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Example of Todorov's narrative theory shown in a film

Film: Inception


Equalibrium: The first equalibrium starts with Cobb (Leonardo Dicaprio) doing a simple extaction job on Saito's (Ken Watanabe) mind through one of his dreams.


Disequalibrium: Saito realises he's in one of his dreams through the failure of Cobb's architect and drives Cobb back into reality, fleeing his mission/job.


Recognition: Cobb tries to escape the reality that he failed his job and flee's to Paris in search of a new architect (Ariadne/ Ellen Page) to sculpt the dreams they implant into their hosts.


Attempt to repair the damage: Saito manages to find Cobb and his team, offers them a job of incepting information into Robert Fischer's (Cillian Murphy) mind. Unaware of the dangers Cobb agrees and follows through with the mission, gathering a team together and incepting deeper and deeper into Fischers mind to plant an idea to destroy his fathers company.


New Equalibrium: Cobb succeeds witht he mission and returns to America to find his kids with their grandfather and continues to leave a peaceful life.

Todorov's narrative theory

Analysis of a similar product

The thriller Scream isn’t shown in chronological order as the last scene of the film is shown at the beginning. This allows the audience to guess the build-up to the scene throughout the rest of the film. The first shot is built up to by a non-diegetic heart beat sound getting faster and faster. The camera tilts to show Casey (Drew Barrymore) pick up the house phone to a mystery caller. Throughout the scene she is wearing all white and has short blonde hair. Casey represents the typical young, teenage victim of a thriller through her clothing. Characters wearing white are seen as an icon of purity and righteousness. Her blonde hair shows her age and also that she might lack intelligence, leading to her imminent death at the end of the scene. She also portrays the typical, young, dumb teenager stereotype with her overly joyful and irrational actions.

One of the early shots in the scene pans across the kitchen, following Casey on the phone with a fish lens on the camera. The fish lens is used to make the audience feel as if they are the killer, stalking the victim. Her facial expressions throughout several medium close up shots in the scene show the change of emotion on her face towards the mysterious person on the phone from happy and inviting to terrified and fearful. As the villain enters the scene he is shown masked and wearing all black. Black symbolizes death in most film genres including film and the mask hides his identity. As the killer wears the mask throughout the rest of the film it creates an enigma code leaving the audience intrigued as to who the killer is and why they are committing these murders.

The opening to the film influenced our film because we want to use the diegetic/non-diegetic sound and camerawork to show the emotion displayed by characters and explain there actions. The sound used in the opening scene of the film influenced us as to how we will use our sound to build up tension in our film.

Sound used in our film

The sound used in our film will be mostly non-diegetic. The absence of diegetic sound will allow us to show the characters emotion and actions through camerawork and mise-en-scene. The non-diegetic sound added will not be copyrighted and will not need permission to use. A non-diegetic high pitched score will be used at the start of the film to show emotion in addition with the montage shots on the protagonists face and important props. After the camera fades from black the music will be tense, fast and bassy to add a fast pace to the scene and give the audience an 'on the edge of their seat' feeling. The only diegetic sound in the film will be the viscus cut and stabbing sounds during action sequences.

Characters

Here is a list of characters that add up to create our thriller film opening.

Name: Hiro
Role: Protagonist
Gender: Male
Acted by: Ryan Brand
Clothing: Black hoodie, black jeans, black boots, black half face mask.
Representations: His dark clothing represents an anti-hero role and his anti-social nature. The clothing he wears is not typical for a middle-class citezen as it is less formal. One of the shots is an extreme close-up of Hiro's eyes which shows the lifelessness and lack of emotion the character has. The weapons he uses in the film also represents and mix of western and traditional culture in the modern age.


Name: Mr. 'Danny' Smith
Role: Villian
Gender: Male
Acted by: Will Willis
Clothing: Black gas mask, white shirt, black waistcoat, red tie, black skinny trousers/jeans, black boots, black trench coat.
Representations: The black gas mask can connote him hiding a burn on his face or hiding away from society. He wears smart clothes which conflicts with where he lives because working class citizens aren't portrayed as intelligent and fashionable. With Mr. Smith's henchman wearing more working class style clothes like tracksuit bottoms and hoodies Mr. Smith is made to look like a leader of the broken group by his clothes being more formal.


Name: Hiros dad (deceased)
Role: Hiros dad (deceased) allthough Hiros father is deceased he is also the donor when it comes to Propp's character theory as he provides his son with a weapon in which to pursue his revenge.
Gender: Male
Acted by: Tafadzwa Hove
Clothing: Shirt, black trousers, black tie, black shoes.
Representations: Smart, middle class deceased man. This is shown by him wearing a suit and only being seen in the form of a family photo and not as a moving character.


Name: Henchman 1
Role: Protect and serve Mr. Smith. Villains assistant. Helps the main villian to complete their role in the film.
Gender: Male
Acted by: Dale Stow
Clothing: Black jeans, black combat boots, black hoodie, grey trench coat.
Representations: Mix of smart and casual clothes shows him being a higher form of power in the group but still beneath Mr. Smith, or some form of right hand man.


Name: Henchman 2
Role: Protect and serve Mr. Smith. Villains assistant. Helps the main villian to complete their role in the film.
Gender: Male
Acted by: Tom White
Clothing: Black jeans, black hoodie, black boots, balaclava (possibility)
Representations: The characters dark clothing represents his nature and actions. With the henchmen wearing the same clothes it shows a sense of equalism but less diversity.


Name: Henchman 3
Role: Protect and serve Mr. Smith. Villains assistant. Helps the main villian to complete their role in the film.
Gender: Male
Acted by: Cameron Malone
Clothing: Black jeans, black hoodie, black boots, balaclava (possibility)
Representations: The characters dark clothes represents his nature and actions and also his social class as most working class citizens are portrayed to wear casual clothes. Again this shows a sense of equalism to the other henchmen wearing the same clothes but not a sense of diversity.

Propp's Character Theory

Propp created a character theory in which most films have the same seven character types. He did this by studying over 100 films. More than one character type be assigned to a character or character types can be assigned to more than one character.

The hero/protagonist: Main character in the story and usually the one sent to solve the problem.
The princess: Gets saved by the hero.
The helper: Helps the hero on his/her quest.
The donor: Provides the hero with an item to help them on their quest.
The false hero: Claims to be the hero and take the heros reward when they're not the hero.
The princess' father: Rewards the hero for his actions/efforts.
The dispatcher: Gives the hero the quest.
The villian: Strives to stop the hero from completing the quest.