Casting
Main Character
Megan Porter
We cast Megan as our main character mostly due to her confidence and enthusiasm which meant that she could play the role well without looking too uncomfortable or awkward. We also found that in terms of appearance she didn't necassarily strongly fit into a particular stereotypical group, which is what we wanted for our main character, as they were supposed to be an outcast of sorts. Megan also appears smiley and friendly which is another indicator that she would make a good main character for our production, as we wanted our character for this role to be someone quite relatable and ordinary who was trying to fit in among these different stereotypes in a College environment. She would make a suitable character which our audience would easily be able to relate to, which was our main aim when casting as this is a highly important factor within Children's TV, so this was one of our key decisions.
Popular Characters
Charlotte Lyon and Naomi Cunningham
For our popular characters we decided to cast Naomi and Charlotte as both appeared quite confident which we felt was essential for this role. They both have quite dark hair, which in a way goes against the 'blonde' stereotype of popular or mean girls, but we thought that it was more representative of the particular characters in our sequence. We also found that they worked well together as a pair which was another necessity for this role, and their form of dress was quite naturally sophisticated which was, again, stereotypical of a popular character.
By challenging the blonde cliché (which seemed very Americanised) we allowed for more relatable characters and give more depth to the popular girls which could then be developed upon, instead of stereotypically labelling the girls.
Andrew Nugent and Calum Williamson
Andrew and Calum were cast as the 'nerds' in our sequence, as both fit this stereotype rather well, particularly due to their glasses which we found in our research is a huge indicating stereotype for this kind of character. We found that they also had quite a similar appearance to one another which made them appear more natural on camera, and their slightly shy personalities was appropriate and representative of their characters.
Nerdy Characters
Arty Character
Charlotte Rhodes
Charlotte was cast as our 'arty' character mostly due to her stereotypically friendly, happy demeanor which we thought was necassary for this role. She also did not strongly fit any other specific stereotypes, so it was easier to tailor the character to our needs. We thought that her appearance and personality were relevant of that of a stereotypical 'nice girl' and that she fit the role best.
Alternative Characters
Amber Barnard and Olympia Critchley
We cast Amber and Olympia as our 'alternative' characters, mostly due to their stereotypically 'alternative' appearance. Amber's blue hair and Olympia's auburn hair was something different to the rest of our cast, and we found that it was more representative of these characters. They also dressed more appropriately for the role, for example, quite differently to the people who we cast as our popular characters, which is why we thought they were best suited to this particular role.
Sporty Character
Dominic Mirfin recast as Anthony Pilling
We initially cast Dominic as our sporty character, due to his tall and therefore stereotypically masculine appearance. However, we found that he may not have been best suited to this role, primarily due to his dress of shirts and jumpers, which fit more into the 'geek' stereotype than the 'sporty' stereotype. We liked how he challenged the expectations of a sporty male by appearing as a 'nice, preppy kind of guy', however this did not come across as intended to our audience and our feedback suggested that the character did not fit in and 'felt out of place'.
After carfeful consideration and a group discussion, we decided to recast Anthony as our sporty character, who still fit the role in the way that Dominic did initally, but he looked more stereotypically sporty due to his choice of dress. He was also slightly more confident and enthusiastic which made him appear more comfortable and natural on camera, therefore representing his character well. This allowed us to embrace the stereotype of the 'bad boy' athlete, which we were lacking in the initial casting.