Evaluation Question OnePart Four

Jaymelouise Hudspith

Propp’s TheoryPropp’s theory categorises characters into eight groups, one of these characterisations is the ‘Princess’ or the ‘Victim’, our male protagonist falls into this group, despite the fact this is typically a female classification. Our male protagonist is saved by the ‘Hero’, the female protagonist, she saves James from his self wallowing and heart ache after his break up. It is typically non-conventional for the roles to be swapped, however it is becoming increasingly more common in modern film and is a choice we made as it is more suitable for our modern audience.

Due to this Propp’s character theory can be seen as outdated in modern film since we live in a world where women are becoming seen as more ‘powerful’, therefore are being portrayed as the ‘Hero’ and protagonist more often. In modern society women are no longer or aren’t seen as weak and powerless as they used to be represented in film and this is done in order to suit modern audience.

Narrative Structure

As our short film is a typical love story, simply modernised to suit our target audience and therefore it naturally follows the typical narrative structure of Todorov’s narrative theory.

Equilibrium – Dinner with his girlfriend Disequilibrium – The breakup Recognition – Moping after the breakup Resolution – Texting Jennifer New Equilibrium – Date with Jennifer

However the structure does change slightly as we have used the influence of flashbacks which has the influence of an anachronic structure to explain the story from Jennifer's point of view.

Edits

The main edit employed in my short film is based around existing products is he use of black and white to symbolise the use of flashbacks. This is a typical convention used in many films and TV shows to allow the audience to identify between past and present. One example is a case study I previously mentioned on my blog, ‘Memento’.

Cinematography

Due to the limited time of approximately five minutes to portray the narrative structure and effectively display the growth and emotions of the relationship while maintaining the mystery between the two characters.One key example of this is the end scene where we witness the couple walking along side one another smiling happily to each other. This shows a clear development in their relationship by showing fully body language while still being close enough that you can see the emotions on their faces. This type of shot is iconic within romance films.

SoundThe main decision we had to make was the type of music we would like and whether or not to include dialogue. In the end we decided on no dialogue and instead modern songs the target audience would be familiar with while choosing acoustic covers of the songs to better suit the genre of the film going against typical existing product. This is an abstract elements of our film, this is key to short films. This is due to the key element of our short film being text messages, visual rather than spoken.

Due to the lack of dialogue it is even more important that through the use of cinematography we must emphasise the characters use of facial expressions and queues alongside the use of the correct music to portray feeling and emotion.

The use of Boyce Avenue as the cover artist for all songs allows a feeling of continuation between all scenes and all the acoustic songs will follow a similar style while still being different enough that they portray the necessary feeling.