The document summarizes how two main social groups - teenage girls and those with mental illness - are represented in a thriller media product. For the teenage girl victim, she is portrayed stereotypically as generic to serve as a victim for the story. The protagonist Chloe has a mental illness of schizophrenia but her violent actions are a result of abuse and neglect at a corrupt asylum, aiming to avoid portraying all mentally ill people negatively. Chloe is dressed in a long white nightgown and made pale to look sickly and neglected from years of hospitalization.

1. 2. How does your Media Product represent
particular Social groups?
There are only two characters within our thriller opening; a
teenage girl walking through the woods, who becomes the victim
and Chloe, the mental patient who escapes.
In terms of the victim (played by Charlotte), she is a teenage girl,
so we decided to make her quite generic and stereotypical as she
isn’t a major character and we didn’t need to develop her or
express any personality. We dressed her in a pink jumper and black
leggings, simple but typical of a teenage girl. She also carried
earphones with her which she managed to easily pull out of her
pocket and use. This also reinforced the ‘teenage girl’ stereotype
as we are known as the generation that are addicted to
technology. We were not trying to convey a message to the
audience through this character, as her only purpose was as a
victim for Chloe, to show her feral nature.
A large theme in our thriller is mental illness. To avoid
representing mental illness in a totally negative way we did a lot of
research into schizophrenia to better our understanding of the
illness. We also decided that to avoid accusations of
discrimination against Chloe, we would make her the protagonist
rather than the antagonist. As a plot twist we decided that the
terrible mental asylum she was in treated her so badly and corrupt
her so her violent actions in the opening are due to her lack of
trust in people. Using this plot, we are ensuring that we’re not
suggesting all mentally ill people are killers.

2. To show that she had been hospitalised for years I dressed in a
long white nightdress. I also applied white face powder, to make
myself appear paler, as if I hadn’t been outside in a long time. I
used brown and yellow powder under my eyes to make myself look
sickly and hollow. We decided to create this image to show the
neglect of the patient and also to alarm the audience.