Representation Essay

To what extent does your thriller conform to traditional structures of representation?

Our thriller does conform to traditional structures of representation, however there are ways in which it doesn't too. Our thriller does conform to tradition through marxism and through stereotypes, however it does not conform through feminism and representations of reality. 

Our thriller conforms to traditional structures of representation through marxism. Our thriller conforms to the theory of Michel Maffesoli that members of small groups have similar views, dress codes and behaviours. You can see this as all of our characters have similar identities and therefore all have a smart dress code. However, their behaviours and actions are different and this is what separates the good and the bad from each other. This also links to David Gauntlett's theory that characters are not given identities but it is their actions and appearance which gives them an identity. Our thriller also conforms to this as we do not clearly give our characters identities but throughout the thriller you can see their characters develop and therefore the audience can construct their own view on the characters. As our thriller conforms to these theories it is clear that, through marxism, our thriller conforms to traditional structure of representation. This is because the theories are explanations of tradition representation therefore if our thriller conforms to these, it conforms to traditional structures.

Our thriller also conforms to the traditional structures of representation through stereotypes. This is because there are the clear stereotypes of good and evil in our thriller. O'Sullivan et al has the theory that stereotypes can be clearly identified and are labels of people within different groups. Our thriller conforms to this because of the clear representation of good and evil stereotypes. You can see these stereotypes in the men of the thriller because of their actions and also the way in which they oppose each other. For example, our protagonist is faced against 4 other men (the antagonists are giving an unfair fight), however appears powerful and defeats them, apart from one who suddenly attacks the protagonist, knocking him unconscious. This also fits in with Richard Dyer's theory that people fit in with their social groups. Our thriller conforms to this theory because the way in which the antagonists behave is as a group and they act intimidating against the sole protagonist. However as they are behaving this way, the protagonist would not fit into this social group as he appears more relaxed and is clearly part of a different social group. The only way in which our thriller does not conform to stereotypes is because it is not clear as to what stereotype the woman fits into as there is only a short clip of where she is involved in the thriller. 

Our thriller does not conform to the traditional structures of feminism. Our thriller does not conform to feminism as it does not include a male gaze figure. The woman in our thriller is seen as the dispatcher and almost the cause of the fight between the good and evil, rather than being seen as a sexual object. You can tell that she is not a male gaze due to the lack of voyeurism and camera angles used to make her appear sexualised. She is also not in a provocative dress code, causing the audience to not be looking at her body but to be looking at what is actually happening the film. This conforms to Laura Mulvey's idea that women are seen as a male gaze and the men are looking at her in a sexual way. As this is traditional of representations of women our thriller therefore conforms to tradition through this. 

Our thriller is also post-modern through the representations of reality. Our thriller conforms to Julian McDougall's theory that media and reality are becoming blurred, therefore changing from tradition. Our thriller shows ways in which media and reality are becoming blurred. Our thriller is not real however can be seen as realistic through the familiar location and the idea of MI5. As MI5 is a real job people may see the way in which our characters act as what a job in MI5 is like, however we have exaggerated the work in which the job entails. As it has been exaggerated it can also been seen as hyper real. Therefore, our thriller conforms to traditional structures because it has that new idea of media and reality becoming blurred into one. 

in conclusion, I think that our thriller conforms to tradition more than it doesn't conform to tradition. I think this because in the way it does conform are more influential on the final film compared to the ways in which it doesn't conform. This is because including stereotypes and marxism are vital when creating the thriller because they are to do with the characters, which are a main focus of the film. Also, as feminism is not a huge part of our clip and the woman in the clip is not seen as a main character this does not have a huge impact on traditional structures. Although the representation of reality does have an impact on the thriller I feel as it does not have a bigger impact on traditional structures of representation compared to marxism and stereotypes.