Vladamir Propp's theory - Narrative Theory

Vladamir Propp suggested that characters took on the role of narrative 'spheres of action'. Propp came up with seven different character types to support his theory:

Hero - This is referred to as the protagonist. They are the characters who would want to solve the disruption and create the new equilibrium (relating back to Todorov's theory). There are two sub types of hero to consider - The victim hero, and the seeker hero. The hero is usually in the epitome of the action, as well as the villain.

Villain - This is the cause of the disruption, and is usually the enemy of the hero (exceptions occur in ransom type movies, where they look to blackmail the hero, such as Taking of Pelham 123).

Donor - This is a character which doesn't consistently help the hero along their journey, but provides a bit of information or a tool which can help the hero solve the disruption. This is not to be confused with the 'helper'.

Helper - This is the 'sidekick' of the hero. They aren't as influential as the hero, but they do help in resolving the disruption and making the hero's job a bit easier.

Princess - This is the victim of the disruption, and the character that the hero will be looking to save. For example, in Taking of Pelham 123, the victims are the passengers on the train who are being threatened by the villain. So that they don't die in the hands of the protagonist, the hero's task is to save the 'princess' (passengers), to avoid any harm being done.

Dispatcher - This is the character that assigns the task to the hero. They may also be have the features of other characters, such as the hero, donor, or princess.

False Hero - This a character which is introduced in rare occurrences. They are represented as a helper, but turns out to be helping the villain and finds out 'inside' information from the hero and their colleagues.

I have reviewed some trailers in reference to this theory, to understand how it is used in horror trailers, and apply the concept to my group's trailer.

Wrecking - Location choice

Me and my classmates have been escorted down to a very derelict, wide-open location, which were inspirational and provoked thoughts and ideas of torture scenes that could possibly take place. Below are pictures which have inspired us:

(Pictures)

I have had the idea that this could be our antagonist's lair, and could be used to torture her victims. A scene like this has been inspired by The Last Exorcism's poster.

Song choice and analysis

After partaking in an extra curricular activity, Film's Cool, with the owner of the Ivor Novello awards, Gary Osbourne, we have chosen a song that would be best fitted towards our synopsis, and our trailer.

We have chosen to use 'Mad World' by Gary Jules, as it is a very downbeat, and depressing song (much unlike the other songs on choice from the Ivor Novello award winning category). Choosing a downbeat song such as this would help create this gloomy atmosphere that would be needed in this trailer, since our synopsis includes talking about a girl who has committed suicide.

Below, I have analysed the lyrics in it's implied contextual and subtextual meaning, and how it could possibly influence the composition of our trailer.

Click to see lyrics

'All Around me are familiar faces, worn out faces, worn out places'

From this, I imply that familiar faces that the person is speaking about are faces that he regularly sees. However, he represents them in a much negative mood, claiming that the environment and these people are 'worn out', suggesting that they're soulless and lifeless, rather than exuberant and vibrant. As this is the first line, it already sets the dark and depressing atmosphere to this song.

'Bright and early for the daily races, going nowhere, going nowhere'

This may suggest that in the writer's point of view, it is much different to wake up now than it was before. "Bright and early for the daily races" suggests that he's waking up to set off to whatever he's meant to do, just like it was a normal day. However, this line is quickly hit with a contradiction, since he explains that he's "going nowhere". This turns this line into some kind of a paradox, since there would be no point to get up early if you are going nowhere. So, what the line is trying to say is that the writer is getting up for no reason, which may represent his direction in life, since there is no reason to wake up to anything anymore, and is therefore meaningless. In terms of the

'Hide my head and drown my sorrow, No Tomorrow, No Tomorrow'

This heavily suggests suicide, or to forget bad memories. "Hide my head and drown my sorrow" suggests that he would want to

First synposis draft

After creating a preliminary storyboard based in a school, we have been asked to focus on creating a synopsis based on our final trailer. Using the school as a base, and a real life story about a teen's suicide, me and my new group (consisting of Will and Shenade) have created this plot.

