Narrative Theory

There are many theories behind the making of film and how film should be made, so I have taken this chance to investigate on a few of these theorists to add more character and knowledge behind my short film.

Vladimir Propp

Propp was a Russian critic and literary theorist.  During his time he analysed over 100 Russian fairy tales in the 1920's and created the theory that it was possible to classify the characters and their actions into clearly defined roles and functions. Some of these characters are: The Hero (Seeks something), The Villain (opposes the hero), The Donor (helps the hero by providing a magic object), The Dispatcher (sends the hero on his way) etc. I can compare my characters to this even though my short film isn't a fairytale. There is indeed a main character who seeks something, and a villain that wises to obstruct this. My main character seeks to destroy her inner demons by creating an army of drawings, and the villains (shadow selves) seek to obstruct this, wanting to haunt this girl for the rest of her life. They confront each others, which is what usually happens within these fairy tales and my story follows the narrative of this theorist.

Tzvetan Todorov

Todorov is a Bulgarian theorist who created the theory that most narratives start with a state of equilibrium in which life is 'normal'. This state or normality is disrupted by the main danger of the story which must be fought against to regain the original equilibrium. This can easily be applied to a wide range of films and can be used in my short film. My short film does consist of an equilibrium, disequilibrium and a new equilibrium but will contain a second twist at the end to leave the audience hanging. This leaves my short film with typical conventions but then a non-conventional twist. I hope this will keep my audience interested throughout, even till the end of the credits.

Claude Levi-Strauss

Strauss was a social anthropologist who studied myths of tribal cultures. He examined how stories unconsciously reflect the values, beliefs and myths of a culture. These are usually expressed in the form of binary oppositions. His research has been adapted by media theorists to reveal underlying themes and symbolic oppositions in media texts. Binary oppositions are a conflict between two qualities or terms, for example: Male, Female. Hero, Villain, Garden, Wilderness. My short film contains some of these binary oppositions such as hero and villain. This makes my short film come across more professional as it follows theorists work but also gives my short film more meaning and depth as I have put time and thought behind this short film.