Tzvetan Todorov's Narrative Stages

Tzvetan Todorov is a Bulgarian philosopher, who now resides in Paris, France. He believed that there were five key stages of any narrative in film, these were:

- 1) Equilibrium: The setting is established, key characters are introduced and the story line is set up.

- 2) Disruption: Characters who are the polar opposite of the key character (oppositional characters), appear and the story takes a particular direction.

- 3) Recognition of disruption: This is the longest section of the five stages, and consists of the events of the characters.

- 4) Fixing disruption: This segment creates a lot of tension, and the problem from stage two is repaired.

- 5) Reinstatement of equilibrium: A new peace/balance is created, and all problems are resolved.

I believe that these stages are perfectly correct and can be applied to a range of film genres, for romantic comedy's or action/adventure movies, but at the same time this order is quite constrictive, and can't be applied to horror films, where the disruption and recognition of disruption stages, are repeated in a loop before advancing to stages four and five, this happens when a victim is killed but the killer escapes, the new victim introduced then repeats the same narrative until the killer is caught/killed. We can also have an unresolved equilibrium that can lead to the audience creating it's own ending, or leaving the film open to build a franchise, an example of this would be the ending to the film Inception.

Genre As A Marketing Tool - Teen Comedy

The Scott Pilgrim Vs The World poster (featured left), has bright colors, animated stars, and what could be described as jolted font, which appeals to a younger audience. Also the tag line 'An epic of epic epicness.', is juvenile and humorous. All these combined would tell the onlooker it's going to be a comedy, film for a younger audience.

The film has also been described by critics as one for the wired generation, that grew up on MTV and video games, and the poster reflects that judgement.

Genre As A Marketing Tool - Horror

The Let Me In film poster (situated left), is a slightly subverted, but still expected poster of the horror genre. The character Abby, is seen making a 'snow angel', while wearing a white night gown, this traditionally represents purity and innocence. But this can be seen as tainted with the blood spots in the corners, and the blood style font which is in the traditional red color for a horror title, and it's really flushed out on the white background. Which is the same for the tag line 'Innocence dies. Abby doesn't', it's in red font against the white background, and it creates suspense, as you wonder what Abby could be.

Also the fact that the character represented is a girl, subverts the theories of Propp and to a certain degree Mulvey, the poster suggests that Abby isn't a weak character as most people would assume, thanks to the blood and the tag line. Barthes' theory os semiotics could be applied with the snow angel (Signifier), which displays innocence and purity (Signified).

Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze

Laura Mulvey a current professor of film and media studies at Birkbeck, University of London. Believed that films placed women as subordinate and that audience's are asked to take a male 'point of spectatorship' in most cinema. She called this the 'Male Gaze', this theory emphasized that audience's are meant to identify (Identification), with the male lead, his actions become a surrogate for our own part in the narrative, and that we psychologically align ourselves with this point of view, so he becomes the ideal ego. But objectifying the lead's romantic interest (Objectification), making women appear feeble and weak, while men were quite smart and strong.

Freud + Lacan's Scopophilia + Voyeurism

Jacques Lacan

Sigmund Freud

Jacques Lacan a French psychoanalysis and psychiatric, theorized that we construct our identities by looking at ourselves and at each other. When children we derive pleasure from studying other people's bodies, this is called scopophilia. He also theorized, what is called the 'Mirror Stage', in which the first time we look at ourselves in a mirror, is the first time we understand ourselves as people.








Sigmund Freud a Austrian neurologist, believed that   people enjoyed cinema, because it allowed them to look at people without being seen themselves, this is called voyeurism, and that we as people enjoy this voyeurism.