"A few weeks ago, a girl committed suicide by drinking bleach and hanging herself, because of the amount of abuse she were receiving from other students. This girl used to be a fun, bubbly, and magnificent individual, but when a very discrete picture spread around the school, the girl could never recover from such torment since. Even from that day, the bullies that put the pictures up and aggravated her death continued to mock the girl’s actions, including making sick remarks on her decision of suicide. Not long after her death, the group of bullies proceeded to express their final mark of ultimate disrespect, by urinating on her gravestone. However, as the heavens opened up, the girl reappears in front of the boys but clothed in a white, angelic robe, and with a face that is best described as demonic. The girl starts to reappear in their school, and in their personal premises, with the intent to avenge the vandalised memory that was left of her. Terrified by the bloodstained mirrors, the notes foreshadowing decease, and the vile presence of the girl they once bullied, the group that heavily influenced her death could only wonder how close they may be to death’s unforgiving clutch. The tables have drastically turned, and their psychological welfare can never be the same."

Inspiration to our synopsis - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/11/amanda-todd-suicide-bullying_n_1959909.html

Preliminary storyboard

In our media lesson, we have been asked to create a horror movie based in a school. This is to help stimulate ideas when it comes to the final idea, and we have a brief idea of how to plan scenes with the knowledge we already know. Below is a copy me and my partner's storyboard.

(Storyboard scan)

Our storyline idea was to mould the protagonist as a demented, mentally-ill student who was stalking and peering at a group of girls. The protagonist would then stalk one of the girls back home, where he would abduct her and take her back into a mysterious building, which is yet to be decided.

Stock Characters

When producing my final trailer, it is important that I mould my characters as scary as possible. To understand what features are effective of stock characters (protagonist - the villain), Below, I have carefully analysed the features of popular stock characters in horror movies.

(Presentation)

Learning about stereotypes

In media, stereotypes usually influence the audience on how they view people in society. Stereotypes is defined as a group of people that are labeled in one group, because they share certain similarities. There are two types of stereotypes that media applies to their characters - Hegemonic and pluralistic stereotypes.

A hegemonic stereotype is the common, yet over-exaggerated type of personality given to a character. For example, for an old man, you would imply that he is hunched over, with a walking stick (like the Grandad in Only Fools and Horses). Other examples includes Bruce Willis in the DieHard series (representing masculinity), and Mary Jane in Spiderman (representing femininity). Usually, the passive type of audience are likely to relate to these stereotypes the most. This is because this is the type of audience that would believe anything they see (referred to as the 'lazy' audience), and it heavily influences their thoughts when looking at modern day society. They sometimes find it hard to differ between the fictional, and the real world, as a result of the media's hypodermic needle.

The hypodermic needle is when the media metaphorically 'injects' the viewer (most likely the 'passive' audience) with information. Passive audiences will rely on the media to provide their information and manipulate their thoughts, rather than being independent and think for themselves.

In comparison to this, an active audience are the type of people who will take it among themselves to analyse the subtext of information, rather than settle with the contextual information that is given to them (which the passive audience tends to do). They still consume information from the media, but are more analytical when it comes to making final thoughts and decisions on matters.

Pluralistic stereotypes are two stereotypes put into one, usually in attempt to challenge one stereotype. For example, Lara Croft is a woman, and you would expect her to represent the feminine stereotype. However, she is symbolic of a few masculine features (as she is a heroine), which means she is taking both stereotypes, and challenging them.

Understanding the basic concepts of a trailer

In our media lesson, we have refreshed our mind by understanding the main concept of a trailer. The title of the worksheet is simply named "What is a trailer?". Below is the sheet that we followed out, and we had to explain why we ticked our selected boxes.

Binary Opposition

What is Binary Opposition?

"the principle of contrast between two mutually exclusive terms: on/off, up/down, left/right etc" (source - answers.com)


So, in relation to the horror genre that I am working on now, binary opposition examples would include good/evil, antagonist/protagonist, and secure/insecure.

This theory was developed by Roman Jakobson, who used the concept of 'binary features'.

In our media lesson, we have been applying the concept of binary opposition to camera controls. Using the camera, we have applied the binary opposition concept to a change in character. However, there are main features of the camera that we had to identify before we start to consider applying binary opposition.

