Two female writers appear before Griffin with a pitch at (5:35-). These characters have a really small role without names even mentioned. They serve the purpose of Characterizing Griffin by showing that his career involves listening to tens of thousands of horrible pitches a day and choosing a limited number of winners. According to Will Straw in “Scales of Presence” (2011), a film extra is within the domain of “mise-en scene of the filmic ornament and detail…” which “…dehumanizes them” (125), which is visible in the way these on-screen characters are portrayed. They appear animated from the moment they are on screen and it is obvious that they have not fully agreed on how to tell the pitch yet. They are still arguing about the pitch at the start of the meeting while Griffin is on the phone.The writer on the left appears to be more assertive and outspoken as far as describing her pitch. The writer on the right shakes her head while the writer on the left talks, likely trying to reach an agreement on who will say what. They appeared to have reached consensus when Griffin throws down his phone; however, the woman on the left is still speaking. When it is made clear that it is the women’s time to pitch their idea, the writer on the right let the writer on the left speak. The woman has her left hand raised in a way that appears as if it is needed to keep her on track with her ideas. The woman on the right quickly interrupts and the two continuously speak over each other, and Griffin, until they are no longer on scene. The two women do not seem to belong to any visible minority and are pitching a racist movie to Griffin. The pitch involves a tv star, which they specify will be played by a movie star, going on a safari in Africa only to get separated and end up being “found” and “worshiped” by a “tribe” of “small people” (6:10-6:13). Very little is known about these minor characters as their purpose is not to function as full characters in their own right. Their character-spaces are too small to operate in and instead, their existence expands Griffin’s character-space early on.

Who is Profiling the Character?: Mercedes Settle
Source of Image: The Player. Directed by Altman, performances by Tim Robbins, Greta Scacchi, and Fred Ward, The Criterion Collection
Image Alt Text: The Two Female Writers from The Player
License for your profile: CC BY Creative Commons By Attribution
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