The Theory Of Propp

Vladmir Propp (pictured right), was a Russian critic active in the 1920's, he published his Morphology of the Folk Tale in 1928, he was primarily interested in the narrative of folk tales, and believed that films and folk tales were similar in many aspects, they shared the same basic struggles and they appeared to have stock characters. He theorized that characters and actions are narrative functions, and that characters provide structure for the text. He believed that characters who performed functions were as follows:
- The Hero a character who seeks something.
- The Villain who opposes and tries to halt the hero's quest.
- The Donor who provides an object with superficial properties.
- The Dispatcher who sends the hero on his/her quest via a message.
- The False Hero who disrupts the hero's success by making false claims.
- The Helper who aids the hero.
- The Princess who is the reward for the hero and the object of the villain's plots.
- The Princess's Father who rewards the hero for his effort.
His theory has come under  scrutiny for several reasons, one his theory of narrative is based in a male orientated environment, so critics often dismiss the theory when referring to film. Although the theory can still be applied because the function (not gender), of the characters is the basis of the theory i.e The hero could be a women and the reward a man.
Also critics disagree with Propp's strict order of characters and events, which is constrictive, and it would be better to apply functions and events randomly as we meet new narratives.
Finally the critics point out that there is a more diverse range of characters that Propp has not listed.

Roland Barthes' Semiotics

Roland Barthes (pictured left) was a French theorist. His theory was that not only was verbal communication a way to communicate, but that aspects of the person such as, their hairstyle, clothing, body language and make up, were also forms of communication. A theory I believe to be accurate, as we have first impressions of people when we first see them, for example someone who dressed in predominately black, and wore black eyeliner, would communicate a sense of their personalty, in this case gothic. The structure of his theory revolved around three points, the Signifier which is the physical form of something, the Signified which is the message the Signifier produces, and finally the Referent which is the actual individual thing without being given a meaning. For example a red rose (Signifier), could connote the emotion love (Signified), and a red rose is the Referent.

Tales Of A Puppet Show

Even though it wasn't the best style wise, or even voice acting wise (that's what you get when guys try to play girls), I believe my groups brief puppet show was fairly decent, for one thing in 2 hours we managed to create our paper puppets, film and edit our presentation and got a few welcome laughs while we were at it. A good collective team effort and a job well done.

Medium Shot

The medium shot is good for showing hand gestures and the emotion of the character(s). It usually displays the character from above the waste/knee area. In this shot the character could be signaling to look out the window at something of interest.

Medium Close Up

The medium close up traditionally shows the shoulders and head of the character. It's a good shot for displaying and interpreting facial expressions. We can tell from the photo that the character is happy, by the fact she's laughing.

Long Shot

The long shot is ideal for introducing characters. It shows the whole body, this lets the audience get a first impression of the characters personality, by the way his/her body language and dress style. In this shot we could say that the character is quite friendly, because he has his arms open and we can tell he might be a fan of classic television shows, by his A-team shirt.

Very Long Shot

The very long shot is used to set the scene/scale. It's most frequently used in the "old western" films, to show the scale of the Great Plains and at the same time to set the scene, by incorporating the different characters, props, etc.

The Close Up

The close up displays the whole head of a character, and is good for translating there emotions. As you can see in this picture the characters emotion is clearly translated as happy.

High Angle

The high angle shot is usually used to display inferiority, by looking down on subjects. When compared to a regular shot or a low angle shot, characters in these shots appear to have significantly less power.

Extreme Close Up

The extreme close up is used to focus on a particular detail, in this case the face. Although this particular shot doesn't create tension, it is frequently used to create a high tempo and to increase tension. An example of this would be showing a character putting on clothes, but focusing on each section they revolve around (i.e: The hands for gloves.).

Low Angle

The low angle shot, is a shot looking up at the character(s), it's used to represent superiority/power. In this shot the character in the foreground, looks to have power thanks to this shot.

Over The Shoulder

The over the shoulder shot, is a good way to display relationships and to cover dialogue between characters. It also allows us to see what's directly in front of the character who's shoulder we're looking over. In this shot we can say that the relationship between the characters is good, and that they may be discussing some work related issues.

The Two Shot

This shot is good for displaying the relationship between two characters (although it's not evident here), and their facial expressions. An example of portraying a relationship between two characters would be, if they were standing facing away from each other, we could say they dislike each other.

Why I Chose Media Studies

I chose media studies because I enjoy being able to use unhinged creativity (even if the majority of the time the outcome is poor), to create things like short films in my own image. I'm also intrigued in the production and post-production processes, such as filming, lighting and editing.