Q: Apply theories of narrative to one of your coursework productions.
I am going to look at the various theories that I have applied to my advanced portfolio because I think that the idea of narrative structure applies a lot to the work that I am currently creating for my film trailer. This is because I have had to deepen my understanding of the work that I am going to produce when it comes to structuring my film trailer.
As I have chosen to follow the drama genre and the idea of an 'Unlikely Friendship', I thought that it would be a good idea to generally follow the ideologies of Todorov, indicating the five - stage - structure to the narrative of a story. This consists of equilibrium, disruption of the equilibrium, recognition of the disruption, an attempt to repair the disruption, back to equilibrium. This structure follows a circular pattern that most films and drama films in particular tend to follow. It is important to understand the full extent of the theory as it enables the audience to fully engage and immerse themselves into the media and the film trailer in particular that they are watching. The idea of this theory is that everything starts off as being equal and the 'norms' that would generally be applied into everyday life to create a relatable environment for the audience. When the disruption of this norm comes into play, it is designed to through the audience off balance to leave them wondering what is going to happen. I am going to use this ideology in my own coursework production as it is a good way to get the audience involved in what is happening. Everything after the disruption of the equilibrium is essentially the road back to equilibrium. Todorov states that the equilibrium that is reached at the end is usually the same s the equilibrium that we are presented with at the beginning as a sort of, re-establishment of the previous equilibrium. Despite this, there are many films that would go against this idea that the same equilibrium is established. For example, action films are a good example of this such as the film True Lies, as the equilibrium at the end is different and slightly more evolved than the equilibrium that we are presented with in the first place. Along with Todorov's idea of this narrative structure, Roland Barthes suggests the use of signs and symbols to initiate the audience's understanding of what is happening. These codes and symbols that are implied, make the audience wonder what is going on and what might happen. I am also applying ideologies presented by Vladimir Propp so that I can have a good set of stock characters which is usually present in most films and therefore trailers. It's a good idea to include these basic stock characters so that there is a lot of variety within the actual film. It also means that there are going to be more characters that the audience can relate to. Within my own film trailer I am going to include features of Propp's narrative so that I get a good range of characters.
The idea of semiotics in film trailers is also important to understand in the narrative of a trailer because it indicates the signs and symbols that are present in a piece of media. The portrayal of binary opposites is the differences in signs and how they are negatively emphasised. An example of this type of binary opposite is the views put forward by Claude Levi - Strauss. He indicated that oppositions such as young/old, boy/girl and good/evil are all simple binary's that we can generally follow in a simple piece of media to create complex characters. Levi-Strauss also made a conclusive decision that one of the binary opposites for example female over male, is generally more valued over the other. This is important to think about in my own coursework production because I can include various forms of this idea to keep the audience wondering who each character is and who they represent.
Enigma codes work within the idea of narrative structure to keep the audience constantly guessing and wondering what is going to happen next. It is important to have a wide range of enigma codes so that the audience does not get bored and decides that they don't want to watch the film. A good enigma code that is widely used in film trailers is the cliff hanger. For years it has been one of the best ways of indicating narrative through an enigma code, which is why this is one of the techniques that I am could to include in my own coursework production.
All of these various ways of presenting narrative structure, are a good way of indicating the storyline to an audience. Through all the various techniques that I have talked about, I am going to use them throughout my own drama film trailer to get the audience wanting to watch the film that I am presenting in the trailer. All of the techniques that I have looked at and am going to use will hopefully gain a much wider audience.
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