Reasons For Casting

There is really only one character in my opening sequence, I decided to this as after watching various openings to other teen movies and through my research, the majority only introduce the main character and minor characters in the opening. It was a convention. I decided to introduce the lead female character (Sydney) in the opening who I cast Alice Turner to portray.

I cast Alice to play Sydney as she is a terrific actress who is also a big fan of teen comedy films so she knows exactly how to perfect the role of Sydney. 

Alice has a pretty face that is potentially similar to other lead females in teen films, such as Lindsey Lohan when she was in Mean Girls. I stuck to the convention of making her pretty and also making her Caucasian, as most female leads in teen movies are Caucasian. 

However I did decide to challenge one convention of teen movies as I didn't want to copy other films too much and stick to all conventions. I rebelled against the stereotypical convention of making the lead popular girl blonde. The predictable thing to do in a teen film that has become so predictable it is now a convention, is make the lead girl have blonde hair. I decided to break that convention and make Sydney have brunette hair to add a twist to my film and flip the stereotype. 

Alice is also the perfect age, she is sixteen which is the same age of Sydney in the film. I thought that by having an actress who is the same age would be essential as they are more likely to portray the role better. Because Alice was the same age, she was able to relate to the character more which makes Sydney more believable and realistic. The age also helps physically with the character as Alice looks like she is sixteen and this adds to the realism of the film. If I cast a 12 or 20 year old they would just not look the part which would be a big problem for the film and would take away some of the realism.