Representation in my film!


One of the things my film lacks is thought-out representation. It wasn't something I prioritized heavily as a student filmmaker with a one-actor short film opening. Since I wasn't going to have multiple characters in my film opening, I figured the best film choice was to actually lean into a specific horror/thriller movie trope: the opening kill. All my main options for actors were teenage girls, including myself, which actually perfectly aligns with that trope: a LOT of first kills in these movies are teenage girls.

While I would love to improve the representation in my film, there are also problems with being super representative in horror: the trope of "burying" your representation by killing them off is much worse than the "first kill" trope- and since someone dies at the end of my film opening, I would hate to contribute to a harmful stereotype that is widely looked down upon by audiences of so many different backgrounds.

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