Main Character and Text Messages

We have figured out the name and the characterization for the main character in our film opening. The name is a typical white, American name that is very well known and used in most movies. Her name will be Lucy Thomas, and she will play the role of a stereotypical blonde, popular teenage girl. Another name that we have come up with, is the name of one of her friends who will call her during the film opening. The fact that we asked our blonde friend, Valentina, to be in our film, was not a coincidence at all. Stereotypically, the most popular girl in every movie is blonde. Some examples are; High School Musical, Mean Girls, 10 Things I Hate About you, and the list goes on and on. This aspect of the popularity of the main character is important to our opening because we will be portraying the main character as an ignorant teenage girl who is on her phone for most of the film opening. Her lock screen will be shown and it will have thousands of notifications on it, which implies that she is popular. 

We are still trying to find the exact way to show her phone screen, shot-wise and camera angle-wise. There are many ways that movies show text messages. One way is that they film a long shot of the character holding his/her phone, and text message bubbles pop up on the side like a hologram for the audience to see. This is done in the movie The Mindy Project, the show House of Cards, and many more. Because of the fact that this method is very interactive for the audience since they have to read and interpret the messages, millions of movies use it and are very successful.

Above is the method of displaying text messages that are shown like a hologram.

However, just because this method is beneficial, doesn’t mean it is easy to make for a high school student with a computer and some editing apps. Furthermore, what we will be doing is we will be showing the screen of Lucy’s phone and doing a close-up so that the viewer can read it with no problem. We will later be coming up with different ringtones and sound effects for when a message or a call comes into her phone. 

This is the Mean Girls blonde, popular lead.

Above is out blonde, popular lead.

“Top 10 Blonde Stereotypes.” Listaka, 2 Nov. 2017, listaka.com/top-10-blonde-stereotypes


Cox, Jamieson, and Lizzie Plaugic. “How Should TV Shows and Movies Depict Texting?” The Verge, The Verge, 12 July 2016, www.theverge.com/2016/7/12/12159636/texting-tv-shows-movies-the-mindy-project-house-of-cards.