Apply theories of narrative to one of your coursework productions.
In my first year of media studies I created the opening of a horror film for my foundation portfolio. We chose horror as our genre because this genre comes with lots of common conventions that are easy and fun to produce. There is also a very wide range of narratives that we could use for our film opening. After consideration we decided that we would base the narrative of our horror around a reoccurring nightmare which has connections to the main characters life and the film would explain this nightmare through out.
We followed Toderov's narrative theory which includes having an equilibrium, then a disruption to the equilibrium, attempts to restore the equilibrium and then a slightly different equilibrium. Despite following the sections of this theory we did change the order in which each stage was shown due the genre of our film being horror. For our film we had to ensure that the opening showed an enigma code to keep the audience wondering and intrigued by what is happening. We showed our normal equilibrium by showing the woman asleep which shows her just to be an average normal person. We then had the short clips of the nightmare disrupting her sleep and therefore disrupting the equilibrium. This gave the audience a question to ask themselves of 'why is she seeing this' We showed how this nightmare had been continuous by having her write in her book which is suggesting that this is something that has happened before. As our film was only the opening we did not get to show the reparation of the equilibrium but had we made the whole film this would have been shown.
We followed Barthes theory of enigma code to help to show our narrative and once again maintain the focus and interest of the audience. By showing very restrictive short cuts of the nightmare in between shots of the main character writing and struggling to sleep this kept the audience wondering what was going on and who the main character is. By not having any dialogue in the opening this continued the enigma code as there was no evidence of any regional accents or anything therefore creating a slightly mysterious and enigmatic main character.
Propps theory states the different characters which should or would be included in each narrative. His theory states that there should be a hero, villain and a 'princess'. Despite our film not directly showing these characters they are represented in our film opening. For example the main character represents the 'princess' character or the 'damsel in distress' as she is the one who is seen in discomfort over the dream. The children who feature in the nightmare could be seen as the villain as they are the ones who are causing the discomfort for the women and if our film progressed would be the characters in which cause the trouble. We have not thought about other characters which would be introduced later on in the film however it is quite likely that a male character who acts as a sort of 'hero' would help show our narrative and fit the conventions of the horror genre.
Over all the narrative in our film took influence from Barthes, Propp and Toderovs theory's in order to maintain a realistic and continuous production.
