jock type who would make the life of a geek horrible.

Firstly I looked for a definition of a jock:

This suggests that the jock is going to have to be strong looking and have props and costumes to which are athletic and sporting.

The google image search brought up:

Looking at these images it seems as the the costumes are the bold strong colours like the red, connoting a more violent bloody colour and they are tight fitted vests with sporting logos on them or it is a jacket to which has a team logo on it also.

These costumes could be easily replicated, in terms of the vests and there are access to a lot of team sporting clothing, or it could be recreated with the use of an embroidered badge, to signify a team logo on a vest and again on a jacket- to which these can be accessed at various shops. The sports jacket may also be found in chartity shops as just a regular jacket that could be seen as sporty. The shorts also would easily be replicated- as they could be found in general shops, particularly shops that do deals for schools would be could providers of this.

Looking into the speech of the jock I looked at a character of  Luke in The OC:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Q1tyfM9ERs

Illustrated in this sequence the jock is quite harsh in the way he speaks, he uses hit pitch in an aggressive way and has a deep voice, to which could be replicated in our trailer. This could be in the ways in which we get the antagonist to speak, possibly in a shout instead of a conversation, there would be received pronounciation and slang used and derrogatory terms used- however as a trailer they would not be too derrogatory and harsh as this could impact the marketing campaign, in terms of viewing times to which looking at audience research the film is arguably 15-24.

The contagonists:

These characters would be the best friends of the main protagonists. Looking into comedy dramas there very rarely is a friendship to which all of the characters are the same stereotype and therefore needs to be a different stereotype completely.
Usually these involve a boy/girl next door type that fits in with anyone however is not especially "liked" as such, just coped with and then one from a completely different stereotype, to one which is out there and wouldn't be associated with either group really, however in this situation does because they themselves are classed as "outcasts" for being bold and making a statement of some form, this could be a dark gothic type.
This is witnessed in comedies like:
The Inbetweeners:

This shows the boy next door type, the geeky type, the idiot and the one that lies about a lot, to which viewers see themselves and talk about.

Mean Girls:

This has the girl next door type, gothic type and then the slightly feminine male.

Beaver Falls:

This new series has the boy next door/mysterious type, isolated one and the geeky type.

How I Met Your Mother:

This cast is a big cast, however interlinked is the couple, to which both fit together as the girl and boy next door, the geeky type who gives facts, the single girl who is career striven and finally the last one is flirty with the intention to get as many females as possible.

Friends:

In this series, there is the geeky type, the fashion girl, the maternal female, the comedian, the free spirit and the dosile one.

Looking at the age groups of the characters it seems the gothic and the boy next door type would fit.

Gothic:

As there was not a definition of wikkikpedia, we looked into the "find Your Tribe" videos for the inspiration.

This shows the character is going to need to be dressed in blacks and have deep dark make up and have a possibly sinical mood and out look on life, speaking in a poetic sense.

Google images:

Looking at these images, the colour black is dominant everywhere, with hints of the red. This seems as though they are trying to be a shadow or be in general darkness, to which would influence our characters.
The make up use is very thick, with a pale face and dark thick make up on the eyes and lips, with dark dyed hair over the face, generally with a sloping fringe covering the forehead. The clothing seems to be long jackets with only colour being metal studs. A lot of this clothing could be easily mimicked, in terms of black jeans and tops and long coats could be found in charity shops and things.

Looking into the language of the goth we looked into the character of Ray from Hollyoaks:

(Youtube clip)

Boy Next Door:

One of the contagonists which is the male, would be the boy next door type, who generally gets along with a lot of people, in more of a tolerable way.

Firstly we found the definition of this:

The suggests that the character will have to have mannerisms that are relatively normal, but still quite innocent/ pure. The character will probably just be in casual clothing aswell for college lifestyles and then props to match this.

We then found google images:

Looking at these images, there generally isn't something that is hugely dominant in terms of colouring or style that would be over powering or dominant, it is more everyday styles and fairly casual laid back choices.
The clothing is a lot of tee-shirts with jeans or shorts, just everday clothing. This would be fairly easily replicated for our project, because a lot of teenagers (to whom would be our cast) would naturally own these things. Also on this there isn't anything that is too "out there" as such, the hairstyle is naturally cut, there isn't any make up for the male and the build of the main characters are arguably average, therefore casting the actor should be simple.

To get the idea of how the character would sound, we looked into the character of "":

(YOUTUBE LINK)

The Damsel:

For most of the social realist comedies, particularly with teenagers, there always seems to be the "it" girl, to which is the most beautiful girl that they have ever seen and who the main protagonists want to win the heart of.
We looked into the definition of this:

This suggests that the actress will need to be made to be attractive and powerful in their way, to attract the males and overpower them also.

We then looked into images of this stereotype:

There doesn't seem to be much colour use in these costumes that would outline a certain connotation, however the models seem to be quite thin or curvy in the right shape, with the hair in the perfect place.
The costumes seem to be the pretty dresses and skirts with low cut tops or basically flattering outfits to fit the body types. What stands out the most is the fact the actress is fashionable, to which suggests that they will have to fit this too. These costumes would be easily accessible in everyday shops, to which some actresses may have already, if not they could also be found in charity shops also. The make up also is make up to which is everyday, not too heavy or thick it is just make up to enhance the looks of the actresses already beauty.

To get the speech of this character, we looked into the character of "Regina George" in "Mean Girls", to get the contrast in language of the beauty but also the potential evil of a re-done monologue:





The language is interesting in this clip because it is quite delicately put and you hear it in a normal conversation way, to show the nice act, however there is the harsh tone of the words as well, suggesting a two- faced way.
This suggests that the feel of the language will have to be a nice tone, however the lexis will be quite harsh and have a manipulative tone to what is being said.



We will be focusing on these main stereotypes for our campaign and use the build up of the stereotypes to re-create these.