Theory #1: Vladmir Propp, a Russian critic, active in the 1920's, published his 'Morphology of the Folk Tale' in 1928. While the Soviet cinema was producing excellent films, Propp was essentially interested in the narrative folk tales. He noticed folk tales were similar in many areas. They were about the same basic struggles and they appeared to have stock characters. He identified a theory about characters and actions as narrative functions.Charcters according to Propp, have narrative function - they provide a structure for the text.
The Hero - a character that seeks something
The Villain - who opposes or actively blocks the hero's quest
The Donor - who provides an object with magical properties
The Dispatcher - who sends the hero on his/her quest via a message
The False Hero - who disrupts the hero's succes by making false claims
The Helper - who aids the hero
The Princess - acts as the reward for the hero and the object of the villains plot
Her Father - who acts to reward the hero for his efforts
He also believed there were actions of functions of narrative preparation. These were;
- A community/kingdom/family is in an order state of being
- A member of the community/kingdom/family leaves home
- A warning is given to the leaders of the community or a rule is imposed on the hero
- The warning is discounted/the rule is broken
- The villain attempts to discover something about the victim of the broken rule
- The villain tries to deceive the victim to gain advantage
- The victim unwillingly helps the villain
Theory #2: Todorov simplified the idea of narrative theory whilst also allowing a more complex interpretation of films and texts with his theory of Equilibrium and Disequilibrium.
Equilibrium is a state of normality, where everything is as it should be within the world of the story. The story and it's world will be disrupted by something, this is the dequilibrium. By the end of the story, a new equilibrium will be created, and this is now known as the 'happy ending'.
In Todorov's theory, the story line is not seen as a linear structure, as it comes full circle back to where it started. The whole idea of narratives following Todorov's theory is the characters attempting to restore the equilibrium, but the equilibrium changes at the end of the film once it is attained. He also claims that characters change throughout the progression of the Diseqilibrium and the disruption itself usually takes place outside the 'normal' social events.
Theory #3: Aristotle believed that the more you look into headings or titles, it is easy to realise that it will come under one of a few different types of heading:
- Inciting Incident - Explaining something that may be the big incident in the film, in the title to help attract people to look at this story.
- Dramatic Question - This question may be rhetorical to add emphasis, and may also again attract the audience to it
- Character Goal - May explain what the main character is looking to complete/do
- Antagonist/Protagonist - This may explain what sort of hero/villain will be in the story e.g the film 'Devil'
- Stakes - This shows possibly what the hero is fighting for, an example may be the film 'Million Dollar Baby'
- Resolution - This is a heading that may provide the answer, or what is necessary of the main characters to resolve the problem at hand.
- Sympathy/Empathy - This may be used more in romantic stories, as sympathy and empathy is often linked with loss, stress, depression etc.
These headings are very close to those suggested by Aristotle - the leader in narrative theory. Aristotle's literary criticism is probably most famous for the 'unities' - time, place and action. Aristotle's most complete analysis is of 'tragedy', which is arguably the basis of most 'serious drama'.
The theory of our groups narrative is Todorov's. Our idea is that there will be an equilibrium, and it will be disturbed by a villain. It is unsure whether the equilibrium will be re-found or a new one is made, after the disequilibrium happens takes place.
Friday, 26 October 2012
Wednesday, 24 October 2012
Group Narrative
Group Narrative
Devante's Narrative
The main story is that 7 random people all get an invitation to go to a celebration of a mysterious character at their house at 11pm on Saturday night.
They all go to the enclosed address and meet up outside the huge, bright, white mansion (anti-conventional). They all look at each other and start talking and end up finding out that none of them know about this mysterious character.
The door slowly opens (hear the locks being undone slowly, and the door opens slowly without revealing a person until it's been full opened), after being fully opened the butler walks to them from the side and welcomes them in.
Inside everything was bright and white set up with comfortable sofas, food, music etc... Whilst they were helping themselves to the food the butler disappears. After gathering their food they all sat down and started eating, all but one person... Everyone who ate felt dizzy and passed out. The one person that was left conscious panicked and ran straight to the door, turned the handle and immediately the floor gave way and he fell into an endless abbys.
Later on every one awakes (1am) and everything is different (setting will be described in conventions).
Long story short - They end up going through this huge house and in different rooms there are things awaiting them and one by one they end up getting killed off until one person is left and he sees the twisted, disgusting creature with a flash of lightning. There's a laugh and a scream at the end followed by a voice over...
