Developing my protagonist.

Before I try to develop my main character, I want to research into my favourite films and find out why I prefer the protagonist in those films to help me design a character. I have picked films ranging from different genres, and chosen narratives which have a male protagonist as my film is going to star a male character. I firstly looked at Toy Story, as this was my favourite film as a child because of the character Woody:

Occupation: Sheriff. Age: ?The reason I liked woody as a character was probably due to the fact he is the main character and leads the other toys in Andy's room. Even though in the first film he is jealous of Buzz, he restores his character by showing kindness at the end of the film. Because I enjoyed this character so much it has influenced me to like the actor, Tom Hanks, which has made me enjoy his films such as Cast Away or Big. I then looked at my other childhood film Back to the Future and focused on Marty Mcfly:

Occupation: Student. Age: 19-22? When watching the films the main reason why I liked Marty was simply because he's cool. He plays the guitar, he skateboards, he gets trouble at school and most importantly, he travels through time. "Although Marty is often accident-prone and sometimes thought to lack critical thinking skills, he is nevertheless brave in the face of danger and can be very resourceful and clever." Source. The next film I looked at was Dances with Wolves and John J. Dunbar, even though he is later called Dances with wolves (which the indians call him) because he is friends with a wolf called two socks:

Occupation: Lieutenant. Age: 30-40.  The main reason why I liked this character was because he is kind and helpful to the native american tribe. His kindness is also shown with his friendship with the wolf Two Socks, which portrays his character as kind and honest and to an audience, this reflects that he is a good character. Throughout the film we are constantly watching his side of the story and this makes us connect with him more and understand his actions.The last film I looked at was The Shawshank Redemption but I prefer Andy and Red:

Andy Occupation: Banker. Age: 30-40. The reason why I liked these characters so much was simply because of their friendship. I liked Red because he's funny, honest and even though he was sent to prison because of a murder, we still warm to him as a character. On the other hand I liked Andy because for one he's innocent and we sympathise for him, and two because he's smart, kind and genuine.

Reflection
Looking back through these characters I can now identify the main characteristics about each of them:

• kind
• interesting
• cool
• funny
• innocent
• honest

All these characteristics reflect typically good qualities in people. However, in other films such as Pulp Fiction we like the characters which in real life would be horrible people. For example Vincent and Jules.

Occupations: Gangsters. Age: 30-45. In real life these are horrible, terrifying gangsters yet we still enjoy them as characters.The reason for this is because they are presented as the "loveable rogues" which add humour to the brutal action.Hence, this has made me think carefully about my character. They have to connect with the audience whether they are good or bad. They have to reflect some similarity in order to present familiarity which the text.