'The Male Gaze'

The male gaze is a theory that wasn’t discovered until recently, around 1975. It works by simply coming to the assumption that the camera is in fact male (heterosexual). Laura Mulvey, who introduced this concept, states that ‘in mainstream media, the male gaze takes precedence over the female gaze, reflecting an underlying power asymmetry.’

It can be seen as conscious or subconscious when used by directors in film making. Relating this back to ‘The Keeper’, I will certainly be taking advantage of this theory. We have decided that we could use it to our advantage in the following ways:

·         Danny is the male here and is brave and honest. He is the original ‘good guy’ who means well. Lucy is our sweet and cute female, but is hiding her true identity. If, through use of the male gaze, we could make George feel like the powerful alpha male and Lucy the weak female then we could lead the audience into a trap, before springing the twist on them, Lucy is in fact evil.

·         On the other hand, we could develop the male gaze and turn it into a possible ‘female gaze’. This is where we could have shots of Lucy looking at Danny, without him seeing her. We could then show that Lucy knows something Danny doesn’t. For example, when Danny is shocked at seeing or hearing something, a slight grin on Lucy’s face would show she knows something about it.