How the male and female character are represented

THRILLER FILM ANALYSIS

Pulp Fiction

Tim Roth – Pumpkin/Ringo

Amanda Plummer – Honey Bunny/Yolanda

Shutter Island

Leonardo DiCaprio – Teddy Daniels

Michelle Williams – Dolores

Gravity

George Clooney – Matt Kowalski

Sandra Bullock – Ryan Stone

Inception

Leonardo DiCaprio – Cobb

Ellen Page - Ariadne

FILMS TO STUDY

GRAVITY – FEMALE CHARACTER

Costume – The female character in gravity is wearing a space suit – something not normally associated with female thriller characters. It can represent an outgoing and fearless personality.

Facial expression – In this ‘printscreened’ scene, the female character looks quite relaxed and under control of her situation. This can display a bold and outgoing character.

Camera Placement – This is a wide shot, as her body is on full display. It also emphasises the fact that she is alone in space, which once again shows a fearless personality.

Lighting – Lighting in this scene is very low-key. This keeps Gravity conventional to a thriller film, by keeping lighting natural and/or dark. Natural lighting doesn’t give any indication to anything, and therefore the audience would get a thrill when an unsuspecting problem arises.

GRAVITY – MALE CHARACTER

Camera Placement – This is a close up of the male character’s face, which emphasises his determination for the space mission. Determination and fearlessness makes this a conventional thriller film male character.

Costume – The male character is dressed the same as the female almost throughout the entire film. This gives the portrayal that they are of equal strength, which is unconventional for a thriller film.

Body language/positioning – In this scene, the male character is leaning forward. This shows to the audience that he is concentrating on something (something that is also supported by his facial expression). This would fit the fact that space missions are difficult and require a lot of skill and concentration.

Lighting – The lighting in this particular scene is low key, with plenty of reflections on his helmet. This draws the audiences’ eyes to the male character.

Gravity is quite an unconventional film when it comes to conventional character roles. Whilst the male character is fairly conventional with his outgoing personality

and head-on determination to complete the space mission, the female has almost the exact same roles and state of mind. This is unusual because female characters

usually play the damsel in distress when it comes to thriller movies. As a result, Gravity takes a different route to gender representation and therefore could

potentially be more pleasing to the audience with its unique style and unusual plot where the female ultimately ends up more successful in the mission than the male

character.

Summary of the character stereotypes:

Ryan (female character) – strong countertype, challenges many conventions of the female role.

Matt (male character) – Conventional male character with his extroverted personality, but also challenges conventions because he was inferior to the female

character.

GRAVITY – QUICK CONCLUSION

SHUTTER ISLAND – FEMALE CHARACTER

Costume – The female character in Shutter Island is dressed in very causal clothing. This could suggest a naive personality, oblivious to the events that happen on later in the movie. It is also worth mentioning that her hair is fairly scruffed up, this can show that she may have been in previous distress.

Camera Placement – The camera is positioned in a two-shot scenario in this scene of the movie. This is to emphasise the fact that she is with another man, which suggests the conventional ‘damsel in distress’ female character

Facial Expression/ Body language – Though you can’t see much of her face, you can tell she is in a distressed mood by the way she has her hands on the male character. Relying on the male character for comfort like this shows strong conventional female character signals.

Lighting – The lighting here is all natural, which follows the conventional thriller way of keeping the setting in real life, making the disasters seem more believable when they happen.

SHUTTER ISLAND – MALE CHARACTER

Facial Expression – The male character in this particular scene looks very serious. A serious expression tends to suggest that he is either dominant or is in control of the situation. This would fit in with the conventional male role in a thriller film.

Camera positioning – The camera is in a close up to emphasise the facial expressions of the male character, but the camera also reveals a lot about the location. The camera clearly shows to the audience that they are in a car. This helps the audience follow the story easier.

Costume – The character is in dark clothing. This is challenging the convention of a protagonist, since the antagonist would usually be wearing dark colours.

Lighting – Though it is natural, the lighting is quite murky and is emphasised by the distorted windows. This once again puts the protagonist in a darker light, challenging the conventions of him and giving him a rather antagonist look.

Shutter island initially appears to be a move conventional movie than Gravity. The female character can easily be recognised as a damsel in distress and the male often provides a

shoulder for her to rest on, figuratively speaking. However, when you dig a little bit deeper, the audience is met with a darker side to the male character visually. This would challenge the conventions of a thriller film, since the protagonist is meant to be a fairly

happy character, and not dressed in dark clothing with sinister facial expressions. So like Gravity, Shutter Island twists some of the conventional thriller film conventions,

presumably to make the film unique and fresh. This as a result would be more appealing to the audience.

Summary of the character stereotypes:

Dolores – Dolores is viewed as a very conventional female character for a thriller film. Her causal clothing and relationship with the male character, along with her fragile

personality can be viewed as very conventional.

Teddy – In many ways, Teddy is a conventional male character. He is portrayed as the stronger, curious about adventure and more noble person. However, he does seem to have

a darker side to his appearance, which challenges the convention for a protagonist.

SHUTTER ISLAND – QUICK CONCLUSION

PULP FICTION – FEMALE CHARACTER

Camera Placement – The camera is interestingly placed in a low angle, which makes the character seem dominant and in control. This is conventionally unusual for a female character, as they are normally portrayed as the lesser-powered character. As a result, this camera angle challenges the female stereotypes.

Facial expressions/body language – The female character has a strong and determined look on her face, suggesting that she is in control in what she is doing. This means that she is countertyped for a thriller movie.

Costume – The female character is wearing a standard, baggy cardigan. It could be suggested that this goes against the female stereotype, as she is clearly not being exploited for [male] audience pleasure, unlike many female characters in movies.

