Representation theory
Stuart Hall - 1932 "The mass media play a crucial role in defining the problems and issues of public concern. They are the main channels of public disclosure in our segrigated society".
Stuart Hall - 1932 "The mass media play a crucial role in defining the problems and issues of public concern. They are the main channels of public disclosure in our segrigated society".
In 'The Architect' there are different social groups which are represented in different ways.
Firstly, we chose to represent a girl and a boy character to create tension through the audience's expectations of conventional roles of men and women in thrillers. We have chose to do it this way because we feel that males are generally more intimidating and aggressive, which is exactly the type of thing we are looking for, yet we wanted to create a feeling of doubt for the character's roles in the film to ensure that our film is aimed at our target audience. We did this by using the conventional roles of a man as the 'villain' and a woman as the 'victim', yet we used children to provoke thought.
When filming/planning our thriller we didn't really take into account ethnic backgrounds, but it happens that all of our cast are white and we do not include any racist remarks or actions. Our characters are also all seen to be working class, however it is not specifically shown throughout the film.
We tried to avoid stereotypes in our thriller as much as possible in order to give it a less amateur look to it and also to make our film more original.
Character: Joel
Joel is represented as a 10 year old middle class boy.
He's represented as the antagonist in the film as he is seen as controlling the other character, though the audience sympathize with him as he is clearly alone and unloved. This creates a neutral representation as the characters neither 'like' him or 'dislike' him. His slight manipulative and sinister character is shown by dressing him in dark colours and sitting him in a dark room, with only a slight light (signifying that trace of innocence and vulnerability). By creating an outward image of innocence whilst inwardly being dark and corrupt, it is up to the audience to decide his role in the story. In contrast, stereotypical thriller villains are often older male characters. This is because they are more intimidating through their weapons of strength or intelligence, were as Joel is able to manipulate Lucy though none of those means in particular.
Little is known about his character in order to create an enigma and the scary effect in which we intended on leaving. The lack of a stereotypical weapon makes our antagonist appear less threatening. Although the irony of the audience knowing of the antagonist's obsession, and know that he is in some way influencing her life makes this weapon more effective.
Character: Lucy
She represents the 'princess' character in Propp's theory, who, at the start of the film, is in a strange place and basically needs saving. She is represented with a sense of innocence as she is wearing the red dress, as seen in other movies worn by young girls in danger, and is seen in places where children would normally play (eg. the park).
Firstly, we chose to represent a girl and a boy character to create tension through the audience's expectations of conventional roles of men and women in thrillers. We have chose to do it this way because we feel that males are generally more intimidating and aggressive, which is exactly the type of thing we are looking for, yet we wanted to create a feeling of doubt for the character's roles in the film to ensure that our film is aimed at our target audience. We did this by using the conventional roles of a man as the 'villain' and a woman as the 'victim', yet we used children to provoke thought.
When filming/planning our thriller we didn't really take into account ethnic backgrounds, but it happens that all of our cast are white and we do not include any racist remarks or actions. Our characters are also all seen to be working class, however it is not specifically shown throughout the film.
We tried to avoid stereotypes in our thriller as much as possible in order to give it a less amateur look to it and also to make our film more original.
Character: Joel
Joel is represented as a 10 year old middle class boy.
He's represented as the antagonist in the film as he is seen as controlling the other character, though the audience sympathize with him as he is clearly alone and unloved. This creates a neutral representation as the characters neither 'like' him or 'dislike' him. His slight manipulative and sinister character is shown by dressing him in dark colours and sitting him in a dark room, with only a slight light (signifying that trace of innocence and vulnerability). By creating an outward image of innocence whilst inwardly being dark and corrupt, it is up to the audience to decide his role in the story. In contrast, stereotypical thriller villains are often older male characters. This is because they are more intimidating through their weapons of strength or intelligence, were as Joel is able to manipulate Lucy though none of those means in particular.
Little is known about his character in order to create an enigma and the scary effect in which we intended on leaving. The lack of a stereotypical weapon makes our antagonist appear less threatening. Although the irony of the audience knowing of the antagonist's obsession, and know that he is in some way influencing her life makes this weapon more effective.
Character: Lucy
She represents the 'princess' character in Propp's theory, who, at the start of the film, is in a strange place and basically needs saving. She is represented with a sense of innocence as she is wearing the red dress, as seen in other movies worn by young girls in danger, and is seen in places where children would normally play (eg. the park).