Essay of Character Synthesising

 In movies and books we always take notice of the characters, and for some reason we instantly understand them, their personality, and what role they play in the story, have you ever wondered why that is. Well, all of the decisions that a director, or author makes is to give you an understanding of that character. Everything has a purpose. So how much can you find out about a character by just one scene?

The very first thing you would notice about a character is the outfit they wear, if we take a look at some characters from harry potter you can see that most of the characters have a stereotype that you can figure out from just looking at what they wear, take snape for example, he wears long black robes that are silky and mysterious liked spilled ink, and jet black hair, with deep dull eyes. Portraying an evil character, a bad guy stereotype, the same thing happens with Hermione granger, from her poofy hair and  clean and ironed school uniform you can decide that she is a bit of a neat freak and likes being perfect, also, she got in her uniform before anyone else, making her seem like the person that thrives on being on time. 

Another thing that helps you find out what a character is like is the actions that they do, from a short two minute scene watching Ron weasley, by studying the actions that he does you get a pretty decent accurate idea of what he is like, if you look at this phrase you can break it down and discover heaps! 

¨I'm the sixth in our family to go to Hogwarts. You could say I've got a lot to live up to. Bill and Charlie have already left -- Bill was head boy and Charlie was captain of Quidditch. Now Percy's a prefect. Fred and George mess around a lot, but they still get really good marks and everyone thinks they're really funny. Everyone expects me to do as well as the others, but if I do, it's no big deal, because they did it first. You never get anything new, either, with five brothers. I've got Bill's old robes, Charlie's old wand, and Percy's old rat."

He says how he has a lot to live up to and that everyone expects him to do great things, but you can obviously tell that he is unsure that he can do it, which makes you think he is shy and a bit scared, and nervous to go to hogwarts, you also can tell that he is resentful which comes in to play later in the books. So from one phrase you learn so much about Ron. 

Now we are going back again to look at snape, and the environment he is in, which again, tells us a lot about him. Snape teaches in a dungeon, which typically is a stereotype for evil places, a dark gloomy dungeon would normally be where bad things lie ahead? 

Also you can see pickled animals and flickering lights, not the greatest thing to see in a dungeon, which makes us suspicious. Which gives you ANOTHER idea of the character. 

So in a brief conclusion, everything a director/writer does is 100% on purpose, nothing is placed in a book or movie without careful consideration and thinking. Everything in a scene can help you discover what a character is about and their personality. 

Thank you for reading.