1B Narrative

For narrative  I will use my horror trailer. 

Tzvetan Todarov

Equilibrium - disequilibrium - recognition of disruption - attempt to repair -  new equilibrium 

This relates to my trailer as some of these stages are evident in order to show some of what happens to keep the audience interested without giving too much away. For example they see equilibrium - the three girls together. Disequilibrium - the two girls getting taken, May finds one dead. Attempt to repair - May fighting for her life and trying to save her friend.

Vladimir Propp 

Stock characters from fairytales inc. princess, hero, villain. 

These relate to mine as there is the villain - antagonist. princesses- all three girls. hero - May.

Claude Levi Strauss 

Binary Opposites - understanding of the word does not come from word itself but from its opposite. 

My trailer uses a lot of binary opposites, in the sense when the audience sees certain things, they know to expect the opposite. For example, when the the protagonists are introduced, the audience can expect to see the antagonist.
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For my advanced portfolio I created a horror trailer, Get Out. "Narrative is the way the story is related" Fiske et al (1983).Narrative can be linear or non linear, depending on what works best for the film and how it needs to be presented to the audience. My narrative follows a linear structure, which is common with horror films. Narrative does not just cover the way the story is told, but also what it includes and what elements need to be included to help it fit the specific genre.

One of the most important theorists regarding narrative is Todarov, who suggested a three stage narrative structure which all stories should follow. This includes; equilibrium, disequilibrium, new equilibrium. This theory can also be expanded into a five stage structure to guide the narrative further. This then becomes; disequilibrium, recognition of disruption, attempt to repair, new equilibrium. My trailer narrative follows this, with there being distinct moments that fit into each stage. For example, the equilibrium is all three girls together and alive right at the start of the trailer. The disequilibrium is the antagonist taking the first two girls, and the recognition of disequilibrium is May finding one of her friends dead. However, although the narrative of the story follows this structure stage by stage, the trailer itself does not follow all stages. For example one stage that is not evident in the trailer is the new equilibrium. This is because I did not want to give too much away, just enough to get the audience hooked and wanting to find out what happens next. However, the trailer for the most part still was put together following Todarov's structure as it helps to orientate the viewer.

Another important area covered by narrative is the idea of stock characters. Vladimir Propp stated that there is a list of stock characters that need to be included, including; villain, donor, princess, her father, hero, false hero and helper. Although this list was complied from Russian faitytales, it can be applied to other texts in terms of character analysis. My trailer does not include all of these characters but does include the villain, princess and hero. The villain is the masked male who goes after the three girls, the role of princess applies to all three girls because they are all the ones who are weak and need saving - even the main girl May as she initially is weak, and the role of hero is May who fights to save herself and her friends.

Claud Levi Strauss stated that all narratives were based around a series of binary opposites. This means that once the audience see something in the text - anything from a stock character to a mood or emotion - they expect to see something else, the opposite of it. Strauss also explains that the meaning of one thing stems from its opposite. This theory relates strongly to my trailer as there are lots of binary opposites used where one thing leads to the expectation of another. The strongest one is the expectation of the antagonist and something bad to happen when the three innocent girls walk into the motel. The way binary opposites are used though can lead to a different interpretation of the media text. This is because different cultures and past experiences will lead to one side of the binary pair being favoured over the other. For example, my trailer uses light as a sign of hope, and dark/night as a sign of evil as it is when bad things happen. This could be seen differently in audiences that favour dark over light.

In conclusion I think that my trailer conforms to a range of different narrative theories covering different areas in narrative. This is because it helps not only create a solid structure that the audience can understand, but follows the audiences expectations. For example with a horror they expect a villain and a hero, which translates to good/evil in terms of Binary Opposites.