Structuralism Theory

Structuralism states that everything is linked in some way; when we watch something all of our personal knowledge/experiences shapes the way in which we understand it. We can use the structuralism theory to help audiences understand our characters. Our characters must inform audience of:

• level of power
• wealth
• protagonist/antagonist
• intellect
• looks (but mainly in blockbuster films)

However how the audience understands the characters in a scale. The scale contains three parts, the utopian end/aspirational end, the middle, and the disopian end. Utopian characters are usually better than the audience and behaves as an aspirational character, e.g. James Bond in the James Bond series. The middle is usally the audience, characters in this section are easier for the audience to empathise/relate too. This character is usually used in arthouse dramas because it is a cheeper character to represent and they can create the emotion levels they aim to with a character that is easier to relate too. At the disatopian end, the audience is usually better than this group, thus scaring the audience because it is hard for them to relate to the characters. It instills fear into the audience because the characters are ok with being immoral such as in the film  Hannibal Lecter in Silence Of The Lambs also we can feel sympathy towards the characters in this scale just like many audiences would towards the Jews in Schindlers List.

In my film I need to make my character easily to relate too so I will make my character in the middle sector but more towards the disatopian end of the spectrum. This means the character will be easy for the audience to relate to and empathise with with the character being in the same sector as they are but also they will feel sympathy towards the character because they audience will still feel higher than them because of the behaviour they will display.