In the document, it discusses stereotypes related to gender, age, race, and ethnicity that are commonly portrayed in thriller films. It then provides examples of how the student film "The Witness" addressed and avoided some of these stereotypes. Specifically, it notes that "The Witness" included both male and female protagonists and detectives, used actors of various ethnicities in major roles, cast the youngest looking actor as the victim but oldest looking as the villain, and generally tried to avoid typical stereotypes found in many thriller films.

1. Stereotypes of Men
in thriller films:
In Thriller films, men are usually portrayed as the
antagonist. They are often the “villain” of the film.
This means they have traits which are opposite to
the characteristics of the protagonist. However,
stereotypically the male hero is usually young and
his ethnicity is white. However, the villains
ethnicity is not white or has a deformation. The
villains tend to have muscles to show they’re
physically strong and a threat. The males are
represented to be powerful through low camera
angle shots which make them look powerful and
shows us they have a high status of authority.
Representation:
• The hero is usually upper class
• Black men: Gangster, criminal,
violent, hero, and athletic.
• Americans: Lazy, easy going, female
Americans are seen as sex symbols.
• White men: male actors are used for
the protagonist of the film as they
appeal to the mass.
Men in traditional
Thriller films:
In traditional thriller films men are still
usually stereotyped. Men are either the
hero or villain. Men are portrayed in this
way because they are shown as the
‘masculine’ figure. Men are usually the
heroes in typical thriller films, they tend
to take on the active roles whereas
women tend to take on the passive roles,
and there is a definite lack of female role
models compared to the amount of male
role models.
Men in The Witness:
In my film ‘The witness’, we didn’t plan to
go traditional or stereotype. The villain in
my group was Tom whom is white and
tall. Tom was one of the main male
characters in The Witness. We thought to
chose Tom for this role as we thought he
looked more like a villain as he was tall.
We needed someone who was tall and
strong because they needed to lift one of
the characters up (in this case, Maya).
However, overall my group did not
stereotype because we had a reverse role
which will be spoken about on the next
slide.
This is the scene
where Tom picks
Maya up.

2. Stereotypes of Women
in thriller films:
Women are usually stereotyped in Thriller movies
often. Usually the women are the damsel in
distress. Damsel in distress basically means when a
lady needs saving because she is in a complicated
situation where she needs rescuing. An example of
this is in Scream where the women is on the phone
while getting chased by the guy in a mask. Women
are normally portrayed as being pretty/beautiful,
the main women in the film can be used as a sex
icon for the male audience to engage them in the
film and this is usually shown through the ‘male
gaze’. An example of this is in Salt- starring Angelina
Jolie which is a spy thriller.
This is a different scenario in
SALT because the role is
reversed. Angelina Jolie is not
portrayed as the weak
character in this film.
Women in traditional
thriller films:
Women are still usually stereotyped in traditional
thriller films. Women are the victims in thriller films
because they look and act vulnerable. This is also
because they are stereotyped as i have mentioned
in the last box. Women in thrillers are portrayed to
have several roles, depending on the age of the
women. The idea of a patriarchal society can be
reflected in the representation of women in thriller
as they are usually shown to be highly dependant on
men. It is uncommon for older women to sexual
appeal or to be mothers, where as younger women
tend to be more sexual but also innocent with
everything else. Women usually are not the
protagonist, or feature any characteristics that
would help to solve the issue, such as intelligence.
They are often given the male gaze, and men are
sometimes in trance with them. It is rare for female
to be the protagonist but when they are, they are
usually unstoppable.
Women in The
Witness:
In the witness we have 2 female roles. One
of them is played by Maya Gharu. Maya is
presented as the damsel in distress. We
chose maya to be the victim in our play as
she looks vulnerable and innocent. The role
of Maya was sterotyped. The other role was
played by myself. My role was to be a
detective and ask questions to one of the
characters (Max) who got beaten up. We
wanted to reverse roles and my grouped
picked me to be the detective as
traditionally you don’t really see female
detectives in films hence, they picked me.
Overall, my groups thriller opening is not as
stereotypical.

3. Age in The Witness
In our film The Witness, we used Maya as a character as
she looks the most youngest out of the characters. We
used the youngest looking character as in thriller movies,
that’s what directors tend to do.
In The Witness, we decided to use Tom because he
looked the eldest out of everyone. We used Tom
because in Thrillers, the male villain characters usually
look as if they’re older than the female characters.

4. Age in traditional thrillers
Children are usually conveyed in films in
stereotypical ways:
• Vulnerable
• Naughty
• Mischievous
• They are usually seen as trouble makers
• Innocent
• Victims
The elderly are also usually conveyed in
stereotypical ways:
• Grumpy
• Rude
• Poor health
• Helpless victims
• Outspoken
• Cant take care of self
• Memory loss
• Unemployed
When elderly people are seen in the media, it is often in a
stereotypical way. However, elderly people are in fact excluded
from most films altogether-
The amount of people aged 65 and older in 2005 were represented
in less than 2% of programs and films.
An example of where stereotypes of the elderly have been used is
in a TV programme called King and Queens. It is about an elderly
character called Arthur who doesn’t what goes on and he doesn’t
understand most things because he is ‘old’/
Most Americans never want to be “old” due to the negative
stereotypes of them.

5. Race in The Witness
In The Witness, we used different ethnicity's to make all roles equal
We believed that this was the best thing to do. We all noticed that
in some thriller openings, there is not a lot of mixed roles- usually
the main characters are black or white or black and white. In our
film we had a mix of people –White, Black and Asian.

6. Race in traditional thriller movies
In society, there is a high discrimination and
racism. A thriller film which shows this is
‘Lakeview Terrace’. It shows racism and
discrimination as it is a film about an
interracial couple living next door to a cop. The
cop doesn’t like them due to their race so he is
abusive towards them and turns their lives into
hell to try and get them to leave.
Ethnic stereotypes:
Asians- intelligent, hardworking, determined,
martial arts, physically weak, mentally strong
and ruthless
Afro/Caribbean’s- gangster, violence, criminal,
victim, hero, athletic
American- lazy, easy going, relaxed, female
Americans are seen as sex symbols
Representations of Ethnicity in Spy thriller films are:
• Afro/Caribbean’s characters are represented as violent,
involved in drugs and are portrayed as criminals in spy-
thriller films. They are never usually seen as the
protagonist.
• Asians are represented as hardworking, high class and
powerful. Usually, an Asian actor will be chosen to play
the role of a president or someone important as they
are stereotyped as being intelligent.
• Latin American women will usually be used as a sex
symbol in the films.
• Famous white British/ American actors are usually
chosen to play the protagonist or antagonist as they are
popular or well-known to the audience the fore will
appeal to them more.