Download - Telling Stories
Telling Stories
Zoë Freeman
• Fiske et al (1998) defines a story as an “irreducible substance”
• Story = what it’s about• Narrative = way it’s told
• Open text• Closed text
• Barthes argues that there is many meanings to text, more than the director intended and expected, this is due to audiences having different experiences/expectations
• Hermeneutic/enigma code – element of mystery to entice the audience, is a concealed image, asks ambiguous/philosophical questions, persuasion to watch film often comes from feeling of uncertainty of characters fate
Todorov’s Theory of Narrative
• Equilibrium – start of every story, balance and harmony
• Moment of disequilibrium – something happens, shatter of equilibrium
• Disequilibrium – hero(es) struggle to fix the wrongs and return to equilibrium
• New equilibrium – villain is defeated peace is restored at a cost/loss, new equilibrium is tainted by the experience
(Example shown through ‘The Descent’ (2003) Trailer)
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