Narrative Question
Narrative is the way in which the story is constructed and how it affects the audience.
The film opening which we created at AS level was called 'On Track', it was a drama based around the story of two girls who are completely different in the sporting world training for the same competition. In the film opening the two girls are training for the Olympics, you see the split screen of both girls which shows the comparison's between them with one being more advantaged than the other. We used the theme of sport as we felt that not a lot of women are involved in sports films so we felt that by doing this our film opening would stand out. We used the locations such as the running track, the swimming pool, and the field to really get that sport vibe for the audience and to show that the girls were training hard but not getting the same use of facilities.
Levi Strause had the theory of binary oppositions, we brought this into our film opening in many ways. One way was by using split screens to really enhance the difference between the two girls as one being rich and one being poor. This was to start the story off about the two girls being different. We showed them being rich and poor by using a split screen shot of their trainers, using a split screen shot of their training settings such as the swimming pool compared to the field this showed the difference in the two girls and the resources they had available to train with. We also used shot's wither their coach's it is clear that the more advantaged girl had a professional coach who was very serious and motivating, whereas the other character just had one of her friends who was helping her.
Propp is a theorist who believes that you always have the same characters, for example you always have a hero, a villain and similar characters in every film. We subverted this theory in our film opening, this is because our hero was a woman (the girl who won the race), this is different from many films as the hero is often seen as a man and also the main characters are usually men, especially in sports films. We conformed with this theory of there being a villain, by having a villain who was a man which was one of the girl's coaches, you can see that he is quite a nasty coach form the scenes shown.We also conformed the theory by having similar characters who would be the two main girls who are similar by both having an interest in sport and both training for the same competition even if they do do this in different ways.
Todorov had a theory that everything starts off well and then something goes badly wrong, it then slowly build up and leads to a happy ending. This is the disruption of equilibrium, I believe that our film opening subverts this theory, this is because there is no evidence of nothing going wrong just yet, however in the real film the cocky and rich girl doesn't win the race, so this could be a way that our film conforms with this theory, this would be because the less advantaged girl would win in the end whereas at the beginning of the film you would never have thought this from seeing the differences between the two.
Barthes has a theory of enigma coding, enigma is getting your audience asking questions straight away about the film, these questions often get the audience to want to keep watching in order to find out what happens. In our film opening, I think that we created a lot of enigma, this is because when watching the film opening I feel that the audience is asking questions such as: why is there a split screen? why and how are the girls different? what are they training for? who wins the competition? These questions are all of which will be answered in the real film, this shows that our film opening had our audience really engaged.
The film opening which we created at AS level was called 'On Track', it was a drama based around the story of two girls who are completely different in the sporting world training for the same competition. In the film opening the two girls are training for the Olympics, you see the split screen of both girls which shows the comparison's between them with one being more advantaged than the other. We used the theme of sport as we felt that not a lot of women are involved in sports films so we felt that by doing this our film opening would stand out. We used the locations such as the running track, the swimming pool, and the field to really get that sport vibe for the audience and to show that the girls were training hard but not getting the same use of facilities.
Levi Strause had the theory of binary oppositions, we brought this into our film opening in many ways. One way was by using split screens to really enhance the difference between the two girls as one being rich and one being poor. This was to start the story off about the two girls being different. We showed them being rich and poor by using a split screen shot of their trainers, using a split screen shot of their training settings such as the swimming pool compared to the field this showed the difference in the two girls and the resources they had available to train with. We also used shot's wither their coach's it is clear that the more advantaged girl had a professional coach who was very serious and motivating, whereas the other character just had one of her friends who was helping her.
Propp is a theorist who believes that you always have the same characters, for example you always have a hero, a villain and similar characters in every film. We subverted this theory in our film opening, this is because our hero was a woman (the girl who won the race), this is different from many films as the hero is often seen as a man and also the main characters are usually men, especially in sports films. We conformed with this theory of there being a villain, by having a villain who was a man which was one of the girl's coaches, you can see that he is quite a nasty coach form the scenes shown.We also conformed the theory by having similar characters who would be the two main girls who are similar by both having an interest in sport and both training for the same competition even if they do do this in different ways.
Todorov had a theory that everything starts off well and then something goes badly wrong, it then slowly build up and leads to a happy ending. This is the disruption of equilibrium, I believe that our film opening subverts this theory, this is because there is no evidence of nothing going wrong just yet, however in the real film the cocky and rich girl doesn't win the race, so this could be a way that our film conforms with this theory, this would be because the less advantaged girl would win in the end whereas at the beginning of the film you would never have thought this from seeing the differences between the two.
Barthes has a theory of enigma coding, enigma is getting your audience asking questions straight away about the film, these questions often get the audience to want to keep watching in order to find out what happens. In our film opening, I think that we created a lot of enigma, this is because when watching the film opening I feel that the audience is asking questions such as: why is there a split screen? why and how are the girls different? what are they training for? who wins the competition? These questions are all of which will be answered in the real film, this shows that our film opening had our audience really engaged.
Good application of theory. Tell us what happens in the film opening? How did you establish the themes, locations and characters?
ReplyDeleteHave a look at this A grade essay and see where you can apply the theorists a bit further
Allan Rowe believed that narrative was all about the audience questioning what was next in the sequence. He discussed how narrative was to surprise or frustrate expectations from the audience. Within my video I applied this as there was a constant movement throughout highlighting new experiences as the narrative took its journey in the video. The narrative is of a solo artist on tour in America experiencing new things. Therefore I was able to apply Allan
Rowe’s theory in my video as the audience was in a state of constant suspense waiting to discover the next place he
will visit. E.g. the artist is seen walking then it pans up to the Las Vegas sign.
This also applies to Todorov’s theory of ‘equilibrium – disequilibrium – new equilibrium’. I, however, challenged this
by only applying the equilibrium and new equilibrium to my video. I achieved this by creating a constant journey
of positive experiences in my video, for example the artist is seen travelling and enjoying the adventure, then a girl
appears which therefore enhances his joy in his travel as love starts to enter his journey. Following this the artist is seen
within the final part of the track to be at their most reflective and hugely spectacular place – The Grand Canyon. These
step by step experiences are shown throughout my video and doesn’t include dis-equilibriums to keep the video
happy, upbeat and fun like the track within it.
Another theorist I can apply is Roland Barthes and his ideas on narrative codes. I specifically used Barthes ideas in his
work on semiotics – I used signs and symbols and cultural referencing. The symbols and signs I used throughout were
highlighting love and art. For example, in my video there are two quick pan-ins into graffiti art saying, “Love peace &
hope” and the masses of art and colour on a wall in San Francisco. These two themes were chosen to be highlighted
throughout as the genre indie pop concentrates on love being an important factor in life and also an expression of art. I also used cultural references showing a wide shot of a San Francisco landscape, Las Vegas sign, skateboarders in LA.
Vladimir Propp also applies to my video as he describes character types and functions that go to make up a narrative.
In my video there is a parallel of two sets of characters, the girl and the boy and the street performers. Both of these sets highlight characters that are searching for happiness and fulfilment in their own way – be it through travel and companionship or through love of dancing/music. I wished to highlight these as my character functions due to my audience being expressive and independent.
Overall, I believe that the application of these theorists has given my video more depth in relation to my audience through narrative. Also my skills have developed as a producer as I now think of these theorists when it comes to planning and research to appeal to my audience and make a successful product.
I have done my corrections :)
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