Tzvetan Todorov's Theory

Tzvetan Todorov's Theory.

Tzvetan Todorov is a Franco-Bulgarian philosopher who writes books and essays about literary theory, thought history and culture theory. Tzvetan Todorov simplified the idea of narrative theory whilst also allowing a more complex interpretation of film texts with his theory of Equilibrium and Disequilibrium.

There are five stages the narrative can progress through:

• A state of equilibrium (all is as it should be)
• A disruption of that order by an event
• A recognition that the disorder has occurred
• An attempt to repair the damage of the disruption
• A return or restoration of a NEW equilibrium

This theory can be applied to many films especially mainstream films because it's what audiences today are used to.

I am now going to apply his theory to a mainstream films which is going to be Iron Man.

These are the five stages which the film iron man goes through:

• A state of equilibrium - We are introduced to the world where Tony Stark is rich and owns a weapons manufacturing company.
• A disruption of that order by an event - Tony stark is Kidnapped and his right hand man has turned against him and wants the company for himself.
• A recognition that the disorder has occurred - Would be when Tony Stark breaks free and realises that his right hand man was the one who paid for him to be kidnapped and is planning to go against him.
• An attempt to repair the damage of the disruption - Tony Stark fights with his right hand man and prevails.
• A return of restoration of a new equilibrium - Tony Stark rebuilds his company and the threat is dealt with and so the world is a safe place again.

In conclusion I have learnt a lot of Tzvetan's theory and I am not sure if I will be able to relate it to my film because my film will start off with the murder happening, I will be able to relate some parts of his theory to my film though such as a disruption then a recognition of the disruption which is then resolved with the detective finding the killer and dealing with him.

Vladimir Propp Theory

In this post I will be researching into Vladimir Propp and his Theory of narrative and also his theories into the characters used.

Vladimir Propp was a Soviet formalist scholar who analysed the basic plot components of Russian folk tales. Vladimir suggested characters took on role of narrative "spheres of action" or functions, Propp came up with seven different character types.

1. The villain—struggles against the hero
2. The donor—prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object
3. The (magical) helper—helps the hero in the quest
4. The princess and her father—gives the task to the hero, identifies the false hero, marries the hero, often sought for during the narrative. Propp noted that functionally, the princess and the father can not be clearly distinguished
5. The dispatcher—character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off.
6. The hero or victim/seeker hero—reacts to the donor, weds the princess
7. False hero—takes credit for the hero’s actions or tries to marry the princess.

These roles could sometimes be distributed among various characters, as the hero kills the villain dragon, and the dragon's sisters take on the villainous role of chasing him. Conversely, one character could engage in acts as more than one role, as a father could send his son on the quest and give him a sword, acting as both dispatcher and donor.

And now I am going to apply Vladimir propp's theory to a film and the film I am going to choose is Finding Nemo.

1. The villain - Would be the dentists daughter (Darla).
2. The Donor - The Turtles because they give the Marlin the speed needed to get to his quest.
3. The (Magical) helper - Would be Dory because she helps Marlin.
4. The Princess/Prize - would be his son Nemo.
5. The dispatcher - The seagull which tells Marlin the way to his son.
6.  The Hero or victim/Seeker Hero - Would be Marlin because he is going to save his son Nemo.

From looking at Vladimir Propp's theory I can see some character profiles that would be included in my film but a lot of them won't be included for example there will be a hero and a villain and a victim but there won't be a dispatcher a helper or a donor in my film, but the research has helped me to see that this theory does apply to a lot of theory.

Institutional Research.

Institutional research will help me and allow me to see the company which would distribute my film, and so I will carry out research into what company would distribute my film and why also I will give some research behind the company.  Here are some big companies which are always distributing movies which are successful.

 I have decided to get my film distributed by the company New line cinema. New line cinema is an American film studio and was founded in 1967 by Robert Shaye and Micheal Lynne as a film distributor which later became an independent film studio it became a subsidiary of Time Warner in 1996 and was merged with larger sister studio Warner Bros in 2008.

I have decided to choose this company because they have produces a lot of successful films and the company targets at cinemas, and this would be good because I believe my film is going to be high budget and appeal to most audiences of 15 and above, so this type of film would appeal to a large company and because the company is owned by Time Warner it would be easy to market my film because they have the funds to do it also if people see that it's produced by such a well known company they might want to go see it on the basis of that.

This research has helped me to see the different companies that distribute films and the amount that do it, it has also helped me to see what is the suitable company for me to use. It has also given me more knowledge into media because I never knew that there were so many companies distributing films from high budget films all the way down to low budget films, and there are some companies which only distribute certain types of genre such as British realism.

From doing further research into institutions I have decided that I am going to have my film produced by Warner Bros.
Warner Bros is an American company and  was founded in 1923 and is an subsidiary of Time Warner and Warner Bros are known for producing high budget films, the main reasons I have decided to use Warner Bros. is because they produced the film Sherlock Holmes: a game of shadows and this is the type of film in which I am trying to aim for, a detective which discovers clues which eventually lead up to finding the killer, Warner Bros. have a high budget to spend on films so this would be good for my film because I would want there to be high budget equipment in to aid in finding the killer for example there could forensics to help find the killer.