Lighting – The lighting is ambient, but there is a noticeable gloom to the character; her face is not very well lit. This is to support the gloominess of a gun scene, such as this one.

PULP FICTION – MALE CHARACTER

Body language – The body language of the male character is very causal. It gives the impression of him being the boss of his scenario. This is conventional for a thriller male character because it represents dominance – something that goes with the stereotypical male thriller film character.

Props – If you look closely, you can see that the character is smoking a cigarette. Like the body language, it shows a sign of dominance and a hint of rebel, giving him a conventional outgoing personality.

Camera placement – The camera here is placed in a midshot. This has most likely been done so the camera is close enough to the character so you can see his facial expression, but also zoomed out enough to emphasise his chilled out body language. This shot was chosen so the audience can see his outgoing attitude clearly.

Costume – The male character in here is wearing scruffy clothing that match his ‘I don’t care’ attitude. Once again, this supports the general theme of an outgoing personality, making him a conventional male character for a thriller genre film.

Pulp Fiction is a movie of two halves when it comes to male and female representation. On one hand, we have a male character who is outgoing and appears to follow by his own

rules, which is conventional to a male thriller character, though perhaps a bit different to how a typical protagonist would be represented. And then on the other side of the spectrum we have the female character who challenges female stereotypes in thriller

movies. She is shown to be a dominant character who has a strong personality, and does not need another typically male character to rely on when she runs into trouble.

Summary of the character stereotypes:

Honey Bunny: Honey Bunny is viewed as a very unconventional character for a female in a thriller film because she seems so dominant and in control of many parts of the movie.

She is therefore a complete countertype for thriller movies.

Pumpkin: Pumpkin is viewed as a stereotypical ‘lad’ type of guy. Interestingly, this is not the kind of characteristic you would associate with a protagonist. Therefore, in some ways, Pumpkin is a countertype for a protagonist, but her still supports the stereotype

for a male character.

PULP FICTION – QUICK CONCLUSION

INCEPTION – FEMALE CHARACTER

Camera Positioning – The camera is placed at a high angle in this particular shot. This shows the audience that the character may be a bit bewildered or inferior to what she’s looking at. The sense of inferiority would be conventional to a female thriller film character.

Facial Expressions – The facial expressions on the female character in this shot is a face of awe and potential disbelief. Some would say she looks a bit clueless, to an extent. This naïve approach would support the female stereotype of needing another person for a shoulder to rest on.

Costume – We can see that the character is wearing generic clothing; a top and a cardigan. This would go against the stereotype of woman only playing a part to pleasure the audience.

Framing – We can see that there is a male character lurking behind the female character. This could be to represent that the female character needs a helping hand, therefore supporting stereotypes of female characters.

Lighting – The lighting is ambient, suggesting a natural situation – a natural reaction.

INCEPTION – MALE CHARACTER

Camera Positioning – The camera positioning in this particular shot is of a mid-shot level. This is to emphasise to the audience the facial expression that the character is pulling. The character fills up the whole frame, which could portray the male dominance we see in thriller movies.

Lighting – The lighting here is rather low-key. This adds a sense of mystery and scepticism to the male character we see in this shot. His dark suit blends well into the background of the scene, which could portray him as a mysterious character. This can be conventional for a male character in a thriller genre film. However, one may argue that it’s not very conventional for a protagonist.

Framing – There is very little going on in the background, which draws the audiences’ eyes to the male character, and his distinctive facial expression. This could be to emphasise the point that this character is a bit mysterious.

Facial Expression - The male character’s facial expressions in this scene is one of potential intimidation. He could be pressuring the other character into saying something. This could tell the audience that this character is potentially bullish and alpha male – something that supports the convention for male characters.

Inception is a film which is arguably the most conventional in all of the films I have analysed so far when it comes to the representation of male and female characters. We have a female who is seen as inferior as a result of the face of awe and of course the high angled shot with the camera. You could say though that she is slightly unconventional in the sense that she is not used as a visual pleasure for the audience; she is wearing a typical baggy cardigan. We

also have a male character who gives off a strong sense of alpha male, because he is intimidating another person in the scene with his dark clothing and squinted facial

expressions. Though once again, this is not really an applicable convention for a protagonist. So, like the female character, the male character challenges some thriller film conventions

as well as supporting some. Very much swings and roundabouts here.

Summary of the character stereotypes:

Ariadne: Supports many conventions and stereotypes of thriller films when it comes to her physical and mental strength, but challenges some when it comes to visual pleasure.

Cobb: In many ways, Cobb is very conventional when it comes to a male character. He is seen as alpha male and in control of the situation. However, his intimidation does not match

the stereotype of a protagonist.

INCEPTION – QUICK CONCLUSION

After analysing the characters of these four films carefully, a clear and consistent pattern has emerged. We see that the films follow the basic

stereotypes of the male and female characters quite well, but none were exactly the same. They did this to add a unique touch to their work – a film that follows the conventions exactly will not impress the audience because they would have seen the same kind of characters before in some previous films they may have

watched. However, it is important that the films follow the conventions and stereotypes of thriller films to some extent, otherwise the film itself may not be

recognisable as a thriller and therefore less pleasurable to the audience.

This research will help me to produce my thriller opening sequence with my group, because it will give us a clearer indication of how to present our

characters. This will make our sequence more recognisable to the audience seeking to watch a thriller film, and therefore would be more enjoyable. The research has also opened my eyes and taught me not to be too conventional with our video, otherwise it may become too repetitive with the other videos

from the class and potentially boring.

OVERALL EVALUATION