Fiction Adaptation: Character Profiles & Casting

Who are my characters, and what should they look and be like?

Now that I have a main idea for my story adaptation, I will now go into depth into what I want my characters to be like. There will only be two characters in my story - the woman character and her male partner who goes to war. However I will also need a narrator, which too will be explored saying what I would like.

As this is only an adaptation of the poem and is narrated, the audience don't need to understand the character's details in depth, e.g. their name, their background, etc. However it is very important that the viewer's can use the characters in a way to understand the story and mainly to create a connection with them to make the story seem more emotive and effective.

Main Character: The Widow - Female Character

Age: Early-Late 40s

This will be the main focus throughout the narrative, as this is whom the poem is about. As I will be showing that she is writing/wrote the poem, her age is very important. She must be of an age where her husband has gone to the first work war and hasn't returned. This in fairness could vary in age, however I am planning on using someone at least in their 40s. I've decided not to make her younger as I feel it will be more affectionate the older the character, as it creates this stronger bond between her and her husband. Therefore, the age should be in the 40s - it shouldn't be older as its not as likely to have someone at war in their 50s, so I've decided to stick with the 40s age band.

Character's Personality

In terms of importance, I'm more concerned on the personality of my character. This is because the character must be able to convey a variety of mixed emotions in a short time, as I've mentioned in my analysis that she will be sarcastic, angry and upset. She must be able to express this clearly so that the audience can instantly understand why she might be upset/angry. This generally means that I need to target on my character to be emotional however instead of being weak, should be strong. I'm aiming to show her writing the poem as she tries to outcome her emotions for the death of her partner, however as she writes her poem it must look like this is her first breakdown after her loss - creating this extra depth of emotion.

A modernised approach of an 'average'
WW1 outfit. You can immediately tell
from this dress code that this is from around
the era of WW1

Dress Code

The character's dress style too is equally important. As I'm writing in the present tense of WW1, the character's dress code must be relatable to the era (as well as the miss-en-scene), and more importantly understood by the audience so

that they know when and where the story is set. This means symbolism of WW1 - an outfit which could relate to her job or the era itself for example, furthermore adding to the character's representation and making the viewers understand the character better.

A family at church. The woman's clothing on the left
would be very significant for my story. You can gain hints
that she is a religious woman who may go to church.

For example, she could be an average citizen who wore a 'ragged' dress, or even a nurse outfit. However, I thought further ahead and thought what if I could find a woman's dress which could relate to church? This would allow me to create enigmas that my character could be religious, as there is religious connotations within the poem. The purpose of this is to highlight this is WW1, as well as giving hints as to what the character may've been like. I will be researching where to find outfits like these. If I can find a church outfit then I will aim for this one, however will have the other outfit (shown in the other image) as a back up.

Second Character: The Husband

Although this character has very little involvement (in fact he will only be seen as he says goodbye to his wife as he goes to war), it is still essential to make sure that this character is up to standards, otherwise it could have an effect on my whole story.

Age: Early - Late 40s

Likewise to the female character, this character must be of a similar age, considering that the two are married. However he could be early 40s as he is about to go to war.

Personality

This however isn't entirely relevant. The audience only need to understand that in the story that the husband is going to war and that he is in love and married to his wife. This therefore means that he has to be considerably upset as he goes to war, considering he is leaving his wife and may never see her again. Therefore this character too needs to be quite emotive however not to an extent. Furthermore, this sadness shouldn't overcome his pride and bravery as he goes to war - it should only be hinted towards to the audience who should be able to understand this just through his NVC.

There are many WW1 costumes
online, making this character's
costume quite easy to pick for filming

Dress Code

The dress code too is very essential. We must learn that he is a British soldier and that he is just leaving to go to war. In my opinion I don't think his ranking is necessary meaning any ranking could be used. To show that he is just about to leave for a war, a large army bag and potentially even his gun should
be evident, and we should see this as he departs.

The Narrator: The voice of the female character

I've chosen the narrator to be the voice of the character in the story. This helps to make the narrative seem more clarified as if she is narrating it, then it makes it clearer to the audience that it is her within the film and who the story is about. 

This means that the narrator must have a voice of a similar age (in the 40s). In fact, it could even be the actor herself dependent on whether her voice would suit it or not. Nonetheless, this follows the same lead as the character's personality: should be able to show a change in emotions clearly just through voice. We want the understand to feel what the character/narrator are feeling so that there is a connection between the viewers and the story itself. Therefore, this should be very similar to the character.

Additionally, the voice has to obviously be British. However, as this is set in the first World War, there must be a distinctive accent which you would listen to and understand that it is set in the past and more importantly in the era my film is set in. 

Advert Auditions

I've created adverts on Casting Call Pro to search for actors/narrators whom will suit this job, hopefully I can find someone soon! I created an advert explaining the story as well as showing who I want for my cast (the female and male character and female narration), which you can see below:

Main Advert

Female Character

 Male Character

Female Narrator

I will keep you posted on my blog when I come across cast auditions and decisions when (if) they come across!