McRobbie

Angela McRobbie's genre theory states that TV is saturated by stereotypes of gender roles. For example the woman is the weaker character, often a victim, mother or carer. The men on the other hand normally conform to the stereotypes of being aggressive, strong, and of having the position of a leader.

Throughout the various stages of our planning, we drew on these stereotypes to make it obvious to the audience the characters and their roles within the film. We wanted to ensure the viewers knew who was the victim in brief period of time, meaning we had to make the stereotypical gender roles evident. By casting people who we thought conformed to gender roles and ensuring that miss-en-scene was also stereotypical of the genders, we were able to portray a weak, female victim, and a powerful, creepy male.

Our film conformed to these stereotypes in many ways. Our female character was not only the victim, but also revealed as a mother. The male character was a stalker, not necessarily aggressive but held a position of power throughout the narrative. Our film also conformed to McRobbie's theory with respect to lighting and cinematography. The lighting was much warmer for our female protagonist, portraying her as much more innocent compared to the dark, dull lighting used on our male antagonist, creating a sense of fear and distrust amongst the audience. The use of cinematography further emphasised the stereotypical gender roles, using high angle shots to portray the female as weak and vulnerable, and level or low angle shots to highlight the male characters strength and position of power.