Positives:
- Good unknown location
- Mysterious passive character
Negatives:
- Needs an insentive to kill
- Will need to jump in faster for the opening to keep audience interested
Jordan's Narrative
narrative Miss Georgiou
Title: the last of us
plot: modern day zombie/ mutant apocalypse a
few people left alive working in groups willing to do anything it takes to
survive
Beginning: starts off with a group of people
running through a small woodland area being chased by a horde of zombies, one
member of the group trips and falls and get eaten creating a diversion letting
the rest of the escape to a near by house one member of the group climbs
through a window in order to get into the house while the others wait outside
unaware of what is happening to the other member of the group
Middle: As time progresses they relies that
they need to get out of the area because of a low supply of food and water. so
they stock up on goods and head out along the way they come across a medical
expert who needs to get a vile of blood to a safe zone so together they head
towards the safe zone,
End: when they get there they find out that
the complex has been breached and they rapidly get taken out 1 by 1 before
there is only 1 left who decides to take his own life before getting eaten
alive
Positives:
- Very consistent with the modern theme of films
- Should be a good sense of fear for the audience watching it
Negatives:
-
Positives:
- Very consistent with the modern theme of films
- Should be a good sense of fear for the audience watching it
Negatives:
-
There may need more character build up so we appreciate the importance of the deaths
- Needs to be explained that if some of the group don't understand what is happening, why are they packing up?
My Narrative
A woman is tied up in an old deserted place, and is seen to be trying to wriggle out. She escapes the unknown captor and proceeds to run through the woods to get away. The menace chases her, and after a while hunts her down. Leaving an unexplained mystery as to why she has been killed, and what got her in this position.
We leave the scene with the killer walking away from the body, lying on the ground, but with a possession of hers in his hand, her pendant. The body is left on the fringe of the forest, where it can be easily found, but this appears to not matter.
Group Narrative - Combined Ideas
Key: Jordan Jamie Devante
(If colours overlay, it means both people were responsible for that idea)
1)Mysterious man drops letter somewhere and a group of people pick it up and it tells them that there's a celebration (of sombody that they all know) leaving an address.
(If colours overlay, it means both people were responsible for that idea)
1)Mysterious man drops letter somewhere and a group of people pick it up and it tells them that there's a celebration (of sombody that they all know) leaving an address.
2)They get to the abandoned place and the door slowly opens and they walk in and one of the people get taken away without them realising.
3)Get to the hall and see the missing person, approach her and see that she's not OK and that she's twitching.She jumps at one of them and one of them get a gun and shoot her off. The woman's left on the floor dead.
4)Find another piece of paper on the floor telling them that they're all test subjects, see the person behind them smiling.
5)She turns, the screen goes black and after a 2second pause there's a scream and the title come up
6)(Mad man injects people with liquid to zombify them)
3)Get to the hall and see the missing person, approach her and see that she's not OK and that she's twitching.She jumps at one of them and one of them get a gun and shoot her off. The woman's left on the floor dead.
4)Find another piece of paper on the floor telling them that they're all test subjects, see the person behind them smiling.
5)She turns, the screen goes black and after a 2second pause there's a scream and the title come up
6)(Mad man injects people with liquid to zombify them)
As a group we decided that it would be more convenient, and more effective to change our narrative. The Narrative that included the zombies seemed to stray too far away from the thriller genre, and it would also be too complicated and unrealistic, with too many characters being lead into a very unlikely place with an anonymous party invite.
New Group Narrative:
1) Starts with a woman tied to a chair in the corner of a trashed, burnt out room
2) Unidentifiable menace appears on screen and 'communicates' with her
3) Villain then leaves the room again and proceeds to a board with pictures of past victims. He then burns the picture of the current captive
4) Victim escapes from the chair, and runs into the forest
5) She then screams for help, as things start to become hopeless
6) She then turns to see the villain is behind her
Wednesday, 17 October 2012
Individual Narrative
Main Narrative
Having only 2 characters helps the suspense of the film, as the victim appears to be so isolated, and have no one around to help as she tries to flee her captor.
The antagonist is killing the woman because he is obsessed with her, but she insulted him by telling him he was a freak for stalking her, and that her boyfriend would kill him. His theory is that if he cant have him, then no one can.
A woman is tied up in an old deserted place, and is seen to be trying to wriggle out. She escapes the unknown captor and proceeds to run through the woods to get away. The menace chases her, and after a while hunts her down. Leaving an unexplained mystery as to why she has been killed, and what got her in this position.
We leave the scene with the killer walking away from the body, lying on the ground, but with a possession of hers in his hand, her pendant. The body is left on the fringe of the forest, where it can be easily found, but this appears to not matter.
Title: The Resilient
Conventions
Masked Menace: The antagonist will be masked and and unidentifiable but the use of the mask and possibly a weapon will show the difference in power.
Low Angle's: Low angle shots will be used especially when the victim is tied up, and killed, it needs to be shown that the antagonist holds more power than her, and that the audience is seeing it from her point of view, and may only see the killer's knees and below to keep him unidentifiable.
