Assignment 8

THINK OF DIFFERENT DISRUPTIONS/CONFLICTS AND
RESOLUTION FOR DIFFERENT GENRES:

IDENTIFY AND EXPLAIN TODOROV’S THEORY IN
RELATION TO A FILM
The film that I will chose is called mean girls.
Trevor suggested there are 5 stages of narrative :
 Equilibrium (or normality)
 Disequilibrium (conflict / disruption of equilibrium by action or event)
 Recognition of disequilibrium (disruption / conflict)
 Attempt to repair disequilibrium
 New equilibrium (new normality)

EQUILIBRIUM

 Everything was normal
before ‘Cady’ came to the
new school
 Everyone was in their social
groups
 Regina was the most popular
one out of Karen and
Gretchen

DISEQUILIBRIUM
Everything started to
change when Cady joined
the group
And starts to destroy Regina
by giving her chocolate bars
(Cady told Regina they were
to make her turn skinnier
but that was a lie)
Also giving her the wrong
cream to use on her face

RECOGNITION OF DISEQUILIBRIUM
 Regina found out she
was gaining weight from
the chocolate bars.
 She photocopied the
burn book and put them
around the school
blaming Cady
 The whole school was
fighting as they found out
what people have been
calling them
 Regina was hit by the
bus and Cady was
blamed.

ATTEMPT TO REPAIR DISEQUILIBRIUM

 After the fight with the
school each person would
have to confess what they
did wrong and also
apologize
 They would have to fall into
a group of crowd to gain
their trust, that they would
catch each other

NEW EQUILIBRIUM
Cady starts all over again,
goes to maths competition
and won
All 4 girls, Regina, Karen ,
Gretchen and Cady didn’t
care about popularity and 3
new girls became popular
Also Cady confessed about
everything and she didn’t
care about popularity, nor
clothes just education

LEVI STRAUSS
 He believed that our world is described in opposites. This would mean that, when
the audience would look at a theme within a story and real life we would notice
that they would have differences within them for example;
 Night / day
 Good / bad
 Dark / light
 Male / female

THINK OF OPPOSITES IN A VARIETY OF GENRES
AND GIVE EXAMPLES FROM FILMS

ACTION ….

Film Hero Villain Explanation
Spider man Spider man saving MJ Destroys the City spider man saves
innocent people that
have been the victim
and the green goblin
would destroy the city


SI-FI ….

Film innocence Violation Explanation
Hunger games The people in the district He was the one that made People have been
mainly Katniss and Peeta it up and sacrificing forced to go try and
peoples lives
stay the first one
surviving, and the
violation comes from
the person who made
this up


Thriller ….

Film human supernatural Explanation

Paranormal Katie and Micah are The demon is There were normal
normal human beings supernatural his shadow people and
activity on the door you cannot
supernatural, where
see him
Micah and Katie are
humans and the
supernatural is the
demon

BARTHES
 His theory is similar to Todorov’s however Barthes theory talks about how the
audience should experience anticipation and expectation of the conflict that has
been happening in the film, and how the audience should seek answers and
clues
 We would identify them by ‘codes’
 Enigma code
 Action code
 Semantic code
 Symbolic code
 Cultural code

ENIGMA CODE
 At the beginning of 4321. it starts of with one of the girls wanting to jump of a
bridge.
 This then creates a mystery and raises questions to the audience to why this girl
wants to commit suicide.

ACTION CODE
 In spider man, he would save MJ a lot
 These Behaviour and actions would then lead the audience to expect certain
consequences.

SEMANTIC CODE
 Connotative meanings of characters, objects etc.. however I'm choosing colour
and different colours would mean/represent different things. It would depend on
the situation/location etc.
 The colour black would have different meanings such as:

Evilness Death Thrill

SYMBOLIC CODE
 When a man gives a girl a rose. That rose would symbolise love.
 This would show symbolic features would often signify oppositions and
antitheses, and the purpose of that object/item.
 Valentines day movie

CULTURAL CODE
 Romeo and Juliet was written years ago, therefore they wouldn’t have the same
adaption as they did to modern adaptions
 When created as a film they have changed the story to adapt it to modern time
rather than leaving it from years ago
 For example in the book they haven't mentioned the swimming pool, but when
adapted to modern they have as now our days people would have swimming
pools in their house if they could.