The aperture - This is the middle hole of the camera, which is able to widen and narrow itself to adjust the amount of light that comes into the camera.

The way of manipulating how much light comes into the camera is to change the F-stock setting of the camera. The smaller the F-stock camera number, the less light is allowed into the camera (hole gets smaller), and it allows for a wider depth of field.
Depth of field is how much of the shot is in focus.  A narrow depth of field means only certain bits of a shot is sharpened in the foreground, and the background is mainly blurred out. A wide depth of field means that everything in the shot including the background is sharpened and in focus.

 

The top image represents a picture with narrow/shallow depth of field (as you can see some figures being blurred out). The bottom picture shows everything in focus, so it represents a wide depth of field.

How can this be represented in our trailer?

Blurring in and out can show the contrast between good and evil. For example, there could be a shot in our trailer where there is a casual scene, where everyone is getting along in their day to day lives. However, this can be shown in a narrow depth of field. It can then be manually manipulated to focus in on a figure which represents evil, such as a ghost in the background. The casual scene can represent good (as it's the status quo), whereas the ghost in the background can represent evil, and foreshadow disruption.

Sounds in Trailers

Sounds in trailers are useful for emphasising the genre/mood in a trailer. There are two types of sounds that can be used in trailers:

Non-Diegetic - This is the sounds that are part of the world of the film. For example, car crashes, people talking, and the breeze of the wind.

Diegetic - This is when editing outside of the world of the trailer is used to help emphasise an atmosphere. Examples include soundtracks, voiceovers, and foley sounds (explained previously).

The focus of this is to understand how diegetic and non-diegetic sounds are used in trailers, which will then help when applying sounds to my trailer. I will be analysing the trailer below in terms of sounds used, and group them into diegetic and non-diegetic sounds. This is also a horror trailer, which will help me understand the conventions of a horror film.

Diegetic sounds used - Distorted whoosh, gongs, cold wind breeze, spirit sounds, static, voiceover, soundtrack, metal clangs

Non-diegetic sounds used - Screaming, gasps, metal spinning, dialogue

I have also noticed that there was a silence used to give the viewer a false sense of security when watching the trailer.

Analysis
What I have noticed is most of the diegetic sounds used are industrial, mixed with eerie sounds to create an atmosphere of tension, as well as mysteriousness. It is also downbeat, and tries to stay close as close to silence as possible, in hope that the viewer is in a sense of security. Once this happens, the sudden quick cut of loud screams, static, and metal clangs are used, which are intended to make the viewer jump out of their seat and create the false sense of security.

Application - How can I apply this concept to my trailer?

I may be influenced to create my final trailer based on the sounds of these trailers. I hope to use diegetic sound FXs to build the climax, whilst using a series of short-burst, intense sound bites (synced in with short, fast-paced scenes) in between, or nearing towards the peak of the climax of the trailer. I will also consider the uses of screams in this trailer where appropriate, as the viewer can empathise with how the actor is feeling (as they may be scared themselves from the false sense of security that was created).

Storyboard Practice

In our lesson, we have paired up with people in our class to create storyboards in preparation for our actual storyboard write-ups. We have been given the topic of making a horror trailer (which is also the theme for our actual trailers) based in a school.



Brief outline

This is a trailer which promotes the story of a demented student. He goes around creepily stalking girls, and then abducts them in places where there isn't many people around.

He first starts drawing pictures visualizing and presenting signs of his mental illness and his disturbed nature. He then starts to blankly stare at a group of girls, without them realising. They're at a park outside his home, in which the disturbed boy continues to creepily stare at the group, but this time, he does it peeking through the curtains of his own home. He then walks out and begins to stalk the girls, eventually abducting them and taking them to his underground lair.

Todorov's theory

What is Todorov's theory?

Todorov talked about how a movie should be structured. Todorov explains the three main consecutive elements which should be followed when making a film:

Equilibrium
This is referred to as the 'status quo' in the movie. Normally, this would represent the normal, casual lifestyle in which the world usually revolves around.

Disruption
This is when the equilibrium experiences a significant, short-term change that looks to be resolved.

New equilibrium
This when the disruption has been resolved, and the new 'status quo' of the society is formed.  