Element of Suspense: The audience will be in suspense throughout the opening as they may feel uneasy watching the terror this woman is going through. The death will be hidden as to help leave some of it to the audiences imagination, yet hints will be given as to what did take place once the victim has been caught.
Low Key Lighting: Low key lighting will be used when in the forest, and also in the deserted place that she is being held captive. This will help create an area of tension and helplessness.
Representation of Characters
Having only 2 characters helps the suspense of the film, as the victim appears to be so isolated, and have no one around to help as she tries to flee her captor.
The antagonist is killing the woman because he is obsessed with her, but she insulted him by telling him he was a freak for stalking her, and that her boyfriend would kill him. His theory is that if he cant have him, then no one can.
Monday, 15 October 2012
Sound
Sounds are used in films to create an understanding for the audience and to create more meaning about the characters and their emotions.
Sound is also used to create a response from the audience.
Digetic Sound
Digetic sounds is when the source is something within the film world, I.e dialogue or music. This is possibly a less effective use of sound to help a thriller film than non-digetic, but can be used very well in certain ways. A great example is in the film 'The Strangers'. In one of the films most tense points, and old LP starts playing with music which can only be from around the 1930's is on. This creates an eerie feeling of anxiety as part of the audience, and also allows the thriller to go wherever it wants from here, as it has hit on a convention that is not necessarily universally recognised.
Non-Digetic
This is when the sound comes from somewhere not in the film world such as background music. It may also be sounds that emphasises the situation like loud screeching noises that may have nothing really to do with it, but will increase tension, such as the murder scene in psycho. Psycho is one of the best examples of non-digetic sound being effective, but it can also be used in different more gentle contexts to avoid convention, and create even more mystery and suspense.
On Screen sound
This is when it is possible to see where the sound is coming from, things such as cars, a jukebox etc.
This may create more of a realistic atmosphere because the audience is aware that the characters in the scene can here this too, especially if its a haunting noise. One of the most cliche uses of these across the thriller/horror world, is a knock of something in a room, for example something falling off a table, or even a piano playing itself.
Off Screen sound
This is when a noise being made is also in the film world, but it is off screen, something like in the film insidious, when the baby is crying off camera, then the mother goes to comfort her, we understand where the noise is coming from, but do not see it on camera. This can be used as it is in this scene to create an image in the audiences head that may seem like a viewer understnads what to expect from what they can hear. However this a really good technique to catch the audience off guard with, as a homely sound that everyone may be used to, something like the phone ringing, and someone walking to go answer it, could be used effectively with a killer standing by the phone.
Sound is also used to create a response from the audience.
Digetic Sound
Digetic sounds is when the source is something within the film world, I.e dialogue or music. This is possibly a less effective use of sound to help a thriller film than non-digetic, but can be used very well in certain ways. A great example is in the film 'The Strangers'. In one of the films most tense points, and old LP starts playing with music which can only be from around the 1930's is on. This creates an eerie feeling of anxiety as part of the audience, and also allows the thriller to go wherever it wants from here, as it has hit on a convention that is not necessarily universally recognised.
Non-Digetic
This is when the sound comes from somewhere not in the film world such as background music. It may also be sounds that emphasises the situation like loud screeching noises that may have nothing really to do with it, but will increase tension, such as the murder scene in psycho. Psycho is one of the best examples of non-digetic sound being effective, but it can also be used in different more gentle contexts to avoid convention, and create even more mystery and suspense.
On Screen sound
This is when it is possible to see where the sound is coming from, things such as cars, a jukebox etc.
This may create more of a realistic atmosphere because the audience is aware that the characters in the scene can here this too, especially if its a haunting noise. One of the most cliche uses of these across the thriller/horror world, is a knock of something in a room, for example something falling off a table, or even a piano playing itself.
Off Screen sound
This is when a noise being made is also in the film world, but it is off screen, something like in the film insidious, when the baby is crying off camera, then the mother goes to comfort her, we understand where the noise is coming from, but do not see it on camera. This can be used as it is in this scene to create an image in the audiences head that may seem like a viewer understnads what to expect from what they can hear. However this a really good technique to catch the audience off guard with, as a homely sound that everyone may be used to, something like the phone ringing, and someone walking to go answer it, could be used effectively with a killer standing by the phone.
Parallel Sound
This is when the sound you hear in a film is exactly what is expected, such as a poweful car having a loud motor. This is one of the most realistic sound techniques as it is how our world exists. This could be used to create a sense of hope when a victim may be trapped and feel isolated no longer. An example could be someone being trapped in the forest, but getting near a road in the forest, and hearing cars go past, may mislead the audience into thinking the victim is about to survive, but the plot could now twist to prevent them reaching this safety.
