G321 Opening Sequence actors

1. Actors
By Luke Newcombe

2. Bradley Smith- Protagonist
Bradley Smith will be playing the role of the protagonist within my
opening sequence, who will be called ’Brad Smith. 'The character he will
be portraying is someone who has a confident, alpha male personality but
also struggles with a drug addiction and will go to any means necessary in
order to fulfil this. Within my opening sequence there will be three main
characters, Brad will be seen as the ring leader out of these characters and
will also be viewed as the most intelligent character in comparison to his
counterparts. Although Brad struggles from a drug addiction he has high
intelligence and this will be highlighted through his narrative over the top
of the footage within the opening sequence, in which he will ty to justify
to the audience why he decided to follow an unconventional way of life
(this dialogue will be some speech about how society is fooled into
following a certain way of life which is determined by people in education
and the government, the speech will also go onto highlight how the
current political infrastructure leads to further problems in the world and
that if the use of drugs was legalised these problems wouldn’t exist) Brad’s
personality will be that of someone who is content with his way of life and
takes disregard for others, even his friends, but despite this doesn’t have
an arrogant tone.
Brad has many characteristics which are ideal for my protagonist within
my film. The name ‘Bradley Smith’ itself is quite iconic as Smith is a
common British last name and my film is a British based drama. Due to this
Brad Smith will play himself within the opening sequence. To add to that,
Brad has short hair which creates a rough edge to his look and also fits
with the stereotypical drug abuser. Brad also has a key role in voicing over
the opening sequence, in doing this I need someone who has clear
pronunciation of words and someone who can also speak fluently which
Brad can do both perfectly. The personality of Bradley is that of someone
who is enthusiastic and this is portrayed in his tone of voice which will
further add to the overall character of my desired protagonist as the
dialogue within my opening sequence is equally important as the footage.
Finally, drug addicts are also stereotyped to be fairly skinny and pale, both
of which Bradley is making him an ideal person to play my protagonist.

3. Niall Armstrong- 2nd Protagonist
Niall will also have a key role within the opening sequence as he will be playing the
main protagonist Brad Smith’s best friend. Niall will be playing a character called
‘Joe Gledhill’, or as he is commonly referred to ‘Gledsy.’ Joe will be presented as a
character of great strength but very little intelligence, this could be for various
reasons such as drug abuse or the way he was brought up, however, the reasons
for this will not be revealed to the audience as it is deliberately meant to be
ambiguous. Joe’s personality will be that of a character who stays confined to the
group he is in and doesn’t branch out or speak to others unless needs be (fair shy
character). Similarly to Brad, Joe’s only ambition in life is to continue abusing
drugs, however, unlike Brad Joe follows this path because he is physically unable
of doing anything else as he lacks both intelligence and common sense. Despite
Joe’s loyalty to abusing drugs he is also loyal to the people he is with and looks up
to Brad for guidance and see’s Brad as almost a father figure to him. Niall will be
playing the role of a character who says little words but despite this his friends still
value him highly due to his immense strength and loyalty to them, to add to that,
others who don’t know Joe still accept the fact that although his dumb he is
evidently strong by appearance and therefore little words are exchanged to him
out of fear of his build.
The reasoning for choosing Niall to play this role is because he is ideal in many
ways. It is evident to see Niall’s physical presence as he is a tall, fairly well built
teenager who would automatically be assumed to be strong. Due to this he fits the
role perfectly of playing an unintelligent but physically strong character. To add to
that, Niall’s facial features of having a beard present both ideas of strength and
that his character is also scruffy. The beard itself presents ideas of both maturity,
as adults often have beards, and also present theories that Niall’s character could
be a scruff (depending on the state the beard is kept in). As Niall is a character who
abuses drugs, by him having a scruffy beard it creates ideas that the reason his
facial hair and overall look is in this state is due to the long term affects of drugs.
Furthermore, Niall has previously studied performing arts and has a GCSE in that
subject, this will mean that Niall will be able to adapt to fit many different
characters as he an recall on previous experience. Although Niall’s personality
doesn’t match that of the character he’ll be portraying, his previous experience
within performing arts will mean he can mould himself into that character.
Similarly to Brad Niall is also very pale which fits into the stereotypical drug abuser
and because of this it also means he fits the desired role of my 2nd protagonist.
Finally, Niall is both white and blonde like Brad and Niall also looks up to Brad. This
can be played on as I can use this to my advantage in order to create ambiguous
ideas such as Niall and Brad may actually be related but are unaware of it as it’s

