Ash Allen: Portrayed by Erin Surkitt
Here we wanted to turn the stereotype of teenage girls having long blonde hair caked in makeup on it's head, virtually making Ash's character a counter type of the Teen Angst genre, specifically for the female main protagonist of the film. Although the fact that the main protagonist is female is rather stereotypical of the genre in a whole, its comes from what she wears, the dark clothing that makes her in a way a counter type. However, Ash is portrayed as the "misunderstood misfit" of the school that your typically see in a teen angst genre. With the close small amount of friends, and very much too her own. She represents the social group in school as the "unpopular weirdo", which I think quite a lot of teenagers will be able to relate to, as even if in reality they're the "popular" type of girl watching the film, it all comes down to the fact that everyone feels like they don't fit in at school at least once in their lives, its what comes with the experience. 
With Darcy's character we really wanted the represent the opposite side of Ash, in other words Darcy is the light to Ash's darkness. Which I think is really important representation to have, particularly as within our film we're covering a rather dark subject matter that is mental health, so to have a light hearted character that is Darcy in the film, it would lift the spirits of the audience, and essentially make the opening sequence more light hearted, which is a rather stereotypical mood and vibe to be given off when watching a film of a teen angst genre. Also its highlighted within the opening sequence that Ash and Darcy are best friends and they have been that way for years, which I think is important to mention because in a teen angst movie such as 'Angus, Thongs and perfect snogging' or 'Wild Child' they all have a close female friend within them, which support them, for Georgia in 'Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging' It was the boy struggles that she was trying to overcome, and her friends where there to help her through it, and in 'Wild Child' Poppy was struggling to overcome homesickness and getting over her mums death, and then she made friends with 4 other girls to try and get out of the school, but realises that in actual fact she never wanted to leave because she has made amazing friends. Therefore, recognising this as a regular convention of the teen angst genre we wanted to incorporate that into our own opening sequence and that's where Ash and Darcy came into the picture.
Helen is your stereotypical "mean girl" convention in our opening sequence. However, she is a counter type of the genre as you would find out later on in the film that in actual fact Helen was never a "mean girl" after all but as we are being told this story from Ash's perspective she takes everything Darcy says, or does to her in a negative light. As an audience you're introduced to her as the "Queen Bitch" when in actual fact it was Ash's depression that was clouding her judgement of Helen's character and Helen was only really trying to help her and be nice. I think with our Teen angst film we really challenge the stereotype of the plot line, from my research I found that in films such as 'Mean Girls' the "mean girls" learn their lesson in the end, and the one "unpopular girl" is liked and known by most people. Although, in our film its completely flipped. The introduced "Unpopular girl" Ash in actual fact in some sense was the "Mean girl" because her depression caused her to judge and treat people like Helen who was trying to help her badly and then you have the introduced "mean girl" Helen turns out to be good and not mean at all, as we find out all along what Helen was really trying to do for Ash.
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