Props and Characterisation

Props play a vital role to help convey the genre of a film. It also helps define stereotypes and ages amongst society which is normally expressed through peoples appearance, without props the audience would be left clueless as to what the representation of characters symbolises in a film.

The main character who is a stereotypical modern day teenager in society (me) is lost or trying to escape the society which he is surrounded by as he is in severe danger. The teenager is left isolated and anonymous to help detatch the character from the audience, as no identification of the teenage boy is established, the audience can't emotionally connect with the character, creating this tense and cold atmosphere. The teenager is escaping from a situation that is unfamiliar to him as he is portrayed as being lost hence the warm clothes and satchel to express that this is his only way of survival. The teenage boy is dressed in a black bomber jacket, a grey hoodie, a pair of dark scruffy jeans, with a tattered belt and black plimsolls to help create the rugged look that Josh and I are aiming for.



The selection of clothes the teenager will
be wearing.



For the chase scene we needed a relatively large group of people to play the zombies, so we asked 7 fellow colleagues and asked if they would like to participate in this scene, which they thankfully did. We asked them to bring old ripped clothes and to hairspray to mess up their hair to create a wild look. We also made fake blood which consisted of flour, water, coffee and red food colouring which we dripped onto their clothes to make the zombies appear savage and violent. I thought that this was a useful addition which could look effective whilst filming. We told them to run fast but more limp and awkward to emphasise their deformed appearance to help portray the rage infested zombies. I personally feel they played their parts well and contributed greatly to our work.


The group of zombies.

One last additional prop which we will be using is the newspaper article that Josh created, the edges have been torn delibrately the show how time has passed. As the article is only barely seen for a split second it creates curiosity and mystery as well as conveying the genre and creating a subliminal message.


The newspaper article.