narrative & film theory research assignment 7 (edited)
TRANSCRIPT
The story follows Perseus in time order as he journeys to find Medusa in order to defeat the kraken.
The story starts off Linear and splits into four different segments of the same story making it Non-Linear
e.g.
As Chucky grabs Glen’s neck, the movie ends and you don’t know what happens.
Explanations of a few:
He suggested that stories begin with an equilibrium where everything is in balance.
This is disrupted by something small that sets of a chain of events.
Problems are then solved so that everything in the movie gets back to normal.
Tzvetan Todorov is a narrative film theorist who looks at narrative structure. o He was born in 1939 and is a Franco-Bulgarian philosopher. o He had three main points under the idea of narrative theory.
Equilibrium:
Disequilibrium:
Examples of Equilibrium films: The girls at the school have things the way they want them (Equilibrium) until the MP comes to inspect the school and wants to shut the school down. (Disequilibrium)The girls win a show based on intelligence and find a stolen painting. They are now heroes. (New Equilibrium)
St Trinian's
Watchmen
You find out at the very beginning that Superhero’s are banned. (Equilibrium) One of the ex superhero’s is murdered and parts of his old team try to find out who killed him. (Disequilibrium) They find the killer but another member of the old team is blamed. (New Equilibrium)
Claude Levi-Strauss is a narrative film theorist who looks at narrative content.o He was born in 1908 and was a French anthropologist and was called ‘The Father of Modern Anthropology’o He looked into the narrative view called Binary Opposition.
Binary Opposition
• It is the way we interpret and understand text
Vladimir Propp was a Russian scholar who looked at Russian folk stories to explain the simple narrative elements. o He was born in 1895o He was also a film theorist who looked into character profiles. He divided the characters in the stories into 8 parts:
The Villain
•The person against the hero in the story
The Dispatcher
•The person who sends the hero off.
The (Magical)
Helper* The person
who helps the hero in his quest
The Princess or Prize
* The person the
prince marries at the end of the story.
Her Father
•The person who gives the task to the Hero.
The Donor*The
person who
prepares the hero.
The Hero*The
person who
marries the
princess.
The False Hero*The
person who takes credit for the Hero’s actions or tries to
marry the princess.
Examples of films with character theory:
The Princess and the Frog
The Villain is the voodoo man who tricks and transforms the prince. He is also the false hero as he tries to marry the Princes intended princess.The Dispatchers are unseen but are Prince Naveen’s parents who send him to marry a rich girl. The magical helper is the blind old lady. The princess or prize is Tiana.The donors are the alligator and firefly.The hero is Naveen.