4. Alfie Millar- 3rd Protagonist
The final protagonist in my opening sequence will be Alfie Millar who will
be playing the character of ‘John Wood’. Again, like the other two
members of the group he is also addicted to drugs. However, the reason
for this is less complex in the fact he does it out of boredom instead of
doing it to get back at society (like Brad) and doing it because he is
physically incapable of doing other things in life, such as working (like Joe).
John also has a physical presence which indicates he has immense
strength but in reality his harmless, despite this though he still presents
himself in a manor which indicates to the viewer that he is a robust
character. Although John isn’t on the same intelligence level as Brad he is
still a character that is capable of making his own decisions and more
often than not he voices his opinion to Brad, despite this Brad takes little
notice and because John is a character who is bored with his way of life, he
decides to follow what Brad is saying regardless of how stupid it is. Unlike
Brad and Joe John's life away from drugs is shown in the opening
sequence. This reveals that he lives a perfectly normally life but despite
this he wants more and because of this he turned to drugs. Although John
excessively uses drugs his physical appearance doesn’t give much away as
he isn’t extraordinarily pale and neither is he really skinny. In doing this it
moves away from the stereotypical drug addict shown by the other two
characters.
The reasoning for choosing Alfie to play John is similar to the reason for
choosing Niall. They both have qualifications in Performing Arts and can
recall on this in order to portray their specific characters. Similarly to Niall,
Alfie also has facial hair in the form of a beard. Again, this presents ideas
that his character could both be older and more mature, but also scruffy
at the same time due to the condition his beard is kept in. Again, this could
be down to the long term affects of drugs and how it is affecting his
characters health. Furthermore, John also has a strong persona but in
reality is harmless, which reflects Alfie’s personality in real life as although
he appears to be physically strong he is in actual fact the opposite. These
factors mean that Alfie fits the role of John Wood perfectly and the GCSE
in performing arts means he can use this experience to adapt to the role

5. Jack Holder- Antagonist
Jack Holder will be playing the role of ’Wajj’ in my opening
sequence. He will be the only antagonist within the sequence and
will also only appear briefly. Wajj in essence is the drug baron
operating in the area where Brad, Joe and John live. As the three
protagonists can’t fund there drug habit they devise a plan to
burgle his house in order to fill there drug addiction. Wajj’s has a
strong physical appearance and his background justifies why as it is
a well known criminal and has served many sentences in jail, to add
to that his also a former skin head (as highlighted by a cross on his
finger) and due to this background it is known for him to be violent.
Although Wajj doesn’t play a prominent role within the opening
sequence the camera will constantly cut to him giving chase to the
three main characters and he also plays a key role in to why the
characters are running in the first place.
I have chosen Jack to play the role of Wajj for a number of various
reasons. The first one being Jack is tall and also has a physically
strong appearance which indicates to the audience that the
characters are in fear of Wajj due to his immense strength and
brutality, despite both Niall and Alfie also having a physically strong
appearance, also Jack’s build seems more realistic for someone who
has served time in prison whereas using a character who doesn’t
have a significant physical presence wouldn’t correctly lead the
audience to assume that this character is an antagonist.
Additionally, Jack also has a deep voice which creates ideas such as
the character having both power and strength. The deepness in
Jack’s voice could possibly determine the age difference between
himself and the protagonists and the voice being deep itself builds
ideas of how the character could be seen as intimidating/ strong. To
add to that, Jack’s build is also believable to that of someone who
has served time in prison and furthermore Jack does have a tattoo