Apply theories of narrative to one of your coursework productions
In my first year of media in my group we decided to make a horror film opening called Scarlett with a sub genre of slasher. In our film opening we had a group of friends whom were in a park drinking, and their night turns sour when a killer doll begins to kill everyone off.
in our film opening we tried to follow the narrative theories of both Todorov and Propps. Todorovs theory entitles that there are 5 stages to create a narrative structure; an equilibrium, a disruption of the equilibrium, recognition of the disruption, an attempt to repair the disruption and a new equilibrium. We followed Todorovs theory by using a flash forward within our opening which allowed the audience to see the killer doll and only one friend left, this then showing the disruption of the equilibrium. By using the flash forward and showing the disruption of the equilibrium, we were also able to show the equilibrium when the flash forward ends and restores to the original time, as it shows everything in a normal manner and this is made obvious as all the friends are back again. Propps theory suggests that certain character types with certain actions create a narrative. Propps theory of character is derived from fairytales, therefore he says there is a hero, a villain, a princess, a princesses father, etc. We followed Propps theory by again using a flash forward, in our flash forward the audience were able to see the doll, and due to the mise en scene of her which involved her having freaky make up on her face and the use of sound which made it available for the audience to hear her scary rhyme and laugh, she is easily connoted to be the villain. Also in the flash forward, our main character riley was seen to be alone, with all of her friends gone, this connotes to mean that the rest of her friends are dead and that she is the only survivor at that point. This could possibly mean in the future that she could become the hero as more often than not good rides over evil.
Despite the fact that Scarlett followed certain conventions between both narrative theories, our film opening also challenged them. Due to our production being a film opening we were not able to show all stages of Todorovs narrative structure, which means it did not completely follow the structure, this however is down to timing restrictions. Also, concerning Propps theory, we challenged the theory as we only actually had 2 of the characters from his theory, and the supposed hero was not certain. I don't think we were as successful in following Propps theory, personally I think that our film opening was more related to Levi-Strauss' theory which suggests that binary opposites create narrative. Within Scarlett the binary opposites that we delivered was good vs evil, this is shown through the flash forward when it is Scarlett and Riley, Scarlett is shown to be evil through her make up and speech, and Riley is shown to be good through her vulnerability and her crying at Scarlett.
Overall I think our film opening followed the theories of Todorov and Levi-Strauss as opposed to the theory of Propps as i don't think we showed his theory successfully. I think if we had created a whole film as opposed to just a film opening we could of showed Propps theory a lot better.
Thursday, 15 January 2015
Friday, 2 January 2015
hw 18th dec
Analyse your film opening in regards to genre
In my first year of media studies, I created a film opening in the genre of horror. However I also had the sub genre of slasher, by having genre, the creation of the production became a lot simpler as there was existing codes and conventions to follow, which we recognized from research and interpreted through planning and production.
We tried to establish a common mise-en-scene with our production by using a pathetic fallacy, this included a dark night time back ground with slight rain, almost fore shadowing that something bad was going to happen. Also concerning mise-en-scene, we used a background of a forest, creating the sense of no escape. Both assets of mise-en-scene were conventions to horror, however Lacey comments that "genre is not fixed". We differed from the common convention of genre by using a female protagonist who became the only survivor, which is not common within horror movies, as more often than not the protagonist and the survivor is usually male due to the gender roles he is given which shows him to be masculine and tough. In addition to this a female is represented to be feminine and simply there for the male gaze, however we defied this by introducing a female as the main role of a horror movie and making her the only to make it to the end and the one that manages to fight off the killer doll.
Genre is very important to both institutions and audiences. Genre is important to institutions because they can the market the movie much easier due to being able to identify the target audience and accumulating ways to access them in a message which will get them to see their movie. Genre is important to audiences as when they go to a cinema or go to buy a horror DVD, they know what to expect, therefore they are assured they wont be wasting their money. Gledhill 1985 comments that "there are no rigid rules of inclusion and exclusion". This meaning that there is no particular rule saying what you may or may not put into your movie, despite the importance of genre. In our opening, baring this quote in mind, we decided to include the editing techniques of fade to black and what was considered to be 'spooky' music to create an eerie feel for our movie opening, which is a convention within horror openings, e.g. The Ring, Scream, etc. However adding to our experience concerning the quote, there are certain conventions we didn't include, for example, for our actual visual setting there was a park, (despite the fact of the secluded forest background) seemed quite open, which in comparison to existing film openings which we researched, was not common. A common convention was that the area was secluded, in the middle of nowhere, with minimum people, however due to a limited availability for us, we had to use a park which had a main road beside it.
In my first year of media studies, I created a film opening in the genre of horror. However I also had the sub genre of slasher, by having genre, the creation of the production became a lot simpler as there was existing codes and conventions to follow, which we recognized from research and interpreted through planning and production.
We tried to establish a common mise-en-scene with our production by using a pathetic fallacy, this included a dark night time back ground with slight rain, almost fore shadowing that something bad was going to happen. Also concerning mise-en-scene, we used a background of a forest, creating the sense of no escape. Both assets of mise-en-scene were conventions to horror, however Lacey comments that "genre is not fixed". We differed from the common convention of genre by using a female protagonist who became the only survivor, which is not common within horror movies, as more often than not the protagonist and the survivor is usually male due to the gender roles he is given which shows him to be masculine and tough. In addition to this a female is represented to be feminine and simply there for the male gaze, however we defied this by introducing a female as the main role of a horror movie and making her the only to make it to the end and the one that manages to fight off the killer doll.
Genre is very important to both institutions and audiences. Genre is important to institutions because they can the market the movie much easier due to being able to identify the target audience and accumulating ways to access them in a message which will get them to see their movie. Genre is important to audiences as when they go to a cinema or go to buy a horror DVD, they know what to expect, therefore they are assured they wont be wasting their money. Gledhill 1985 comments that "there are no rigid rules of inclusion and exclusion". This meaning that there is no particular rule saying what you may or may not put into your movie, despite the importance of genre. In our opening, baring this quote in mind, we decided to include the editing techniques of fade to black and what was considered to be 'spooky' music to create an eerie feel for our movie opening, which is a convention within horror openings, e.g. The Ring, Scream, etc. However adding to our experience concerning the quote, there are certain conventions we didn't include, for example, for our actual visual setting there was a park, (despite the fact of the secluded forest background) seemed quite open, which in comparison to existing film openings which we researched, was not common. A common convention was that the area was secluded, in the middle of nowhere, with minimum people, however due to a limited availability for us, we had to use a park which had a main road beside it.
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