Theory.

In class we have been learning about several media theorists. Media theory can be defined as a systematic way of thinking about means of communication and their effects. We have started to learn about how different things are portrayed in films such as behavourism, structuralism, marrative and genre, feminism and post colonialism.

Theorist one: Propp.

Propps theory is a form of structuralism. He identified 8 charcter roles.
The 8 character roles include:
The villain
The hero
The donor
The helper
The princess
Her father
The dispatcher
The false hero
These structures are often culturally derived and form expectations in the mind of an audience from within that same culture e.g. fairy tales always have happy endings or the princess always marries the handsome prince.
Propps theory can be applied to generic structures in western culture such as popular film genres, therefore genre structures form expectations in the mind of an audience that certain rules apply to the narrative. However, cultural change can force structures to change e.g. a hero can now be a woman.

Theorist two: Gustav Freytag

In 1863, the German novelists Gustav Freytag published Die Technik Des Dramas in which he outlines his pyramid structure for the plot. Adapting Aristotle's basic triangle he added the idea of the plot complicating, introducing conflicts and building to a climax point, after which it falls away when the conflicts are resolved, the mysteries are also solved and we are finally left with a satisfactory resolution.

Exposition: The start of the story, the established situation before the story begins.

Rising action: The series of complications, conflicts and and layers of mystery that build toward the climax.


Climax: The turning point and the point with the highest intensity, emotionally or through action.


Falling action: Action following the climax and pieces of the jigsaw falling in to place to solve the mysteries.


Resolution: Any disruptions caused by the rising action are returned to a state or 'normality', the mysteries are solved and as far as possible the established order of the start is returned. However where it can not return to the established order, justice is served.


Freytag's structure is noticeable in Hollywood output and is striking feature of Hollywood film trailers. The form of the triangle used below best represents the timing and the structure used in many film trailers where a quiet opening builds to a punch in the music, followed by rapid action and a falling away to a quiet sound and the credits at the end.

Many different types of media that tell a story e.g Music video, films, film trailers and novels follow Freytag's theory as it is a very effective way of creating drama. If they do not follow this theory it is very unconventional.

Theorist three: Tzvetan Todorov

Freytag's theory was further developed in 1960s by Tzvetan Todorov in to his theory of equilibrium - disequilibrium - equilibrium. Todorov was a bulgarian structuralist, he developed the theory of disrupted equilibrium.He reailsed that stories follow a typical pattern of:
equilibrium - The status quo when things are as they should be.
disequilibrium - The status quo is disrupted by an event.
equilibrium - The status quo is restored at the end of the story by the actions of the hero.
Todorov later developed this into a 5 stage pattern
1) A state of equilibrium at the outset
2) A disruption of the equilibrium by some action
3) A recognition that there has been a disruption
4) An attempt to repair the disruption
5) A reinstatement of the equilibrium

Theorist four: Roland Barthes

According to Barthes, there are 5 action codes that enable an audience to make sense of a narrative.
*Hermeneutic - (narrative turning point) we know where the story will go next.
*Proairetic - (basic narrative actions) e.g. detective interviews suspect ( similar
to propps 31 functions)
*Cultural - (prior social knowledge) e.g. our attitudes to gender or racial
stereotypes.
*Semic - (medium related codes) intertextuality.
*Symbolic - (themes) iconography or a theme such as image versus reality

All the theories I have mentioned above I will try to use in my horror film e.g propps theory by clearing demonstrating who the villain is and who are the victims. I will also use Freytag's and Todorov's theory as the trailer will begin with them peacfully setting off, climax in the middle when the victims are being murdered and finally when 'the survivour' is running away its an attempt to repair te disruption. That is when Barthes theory comes in as the audience members will have some knowledge of horrors before hand therefore they know the victim will either survive or it will be left a cliffhanger.

Visual pleasure and narrative cinema.

• Film/images fascinates us (engages our emotions).
• Mulvey uses psychoanalysis to discover where and how the fascination of films is reinforced by pre-existing patterns of fascination already at work within the individual subject (spectator).
• She says she is using psychoanalytic theory 'as a political weapon'.
• Hollywood and music videos manipulates visual pleasure.
• It 'codes the erotic into the language of the dominant patriarchal order'. (male dominated society).

          Scopophilia

• Pleasure in looking (Sigmund Freud 1905).
• Woman as an image, man as beholder of the look.
• Pleasure in looking split between active/male and passive female.
• woman connote 'to-be-looked-at-ness'.
• woman are always places in a film in a seductive way e.g James Bond - long and lingering = time slows down.
• Post-modern =, times changed.
• The woman functions as both as an erotic object for the characters within the screen story and erotic objective for the spectator within the auditorium (object of fantasy).
• The spectator is led to identity with the main male protagonist.

The difference between a trailer and teaser.

The difference between a teaser trailer and a theatrical trailer is that a teaser trailer is designed to give you a small insight of the genre and film without giving too much of the story-line away. However a theatrical trailer is longer and normally includes more of the narrative story in the trailer with more references to the main characters and plot.

Here is the teaser trailer for 'Silent Hill'

Here is the theatrical trailer for 'Silent Hill'

As you can see, the second trailer is much longer and includes more narration, more an introduction to the characters, longer lasting shots, location shots, captions to match the trailer, dialogue and more of an insight into the film itself.

Editing film trailers to match the genre.

We looked at a number of film trailers for the same film however each trailer had been edited differently to match the genre that the film had been put in perspective of. Here are some examples of the film trailers that we looked at:

This is the original film trailer for the horror film 'The Shining'.
It fits in with the genre of horror because of the following reasons:

• Erie music
• Isolated location
• Fast editing
• Violent images
• Music speed
• Mis-en-scene
• Quick flashes
• Types of shots

This is re-make of the film trailer 'The Shining' in the genre of a RomCom.

It fits in with the genre of a RomCom because of the following reasons:

• Cheerful music
• Longer shots
• Slower editing
• Camera angles
• Nattive voice
• Introduction of characters