'Wraith' representing social groups

Perhaps the cliché of thriller movies (or any movies, in fact) is the portrayal of slim and sexy/ beautiful white ‘girly, girl’ figures as the protagonists. They are often seen sporting skirts and figure hugging clothes to show off their curves and skin; most of the time they’re in (high) heels. We chose to make our thriller atypical in that sense. In place of a white girl/woman, we selected a black teenager as our protagonist. We thought there are very few films that have Blacks or Asians or Muslims as their main characters and we wanted to add our film to one of those ‘few’ films. We have, however, selected an attractive female figure like most of the movies.

Though they are both teenagers, the costumes of Dakota Fanning in ‘Push’ (left) and our actress is Lorraine (right) are totally different. Fanning’s clothes look very much girly but Lorraine’s doesn’t.  We decided our actress was to wear simple, casual (modern) clothes and comfortable shoes (converse). Thus our protagonists doesn’t quite appeal as a ‘sexy, seductive’ actress but rather as a ‘simple teenager’ who we hoped would make our (female) audience identify themselves with her (we are focusing on mostly the students: age range, 15 to 26). Their hairstyles are also very different: while Fanning has her wavy blond hair (highlighted with pink) loose, Lorraine has her straight black hair tied into a bun. I prefer to believe hairs also say something about personality or say, a person’s taste at least for that moment so in this case, Fanning can be thought of as carefree, relaxed and sort of hippie-ish. Lorraine on the other hand has taken time to carefully do her hair (straighten and tied) and prefers a bit of control maybe- tight bun.  

Like Fanning, Lorraine is also using a sidebag but whereas Fanning’s bag looks small and fancy, Lorraine’s can be classified as big and bulky-probably loaded with books. It can also be noted that both the girls are wearing comfortable (heel-less) shoes. Though there are some similarities and some differences in these two photos (and it is quite possible that the characters change their hairstyles and their costumes later in the movie), we have shown our actress represents a ‘normal’ young Black Londoner with no physical disability. Though she acts in a self-conscious and delusional way in the first few minutes of the movie (related to ‘schizophrenia’, she will later portray herself as an independent, intelligent female- unlike the common schema of ‘passive and weak females'. With some atypical elements, the movie or say, the opening title seeks to challenge the stereotypical view of good and pretty actresses.