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.

Questionnaire results

Questionnaire results

If any of these are your favorite could you please explain why?

1. Sherlock Holmes is my favorite because it isn't like other films in the crime genre and that Sherlock Holmes has a power of deduction which aids him in solving his crimes.

2. Bones is my favorite because I like how they go about solving the murders and the different murders which are in the show.

3. Sherlock Holmes is my favorite because the detective (Sherlock Holmes) is unique in that he has his own methods of solving murders with of course the aid of Dr. Watson

4. CSI Miami is my favorite because I enjoy watching the scenes where they show the murder happening and then instantly cutting to the crime scene.

What I have learnt from this.

What I have learnt from my questionnaire is that people are looking for new and upcoming crime shows because as you can see peoples favorite show/film is Sherlock Holmes and Bones and they are both rather recent I have also learnt that people like the unique ways in which some of the detectives in these shows go about solving the crimes for example Sherlock Holmes and his power of deduction, and also that showing the murder and then cutting to the crime scene or the detective might give more excitement to the audience and so I will do this in my trailer.

Questionnaire

How old are you?

·         17 or younger                   {  }

·         18-21                               {  }

·         22-29                               {  }

·         30-39                               {  }

·         40-49                               {  }

·         50-59                               {  }

·         60+                                  {  }

Gender

 

Do you enjoy watching detective films/shows

Yes                                               {  }

No                                                {  }

Which of the following Crime Detective genre shows/films have you seen and is your favourite?

·         Sherlock Holmes            {  }                  

·         CSI Miami/NY                {  }                        

·         Law & Order                  {  }       

·         Miami Vice                    {  }       

·         The X Files                    {  }      

·         Bones                           {  }      

If any of these are your favourite could you please explain why?

Thank you for your time.

Curtis Cragg.

This is the Questionnaire which I am going to give to people and see what the results are I have done this questionnaire because I think that this is the best way for me to learn what my target audience will want from the detective genre and all the questions on the questionnaire are relevant and will help me when it comes to plan more film into more depth I also included a question on what there favourite detective film/show is to find out more on what makes those shows so entertaining and good to watch so hopefully I can take some ideas from other shows and films and include them in mine.

Regulation Research!

When creating a short film it is good to have an understanding of what should or shouldn't be included in your film to meet the regulations of that area of media and in this case it is the BBFC which handles this specific area of media. I think that in having a good understanding of the guidelines in the certificate I want to aim for will help me when filming my film.

The BBFC is an independent, self-financing and not-for-profit media   content regulator. They operate transparent, consistent and trusted co-regulatory and self-regulatory classification and labelling systems in the UK.

As a highly expert and experienced regulator, there mission is to:

• protect  the public, and especially children, from content which might raise harm risks
• empower the public, especially parents, to make informed viewing choice
• recognise and respect adult freedom of choice within the law
• respond to and reflect changing social attitudes towards media content through proactive public consultation and research
• provide a cost-effective, efficient classification service within our statutory remit
• work in partnership with the industry to develop innovative service models to provide content advice which support emerging media delivery systems
• provide an effective service to enforcement agencies.

Here are some of the things the BBFC look for when deciding what classification a film is:

Drugs

• No work taken as a whole may promote the misuse of drugs and any detailed portrayal of drug misuse likely to promote or glamorise the activity may be cut. Works which show drug misuse while emphasising the dangers may receive less restrictive classifications than works that present drug misuse in a neutral manner. Where smoking, alcohol abuse or substance misuse feature to a significant extent in works which appeal to children, this will normally be indicated in the Consumer Advice and/or Extended Classification Information.
• This is good to know for my film because the killer might have psycological problems and might be using drugs ro escape his problems.

Language

• I am allowed to use a frequent use of the word "fuck" and stronger words may be used but only if they are justified by context I need to know this for my film because the victim might be screaming or swearing at the killer.
• Aggresive use or constant use is unlikely to be acceptable and this could pose as a problem because there could be a scene where the victim is swearing a lot but from this I can cut that scene out.

Violence

• Violence may be strong but isn't allowed to dwell on the infliction of pain or injury.
• The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable so when doing my film I will have to watch out for this because I need to shoot a scene with a victim being killed.
• Violence will be a key feauture in my film and I think it will be easy for my to stay within the guidlines because I won't dwell in the injury or use the strongest of gore.

From looking at the guidelines for the different classifications, I have managed to see what my film will be which is a 15 and the different things which you can include for example in a 15 you can include frequent use of strong language which may be a thing which will be included in my short film. You are also allowed to use some imitable behaviour such as hanging/suicide/cutting themselves but you can't dwell in the fact they are doing it, so this might be another thing which I include in my short film because I want the killer to have psychological problems or maybe a troubled child hood, also in my film there will be a lot of violence (the murder taking place and perhaps the final confrontation) and this would make my short film a 15 because you can use strong violence.

From this task I have learnt the guidelines which people have to look out for when making a film and targeting at a certain audience and seeing what they can and can't include it's helped me int he fact that now I know what I can and can't include so when it comes to filming I know more in depth what the scenes will include.

Textual Analysis on my Ancillary task (Magazine cover Featuring my film)

 The other Ancillary task I have decided on doing is the magazine cover featuring my film. 



This a film cover from Empire featuring Iron man 2, Empire is a widely known company that specialises in Film reviews, Movie news and Interviews. So whenever a new film comes out Empire are almost always the first on the scene to hear about it. The magazine itself seems to be very in your face and big, and the magazine puts the highlight of the magazine right at the front with the main character of the film in a pose, the character also covers up some of the words and this could mean that the company already know that people know who they are and that people only need a couple of words and this is good because if they are successful I can learn some good techniques from them. The style of the magazine is also very modern for example it looks very polished and prestigious also the font of the text Empire corresponds with the type of movie for example in this magazine cover the words are electric and the film is based on technology.

Like the other magazine we can instantly spot that Empire use the techniques throughout their magazines so from this I know that the style in which they use works because as you can see the main character is standing in front of the text and dominating the screen to grab your attention maybe as you walk by it in a shop and again like the other magazine the character is in a pose, the difference from this magazine compared to the other one is that this magazine has more text around the picture and in this one it shows other things within the magazine to try and grab more attention and to show how much more is within the magazine. So from this magazine I have learnt that having the main character in a pose in front of the magazine seems to be an effective way to grab peoples attention with the name of the film on the character or slightly underneath also to make the text like very modern because it adds a nice effect to the magazine.

 This is a another company called Total Film and Total Film is like Empire because Total Film is a guide on up-coming movies so when reviewing this poster I will also know that this is valuable in helping me to come up with my idea. Like Empire Total Film places the main character of the featured film in that magazine on the front page in a pose and mainly dominating the magazine, also the text is very big like the other magazines to grab your attention as you are walking by it in a shop, unlike Empire, Total film seems to have more text on the page and  have lines such as "No School. No Rules. Can Harry cut it in the real world." to give away a bit of the story line to grab your attention and make you want to read the magazine, also like the other one they use very bold colours to grab your attention for example this magazine has pure red just in the background.

What I have learnt

What I have learnt from doing this task is that I am going to use a lot of the ideas from these two major companies for example I am going to have my detective in a pose on the front of the magazine and taking up the majority of the page and I am going to dominate the page with a bold colour (Not sure yet) Also I am going to have little text and maybe a snappy line to grab attention with the name in bold over the character to show people what to expect within the magazine.