Contrapuntual Sound
This is the opposite of Parallel sound, this is when a noise is unconventional because it does not match the images on the screen. This may be things such as scenes from the exorcist, or sinister where children's voices do not make the sound we expect they should.
In this clip of Silent Hill 2: Revelation, There are many different sound effects used, all to different quantities, but each one just as effective as the other. A key sound technique for the start of this clip is off screen sound. The audience can see Vincent's face, but we can hear his actions of moving his arms to try and free himself of the chains that are tying him to the bed. They may have used this sound, as it is conventional to a thriller, in the fact that he is 'trapped' and the sound of these chains rattling represent the fact that he is held there, and in trouble.
The audience can also hear the sounds of knives swishing in the air each time noise is made by Sharon and/or Vincent. Something that could be missed, but makes a notable difference to the tone of the scene, is the non-digetic sound. There is background music playing throughout the clip, and as Sharon starts to free Vincent, the Nurses start moving again, and at this instant, the background music bellows, creating a darker more worrying atmosphere.
Monday, 1 October 2012
Thriller techniques - Miss Frisendar
Definition: Thriller - Thriller and suspense filns are types of films known to promote intense excitement, suspense, a high level of anticipation, ultra-heightened expectation, uncertainty, anxiety, nerve-wrecking tension and menace/danger.
Thriller films use tension a lot, and it can be very effective in different situations. It becomes apparent in thrillers when the audience becomes emotionally attatched to the main character. Tension is also created when the villain is unidentifiable.
Hitchcock once said 'The purpose of a thriller is to put their (audiences) totally in the cold water of fear to see what its like.'
A key thriller technique is use of lighting. Lighting is often used as a convention unbeknown to the audience, but is something that can help set a mood. For example, if in every scene of a thriller film, the lights were fully on, and it was daytime with the sun shining bright, there wouldn't be much that is shrouded in mystery because of darkness. Therefore, the contrast in different lights helps play with a certain psychological factor of the audience, and helps them to start making assumptions, which often increases the suspense in a film.
Another key to a thriller film is keeping the identity of the villain from the audience as well a the victims in the film. This is because it psychologically will link he audience with the film, and will leave them guessing throughout, and keeping them entertained in the film more, than if the identity of the murderer was unveiled early on. An example of this would be in 'Scream'. When 'Ghost Face' kills Drew Barrymore, she removes the face mask of the killer, but as she pulls it away, the camera changes angles so that all the audience can see is her reaction to whoever the villain is. After the secret is revealed to her, she is then killed, trying to show that no one is aloud to be aware of their identity.
Another technique used in thriller films is the different types of camera angles. The main one of these being the point of view (POV) camera angle. This is the biggest way to emotionally involve a member of the audience with a film, usually when its a feeling of anxiety, or isolation. It can also help cut off certain parts of the set, in which the villain may be lurking. Without the POV, the audience may usually see this villain full on, but whereas the camera angle acts empathetically, you are unable to see them. A good use of POV is in the film 'Stake Land' when the boy re-enters the house that his mum and dad have just been killed in, and he is looking for the now missing culprit.
Thriller films use tension a lot, and it can be very effective in different situations. It becomes apparent in thrillers when the audience becomes emotionally attatched to the main character. Tension is also created when the villain is unidentifiable.
Hitchcock once said 'The purpose of a thriller is to put their (audiences) totally in the cold water of fear to see what its like.'
A key thriller technique is use of lighting. Lighting is often used as a convention unbeknown to the audience, but is something that can help set a mood. For example, if in every scene of a thriller film, the lights were fully on, and it was daytime with the sun shining bright, there wouldn't be much that is shrouded in mystery because of darkness. Therefore, the contrast in different lights helps play with a certain psychological factor of the audience, and helps them to start making assumptions, which often increases the suspense in a film.
Another key to a thriller film is keeping the identity of the villain from the audience as well a the victims in the film. This is because it psychologically will link he audience with the film, and will leave them guessing throughout, and keeping them entertained in the film more, than if the identity of the murderer was unveiled early on. An example of this would be in 'Scream'. When 'Ghost Face' kills Drew Barrymore, she removes the face mask of the killer, but as she pulls it away, the camera changes angles so that all the audience can see is her reaction to whoever the villain is. After the secret is revealed to her, she is then killed, trying to show that no one is aloud to be aware of their identity.
Another technique used in thriller films is the different types of camera angles. The main one of these being the point of view (POV) camera angle. This is the biggest way to emotionally involve a member of the audience with a film, usually when its a feeling of anxiety, or isolation. It can also help cut off certain parts of the set, in which the villain may be lurking. Without the POV, the audience may usually see this villain full on, but whereas the camera angle acts empathetically, you are unable to see them. A good use of POV is in the film 'Stake Land' when the boy re-enters the house that his mum and dad have just been killed in, and he is looking for the now missing culprit.
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