Exam Question 1(a) (Mr Love)

Explain how Theories of narratives have informed your ideas and planning for your A2 coursework production My a2 project is to create a trailer for a film with the knowledge I have gathered through my course. My trailer follows the story of Charlie a powerful business woman who made a promise to her younger self and Sam her old school bully. The focus of the story is that Charlie’s promise was to be successful when she grew up, she holds true to this promise until she spots Sam standing at the reception of her work building in later life, the film relies on the premise that Charlie the boss of a large portion of people and a powerful woman in and of herself is undermined by memories of her past. By pulling the antagonist of of the blue back into her life the story revolves around how Charlie learns to deal with her demons and learns to stand up for herself, getting some answers from the bully and finding out the true villains of her story. In terms of theory, Valadimir Propp’s theory of character types in stories of there always being 7 character types present; the hero, the villain, the dispatcher, the donor, the (magical) helper, the princess and her father as well as the quest giver, could fit on the surface of the film, we have the hero in the form of Charlie, this fits conventions of the theory of character types as she is the main character, she has good morals and aims to be better. However Charlie as the hero goes against some forms of Propp’s theory as she is in reality the Princess of the story for Sam who has loved her for so long, the contradictions per Propp’s theory of the hero and the princess being the same person could disengage Propp’s theory from my narrative as it becomes difficult to follow and distinguish the characters, it also breaks expectations from Propp’s theory as the typical hero in stories he researched to gather proof for his theory were all men, using a female as out main character breaks stereotypes about heroes, and gives a bigger way for equality in character roles. The theory of equilibrium, disequilibrium, re-equilibrium from narrative theorist Torodov fits the narrative of my film although will not be shown to great extents in the trailer I produce. This is because trailers are used to entice an audience, we have established in the course that the inclusion of the re-equilibrium in the trailer would give too much away for the story, good trailers from my research focus on the disequilibrium of the narrative. However, the theory fits overall, equilibrium forming in the idea of Charlie breaking away from her school bully and being true to her promise of success, the disequilibrium comes in the form of Sam showing up in her reception and tearing her confidence and motivation down through memories, my story should also end in a re-equilibrium as Torodovs theory suggests as Charlie learns to face her fears of Sam and listens to him. Rolland Barthes theory of open and closed narratives is a theory I chose to fit loosely too, the problem of producing the trailer means as producers the goal is to make people want to watch the movie. Closed narratives in trailers could put an active audience off linking to Blumler and Katz audience theory of uses and gratifications, their theory of an audience actively choosing what to watch and forming their own opinions and thoughts from it could be hurt by using a closed narrative in a trailer meant to interest as many people as possible. There for even if the full film has a closed narrative I believe it was a good decision to create a trailer with an open narrative to allow for another of Barthes theories of narrative codes especially for enigma codes, these codes are the ones that suggest an audience should be asking questions about the film. An open narrative leads itself to enigma codes greatly as the audience has the chance to create their own opinions on what they have watched, with their own opinions they have the higher likelihood of becoming interest in the story. Some theorists are harder to state outright in the narrative I have created, for example Levi-Strauss’s theory of binary opposites hard to define in my narrative as they change through the trailer, the initial binary opposite shown in the trailer would be the power difference between the two main characters, Charlie being he powerful boss and Sam being the newest employee. This binary opposite won’t be touched on too much but the idea of them should mean more as these binary opposites switch places quickly as the power imbalance is set off completely the point of view is switched slightly as the powerful becomes powerless and the audience see the effects of this on the character. Another binary opposite explored in my narrative is the idea of male and female. The stereotypes of each lead them to be certain ways for example the school scenes where Charlie is shown as weak and defenceless while Sam is displayed as angry and violent. However, by the office scenes we are shown the male to female binary opposite breaking as the woman is the person in power and the man is asking for forgiveness and a job. In conclusion I would say learning about theorists has impacted my A2 production. Ways in which these theories have affected me where I learnt a lot about how the majority of films focus on pre discovered plots of action and have become cliché. Learning some of the theories of media taught me how to break away from a mould set by producers.