#layers of perception

[philippmerkelbach]

Work in progress

[asocialfoxpaw]

The coolest thing about books, tv shows and movies is that there are so many aspects that go into how a character is perceived, which is why everyone has different favourites and even "evil", "bad" characters can be favourites. 

For books, the personality of a character is pretty much laid out by the author. They decide how the character acts, what they say, how much they are in the novel. So there's one aspect. Then there's how each reader perceives the character, which is different for every person because every person has different life experiences. So there are two levels of perception there; what the author sets up as the character, and how each reader perceives it. 

Then in TV shows and movies, there are even more layers. There is how the writer(s) write(s) the character, what lines and actions are given each character, etc; things like that. Then there's how the director sets up the character, which can drastically change how a character is perceived. Then there is how the act-or/ress creates the character; different act-or/ess/s are going to put different things into a character. When you say an act-or/ress is like their character, that's because they put something of themselves into a character. This is an important piece in the final perception of a character. Finally, there is how each audience member perceives each character, which once again is different because of everyone's different life experiences. 

That's so incredibly cool, to me. Nobody is going to perceive a character the same way you are, and the way that a character is set up depends heavily on those who are writing said character, and then in shows and movies, those that play a character, and those that direct the actions and lines of the character. I haven't even mentioned how other characters interact with each different character, which may also change the way a character is seen. It's so much more than just you and the writer. There's everything that surrounds said character, which can make different interpretations of each character drastically different (see: the different versions of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, from ACD's version to each of the modern interpretations to the movies, or the different Hannibals). 

I don't know, but that is so incredibly cool.