However, it is important to note that this is only the structure of a movie. What we've learned in our media lesson is that it is essential that the new equilibrium is not shown in the trailer, or else the trailer would be conveyed as a mini-film, rather than a trailer (as the plot and finish is given away, and there would be no point in seeing the actual film).

I will use "The Taking of Pelham 123" as my example.

 

As you can see, the equilibrium is passengers boarding on a train, going to work as they usually do. The disruption is the hijacking of the train, and it needs to be resolved. However, we don't see how the hijacking is resolved, otherwise there would be no point of the trailer. The reason why a trailer is used is to encourage the audience to watch the film. Therefore, the audience will have to pay to watch the movie, to find out what happens at the end of "The Taking of Pelham 123" (to find out the new equilibrium/resolution).

In briefer terms, Todorov elaborates his theory from the standard movie structure of 'beginning, middle, and end'. 

How will this be useful for my trailer?

Now I understand that through using Todorov's theory, that I should be only looking to use the equilibrium, and parts of the disruption, to intrigue my target audience to watch the movie. There should be no hints of a new equilibrium, otherwise it ruins the purpose of initially creating a trailer.

Creating a horror poster

I have decided to create this prototype horror poster trailer, with the support of the knowledge gained from the previous tasks of analysing horror posters.

(Poster of Coleby)

This poster was inspired by the Hannibal poster (previously analysed), as I used a half-covered face and a pitch black background.

The theory of "Audience Segmentation"

In my media lesson, I have learned about using audience segmentation so that I am able to market my products effectively and efficiently. There are three areas of segmentation that I will have to consider:

• Demographics
• Psychographics

In my lesson, I was introduced to Maslow's hierarchy of needs. The hierarchy of needs visualises and chronologically orders the most important factors that influence motivation, to the least important factors.

As seen here, Maslow's hierarchy focuses on 5 main human needs that has to be satisfied:

Physiological
Ensuring that an individual is able to survive, such as the awareness of food, drink, and warmth.

Safety
Ensuring that the individual is able to keep themself safe, through shelter, police availability, and even job security.

Social
This helps ensure that the people around the viewer are able to create conversation with one another, and have a sense of belonging in society.

Self-Esteem
This is when the viewer will gain enough confidence in themself to satisfy this need.

Self-actualization
This is the creation of aspirations, and what the viewer wants to achieve in life. This may include setting out aims and objectives, so that they're able to keep their life on track.

In relation to media, I am going to use some of these needs in order to attract an audience. Although people satisfy the same demographic, they may be at different stages of this hierarchy.



We have also learned about psychographics. Psychographics are splitting up audiences based on their attitudes and values. As it may suggest, psychographics have to do with the psychology of a person, and mostly reflects on how they view life. In this instance, we've learned about 7 different types of psychographics. Below is a prezi presentation outlining these different psychographics:

http://mediastudiesblog12345.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/mainstreamers-mainstreamers-tend-to.html

Foley Sounds

What are foley sounds?

A foley sound is a non-diegetic sound, which is interpreted as a diegetic sound by the viewer. 'Foley sounds' are commonly used in various scenes such as fight scenes, where the connection of a hit is emphasised. An example of foley sounds being used is shown below:

As you can see, the hits are emphasised by the foley sounds, which are in sync with the connection of the punches and kicks that these two fighters throw. Making the hits far more emphatic allows the viewer to become more intrigued, in contrast to a scene which doesn't radiate such a dynamic feature, and ends up being bland as a result.

Here, I have produced my own scene which incorporates the foley sounds that I have been talking about:



What I have learned from my recent experience of foley sounds is that I am able to used non-diegetic sounds to emphasise the effect of diegetic sounds, to increase the intention of certain aspects of a movie. As I am working on horror, I will have to be looking for diegetic sounds which are emphasised (such as screams, door movements etc).

Understanding horror posters

Following on from the last post I made, I need to understand the main conventions of a horror poster as opposed to a normal poster. It would help my understanding of the significant differences between the conventions of a normal poster, and the distinct conventions of a poster created specifically for the horror genre.

