Narrative Theory

today i learnt about the narrative theory. A narrative being the way in which a story is told in both fictional and non fictional media texts. there are only seven stories in the world.

Vladimir Propp is a russian critic and literary theorist who spent his life analysising stories. he analysed 100 russian fairytales in the 1920s, he also proposed that it was possible to classify the characters:

hero (seeks something)

Villian (opposes the hero)

donor (helps hero by providing hero)

dispatcher (sends the hero on his quest)

False hero (falsely assuming role of hero)

princess (rewards hero, needs protection from hero)

her father

we also learnt about Tzvetan Todorov, he was a bulgarian literacy theorist, he suggested that ,most narrative start with a state of equilibrium in which life is 'normal' and protagonists are happy. this state of happiness is interrupted by and outside force.

in the class we watched a disney pixar short film called 'Boundin', we then had the task of identifying which character in the film was the character outlined by vladimir.

we have now started to think of who in our own short film will fit the role of the Vladimir characters, but before we can do this properly we have been trying to think of a structure for our film.

we would like to use the idea of mixing up the narrative, having the conclusion shown at the beginnning and then the film leading up to this conclusion just like the film 'Pulp Fiction'.

we also discussed how would we show the protagonist is leading a lonely life, i was inspired by a shot in 'hollyoaks' which showed the girl dressed up glamorously and then when she turns to look in the mirror, in reality she looks a complete mess, we could interpret this shot in our own film showing the protagonist how she dreams of being but how she sees herself in reality.