Characterisation
In order to develop the characters for our title sequence and complimentary products, we thought it would be a good idea to research existing names and the stereotypes that they may hold. This way we can name our characters accordingly to make the audience identify with them better. We did this by researching the use of names in existing shows and cross-referencing stereotypically expected names with popularity data found on baby naming sites, which allowed us to evaluate any potential names in a much more in-depth manner.
Here are some of our initial ideas when we brainstormed possible character names that we could use. These were just from the top of our head, but some have appeared in TV shows and is where we got the ideas from.
Nerd/Geek - Female
Quinn from Zoey 101
Agnes from The Suite Life of Zack and Cody
Betty from Ugly Betty
After looking at existing stereotypical geek characters, we looked at some of the common features that made this particular character distinguishable. These features are mostly props, including braces, glasses and books which all have stereotypical implications of intelligence, however we found these features were the same in both male and female stereotypes and did not have many gender-specific variances.
Popular Girl
Lexi from A.N.T Farm
Regina from Mean Girls
Sharpay from High School Musical
We also looked at existing stereotypes of popular female characters, and found that the common factors were blonde hair, pink accessories and feminine clothing. There are also various features of these characters that stereotypically imply a lack of intelligence, for example the blonde hair. These are all elements that we could take into consideration when casting and styling our popular character, but we would also like to challenge this stereotype through the use of alternative conventions (such as using a cast with the "populars" having darkly coloured hair).
Popular Boy
Troy from High School Musical
Joe from Jonas
Beck from Victorious
The correlation between stereotypical popular boys is not quite as strong, however we found that they all seem to be conventionally attractive, somewhat dark-haired, (following the 'tall, dark and handsome' stereotype), and they seem to be athletic or sporty in one way or another. These are all conventions that we can consider if including this kind of character in our show.
emo/goth
Jade from Victorious
Janis from Mean Girls
Andrea from St Trinians
When we looked at stereotypical goth/emo characters we found that they all seemed to have black hair, some with streaks of colour, they all wore dark makeup and clothing and mostly had facial piercings of some sort. These elements of the character all follow the stereotypical conventions of a 'goth' being quite scary and miserable. If we were to include a character of this kind in our show then these are the stereotypes that we would have to consider.
Our Characters
We narrowed down how many characters we would need and produced several possible names for each though cross-referencing stereotypical names with existing and popular/relevant names until we had a collection of suitable names. After casting our 9 characters we decided on the names Gus and Irwin (geeks), Lexi and Sophie (popular girls), Lottie (arty girl), Ava and Emery (alternatives), Tyler [originally Will] (jock), and Nora (main character).
We then planned out our characters' appearance via clothing and props. This was how we would portray our stereotypes the most to our audience, playinging largley towards the expected image of each character.
Our original casting of the sporty character (see Casting) challenged the stereotype of athletes, 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', which led to the recasting of the actor and a name change from Will to Tyler.
Main Title
As a group we brainstormed possible ideas for our show, taking inspiration from existing shows as well as popular quotes that students/teenagers might use today. Once we had compiled a list of titles, we created a tally chart and asked our peers to vote for which name they thought was best. The results showed that 'Nora's World' was the most popular choice, with 'Tell Me About It' taking quite a close second place.
We liked 'Nora's World' as a title as we thought it was short and easily memorable, and also quite self explanatory in the way that it was going to be a show focused on the life of our main character, Nora.