(Post powerpoint presentation)

As a result of this exercise, I have understood the similarities of the 'paranormal' horror sub-genre, rather than analysing the general conventions horror genre.

The common similarities that I have found are:



I will be looking to incorporate these similarities into my prototype poster, as well as developing my own unique selling point. Using common features from other posters are vital, as the audience can immediately notice the genre of the movie (especially those who are interested and familiar in the horror genre).

Finding features of a poster

Much like last year, it was essential to find out the features of a poster so I could apply it to my work. It has been known that "Good artists borrow, but great artists steal", so understanding the composition of a poster could help me understand how I could create my own poster effectively. I have identified the main features of a movie poster below, which would benefit me when I am creating a poster myself (to enhance my understanding of the horror genre).

Mulvey's Male Gaze- What is it about?

Rercently, we have looked at the theory of Mulvey's male gaze.

Mulvey's theory about the 'male gaze' includes analysing the way males look at girls within films. Laura Mulvey suggests that when male look at women in films, they are viewed as an object of sexual desire, rather than being portrayed as the average person. What this does is gives the viewers a different reflection of women in films, as the male gaze is regularly being exploited. A prime example of the male gaze being used is in Tucker and Dale vs. Evil trailer.

In this trailer, the first bit of dialogue used exclaims the fact that two men were staring at a girl - "Did you see the way those guys looked at us?" said the girl looking out of the car in caution. This is suggestive of Mulvey's male gaze being used, as the men beforehand were freakishly staring at the girl. This also emphasises her caution at the men staring at her, which shows that she's fearful of the male gaze.

This continues to be exploited, as we see the girl undressing herself to jump into a lake. Again, the men are shown to be looking at the girl, which happens to distract her and causes her to fall into the lake terrified.

However, with the girl undressing herself, it symbolises how this girl will be represented in the film. It implies that she is shown as an object of sexual desire, as Mulvey may have suggested. This may be reflected onto the passive audiences (explained in a later blog post), as they may see women as objects of sexual desire, which leads to women creating a bad representation of themselves. Not only this, but it represents them in a vulnerable way, shown through the girl falling into the lake in a terrified manner.

How can this be applied to my trailer?

This can be used to represent the vulnerability of women in scenes. For example, Mulvey's male gaze can be intertwined with the concept of false sense of security (as shown in the Tucker and Dale vs Evil trailer, where the girl is shown undressing herself innocently and a quick shot of the males looking causes the girl to react horrifyingly).

Looking at trailers

In our media lesson, we have looked at various different types of trailers to help start us off with understanding trailers. We have looked at popular trailers to start off with, including looking at this Skyfall trailer:

From looking at this skyfall trailer it has helped me understand how diegetic sounds can be used to make a trailer effective. For example, the sudden heartbeat sounds are in sync with the clips shown, which helps builds a climatic effect in the trailer. The shots also include action sequences which includes the antagonist (James Bond), which outlines the genre of the movie (action thriller).

I have constructed a brief analysis of the skyfall trailer, which is shown in the scan below:

However, we are looking at horror films, since this is what we've been assigned. Therefore, I've took it upon myself to look at a couple of horror trailers to find common conventions between them.

What have I learnt about the current course so far?

In the lessons I have partaken in so far, I have learnt how to efficiently plan my work so that the result is as effective and emphatic as possible. This has come through the knowledge of editing a documentary and layering a voiceover the documentary, and working in sync with both aspects to make the overall result as good as it can be. What should've taken as a 5 minute job turned out to be longer than I expected, since there was much more to take into consideration than just simply adding a voiceover and adding simple effects. As a group, we needed to decide what fit well with the documentary, and what could be improved to a stale montage.

Introduction

Hi. My name is Sorin Comerzan, and I wish to pursue in my education on Media. I have enjoyed the AS curriculum, and I look forward to working in the A2 area, where I can enhance my strengths and help myself of eliminating weaknesses in this area. I have worked on media pieces in my spare time, so working on some media pieces in school will come to an advantage. I aim to develop my knowledge my skills in media, and want to enjoy a hobby of mine whilst taking the course as a serious matter. I hope you enjoy reading throughout my blog, as I progress through the development of my course. :)