Shaping Characters with Cinematic Means: Sensuality and Structure

Part IV of the book (Chapters 7 and 8) moves from characters as represented beings to characters as artefacts, offering tools to analyse their representation and reception. Chapter 7 examines how characters in audiovisual media are constructed through concrete cinematic devices and more abstract organisational (e.g. narrative) structures. First, it introduces categories for analysing how characters are presented through audiovisual means and evoke specific sensory experiences. Film presents characters in sound and image and embeds them in a dynamic audiovisual flow that guides the viewers' responses. Various cinematic techniques are involved in this, including casting, acting, cinematography, lighting, music, sound, and editing. In Barry Jenkins’s Moonlight, for example, special techniques are used to emphasise nuances of facial expression and enhance the psychological depth of the characters. On a more abstract level, the organisation of information about the character throughout the film is crucial in influencing the audience experience. Certain phases of characterisation, such as scenes of exposition or dialogue, are pivotal moments in which dense information shapes the perception of the character. In the course of a film, certain character traits are strategically hidden or revealed in stages to guide audience reactions. By structuring the flow of information over time, films create suspense, curiosity, and surprise about characters and stimulate cognitive and affective involvement with them. Returning to the example of Rick Blaine in Casablanca, the chapter highlights the complex relationship between cinematic devices, narrative strategies, and viewers’ sensory-aesthetic experiences of characters as artefacts.