Made years Made in our
ago, as they days, more
would meet modern as
up at the they are in the
balcony swimming pool

PROPP
 Studies folklore, fairy tales and legends in many countries and noticed many
similarities In them, for example they would have the same problems etc.
 One of his theory’s is about the 7 distinctive character which is called – ‘Spheres
of action’
 Hero
 Villain
 Dispatcher
 Donor
 Helper
 Heroine
 False hero

HERO
 The hero would restore the disequilibrium this would be done by defeating the
villain.
 For example in spider man, spider man would defeat the green goblin and save
people

DISPATCHER
 This would encourage the hero to start his way and to show people who he really
is.
 In spider man, Peter’s uncle ben inspired him.

VILLAIN
 The villain would cause disruption, he would try and kill the hero because
normally the hero would ruin the villains plans of doing something.
 For example in spider man the green goblin would be the villain as he would try
and destroy the city.

DONOR
 Helps the hero, this might be by giving them advice or train them etc.
 For example in hunger game Haymitch would help Katniss win the game by
surviving.

HELPER
 The helper would assist the hero, the helper would help the hero save and defeat
the evil.
 For example in hunger games rue would help katniss by telling her about the bee
hive. And helped her when she was stung.

FALSE HERO
 a false hero would start as being a hero then changed his/her mind.
 They can pretend that there a hero trying to get closer to a person to get what
they wanted and when they did they would then turn their backs on them.
 For example Madagascar, when the lions uncle tricks him on picking the
strongest lion to defeat him so he can be the ruler.

HEROIN
 A heroine would be known to be a princess , the princess would normally be
threatened by the villain and needs to be rescued. And can only be rescued by
the hero. That would be the only way where the villain can defeat the hero by
using the heroin.
 For example in spider man the green goblin would take MJ so he can defeat
Spiderman.

DIEGESIS
 The world that the characters would live in. the story that the characters
themselves experience and encounter.
 Where they would interact with the camera because that when they would break
it as now they would have a relationship with the audience.
 For example Disney films such as Cinderella, and how they would live in the world
of that film.

NARRATIVE RANGE
 Unrestricted narration:
 That’s when the film would give all the information that would be represented,
where they would give as much information as possible
 Where they wouldn’t be hiding any pieces of information
 For example in the film hunger games, they would show us what he sponsors
would say on the paper so they wouldn’t be hiding anything from the audience
 This would mean that the audience would know what they wee given.

NARRATIVE RANGE
 Restricted narration:
 Only would offer a little of information, they wouldn’t give all the information
 This would then create tension and questions to the audience wanting to know
that piece of information that isn't given to the audience

ALLAN CAMERON

Modular narratives
 Forking path
 Episodic
 Anachronic
 Split screen

FORKING PATH
 Forking path is when having two scenes it one
 It’s the story which can show the possible outcomes that might result from small
changes in a single event.
 This would introduce a number of plotlines that usually contradict from another
 For example the film called ‘the sliding doors’
This film would have the story of having two possible outcomes of a woman
happening to her life when she finds out that her boyfriend is cheating on her and
what would happen to her if she didn’t find out.

EPISODIC
 Abstract
 This is a formal system which appears to dictate the organization of narrative
elements. (e.g. numbers)

 Anthology
 Different short series that are unrelated but share a random similarity (e.g. all
weddings having a gypsy wedding dress)

ANACHRONIC
 This would have flashbacks or flash-forwards
 This would have no clear dominance between any of the narrative threads
 This also means when a story shows different scenes happening on the same day
and on the same hour and what has happened to each of the characters between
those timings and at the end they would join together
 For example 4321, this is because they would show different story’s that has
happened to the characters on the same time of the day and meet up at the end.

SPLIT SCREEN
 This is when the screen would be split into two showing two different scenes or
two different characters doing something at the same time of the day.
 The screen can be split into two or more frames showing all of those frames on
the screen
 For example the film mean girls it would split the screen to 4 frames showing all
the 4 girls having a conversation this would be done to show their facial
expression or what doing when having a conversation.

Assignment 8

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Assignment 8