Planning: Cast, Costumes and Characters

Cast

Max- War Veteran who has moved to the blast area to scavenge

Tom- Freelance Journalist (Protagonist)

Kieran- Minor roles such as the News Reporter and Henchman

Curt- Enclave Leader

Costume

Black jeans

Walking boots

Bomber Jacket

War Veteran – Bearded, wearing ripped jeans, bomber jacket, toy rifle (looks like a hunting rifle), woolly hat, walking boots and paintball gloves.

Journalist costume

Kieran's costume for both the
News Reporter and Henchman 

Journalist- Casual style of dress, wearing trainers and contemporary clothing, however at different parts of the trailer he will be dirty and could be in different clothes. e.g. ripped shirt

Computer Hacker- Glasses, dirty patched shirts, a coat, boots, broken laptop in a carrier bag, and backpack full of supplies.

Enclave Officer- Formal attire consisting of a suit jacket, with white shirt, tie, black pants and polished shoes.

Each character has a different dress code, to connote who they are, e.g. protagonist changes from normal contemporary, freelance journalist to a wasteland dweller, looking more ‘beat up’ and filthy, hence connoting he has been there for a while. This gives some subtle narrative exposition as well as establishing the Post-Apocalyptic genre of the film.

Personality and Character

War Veteran- still thinks about his past and doesn’t want to consider what has happened. Believes in conspiracy theories involving the Government and has almost given up on life, and has lost all motivation for it due to his involvement in several conflicts, what he has seen cannot be undone; it haunts him every day.

Journalist- an Intelligent, witty and decisive young man who has not experienced anything like this due to living in a secure period of peace time. He is strong both physically and mentally, he uses this strength to overcome any obstacle. His prudence and sense of adventure can sometimes help, but sometimes hinder, being overly motivated and stubborn with his thinking, these are his fatal flaws.

Computer Hacker- although a control freak who is quite nerdy, his organisational skills, intelligence and dexterity with technology allows him to hack into and control parts of the blast area, he can also utilize exterior networks, giving him access to schematics for weapons and tools, maps of different locations.

Enclave Officer- Will play only a small part in the trailer, acting as the antagonist who seeks to prevent our two heroes from uncovering the truth. He is resourceful, highly dangerous, meticulous and deadly in his planning, using his network of contacts to complete his tasks for him.

The personalities of our characters are, like their costumes, meant to be different from one another to create variety throughout the trailer, they will also have to work together, which creates enigmas for the audience as to how they will do this. They are also, in some cases a bit stereotyped, but this allows easy identification of who they are and how they fit into the plot.

N.B. We have removed the computer hacker from the characters as we only have 1 minute and 30 seconds to get across the main characters and the most important narrative elements, although it is likely he would remain in the full film.

Characters in other Post Apocalyptic films

War Veteran:

Justin Timberlake plays Private Pilot Abilene, an Iraqi War Veteran in Southland Tales, which is a post apocalyptic film. He is mainly used as a narrator. This can be seen to be similar to our character of the War Veteran as he has been made cynical and wiser because of what he has seen.

Journalist:

The journalist was originally by the character of Frank West from the video game Dead Rising. Although the game is Post Apocalyptic, it more focuses on zombies; so obviously we had to change some aspects of the character. In the game he seeks to uncover the truth about the cause of the zombie outbreak, and we thought this was an interesting element to add to the character and the story.

Enclave Leader:

Gary Oldman plays the Villain (Carnegie) who is searching for the prize of the book. We used this for Curt's character as he seeks the prize of stopping Max and Tom from uncovering the truth. Carnegie also controls henchmen who do his dirty work for him; this is where we got the idea for a fight scene between Kieran as the henchman and Max.

As for his personality he is very controlling, harsh and shrewd in his shady business of controlling a town. He is portrayed like this through his dress of his suit connoting power and affluence which the hero does not have. The mis en scene in his office is also important as it further reinforces these qualities as well as his intelligence (as he reads a lot of books) and ruthlessness when it comes to handling his wife and daughter - this all inspired Curt's character and the mis en scene of his office.

Carnegie with some of his henchman. This particular part of the film escalates into a fight scene.

 Dialogue examples

"The accelerated conflict in the Middle East placed significant restrictions on American access to oil. Alternative fuel sources became a lucrative commodity. Americans were transfixed by the terrorist's threat, and were willing to prevent another attack by any means necessary..."

"In the aftermath of nuclear attacks in Texas, America found itself on the brink of anarchy."