Narrative Theory

Narrative: the way in which stories are told in both non fictional and ficitional texts.

Theorists:

Vladimir Propp
Came up with the idea of indivdual character roles:

• The hero/protagonist - protects and weds the princess/he who seeks
• The villain/blocker - maintains the struggle/fight with the hero/the bad person
• The object of the quest - that which is sought
• The donor - helps the hero with the fight/gives them something to help
• The helper - gives support to the hero when needed
• The princess - a sort of reward for the hero; hero protects the princess from the villain
• Her father - usually dies during or before the film/book
• The dispatcher - sends hero in the right direction

Tzvetan Todorov

Equillibrium --> Disequillibrium --> New Equillibrium

The equillibrium is the normality. Something has to become the disequillibrium and disrupt normality and have something go wrong. This then needs something to be done about it to get to the new equillibrium and be back to normal again.

Roland Barthes
Suggested that the narrative works with five different codes which allows it all to make sense:

• Action - a device of which produces a resolution through action, e.g a car chase
• Enigma - teases the audience; gets the audience to question themselves as well as the movie all          information has yet been revealed
• Symbolic - connotation
• Semic - denotation
• Cultural - a stereotyped character, for example a man in a suit with a flash car and a brief case would automatically be seen as a business man

Claude Levi-Strauss
Claude examined the values, cultures and belief shown in stories and the way that they are unconciously reflected; they are usually reflected in binary oppositions. His work has then been conveyed to and adapted to discover underlying themes and symbolic oppositions.

Heaven                                                           Hell

good                                                              bad
halo                                                               horns
god                                                               the devil
  

Genre research

Research enables you to discovere the generic conventions of the specific genre you're studying.

Horror

Typical horror's always include the following:

• a build up of tension and suspense
• a fake scare
• an injury
• unusual creepy locations e.g an isolated house or a mental asylum
• uses of stings

character types:

• the main protagonist, usually the victim/hero/one that escapes/survives
• the villain, most usually a serial killer/some sort of mutation - alien/monster
• a twist in an important character, usually turns bad
• typical teens - drink a lot, dopey, sexual, stupid

an example of themes used:

• good VS evil
• religion
• scientific experiments gone wrong
• childhood/everyday issues
• supernatural

- most horror films make us question ourselves: what's real and what isn't.

Analysis of 'The Amityville Horror' opening

The Amityville Horror uses typical horror conventions in the opening and throughout the rest of the film. A lot of stings are used to add emphasis to the movement of things and the actions taking place. For example, when Ronald DeFeo Jr shoots his little sister Jodie who is sat hiding in her bedroom closet, a sound of some sort of animal, possibly a lion is head. This is to signify the fact that he's not himself anymore yet also that his behaviour is animal like; he's not thinking as a normal person would anymore. The use of pathetic fallacy also is to add atmosphere and emphasise the mood. Whenever the weather is rainy/dark/stormy in a movie, bad things take place. Pathetic Fallacy is a typical horror convention. When the news is shown, the pace of the sequence is really quick. This is to show how quickly things had changed and gone wrong; how quickly he had gotten brain washed by the 'voices' of the house. Just from the first few minutes of the opening, the audience can tell what the movie will be about; where the set location is and also the back ground of future preferences made/reasons as to why things are happening.

Audience research

Engaging a relatively similar age group of individuals is enabling a similar understanding. For example, a group of 10 year olds wouldn't be suited to watch an 18 rated movie because of the possible sexual scenes/blood/gore etc. Researching into your aimed audience allows you to let your movie be accessible as well as enjoyable. Sometimes it's hard to stick to the age boundary as of little things you may want to include yet they're not suitable for everyone.

Exploratory audience research allows you to learn the incentives and what potential barriers that there may be. The information obtained enables you to communicate with the specific audience as they can relate to the issues/emotions etc that are shown.

The audience I've chosen will be certificate 15. This way you can aim it at a wider ranged audience and also include more. For example, the use of drugs can be used in a certificate 15 movie yet the potentential influence is to show the effects of drugs and why they shouldn't be used. Certificate 15 movies usually try to highlight every day life issues and influence young teens to choose the right options.