Vladimir propp's character types
- 2. Vladimir Propp based his theory on traditional folk tales and determined that there are eight character types in a narrative. These heavily influenced Hollywood so are really clear in films but I wanted to see if they were present in music videos.
- 3. THE CHARACTER TYPES • The Villain – fights the hero. • The Hero/Victim – Reacts to donor, fights the villain, weds the princess. • The False Hero – Takes credit for the hero’s actions or attempts to wed the princess. • The Donor – Donates an object (usually magical) to assist the hero and prepares the hero to fight the villain. • The Dispatcher – Character who makes the villain’s evil known and sends the hero off for battle. • The (Magical) Helper – Helps the hero in the quest. • The Princess/Prize – The hero deserves her/it throughout but evil (conventionally from the villain) prevents this. Success is usually signified by the marriage/acceptance of the princess/prize, thus overcoming evil and the villain and achieving ‘Happily Ever After’. • The Princess’ Father – Gives the task to the hero, identifies the false hero and awards the princess/prize.
- 4. THE CHARACTER TYPES IN SINGER/SONGWRITER MUSIC VIDEOS I started with looking at Taylor Swift’s You Belong With Me a narrative video following a high school love story. Taylor Swift is the princess in this video, conventionally pretty and awarded to the hero at the end. The boy’s girlfriend is perceived as the villain as she prevents Swift and her boyfriend from being an ‘item’. The boy is the hero and fights the villain to be awarded with the princess. Although they do not wed at the end, the kiss is just as significant for the age group of high school students and the demographic (pre-teens/teens) that the music video is aimed at. Although these were the only characters in the music video, therefore resulting in only three out of eight character types being used.
- 5. THE CHARACTER TYPES IN SINGER/SONGWRITER MUSIC VIDEOS Looking at Kodaline’s All I Want (Part One and Two) There is a similar character structure to Taylor Swift. The deformed male is the hero, the (conventionally) blonde is the princess, the co-workers/bullies are the villains and the dog is the helper (as it keeps the hero happy and encourages the hero to carry on despite the villains actions). Again there is no wedding but there is a sense of unity at the end, the princess is no longer scared of the hero and befriends him. The sense of friendship and the possibility of love satisfies the viewer and is the equivalent to a marriage. Again there is such a small amount of characters within the narrative that there are only four character types of Propp’s theory used.
- 6. THE CHARACTER TYPES IN SINGER/SONGWRITER MUSIC VIDEOS Finally I looked at Animal by Neon Trees. It depicts a story of where the band reinvent traditional bland pieces of art. There is intertextuality with famous pieces of art being referenced (such as Pollock) which relies on the audiences cultural capital to understand the reference. The band acts as a hero or false hero as they could be ‘saving’ art or ‘destroying’ it. The exhibition visitors could also be see either as the victims or the heroes. This depends on the viewpoint of the audience therefore the video is polysemic and the character types vary depending on who you are.
- 7. CONCLUSION Overall there are really simple character types in narrative videos for the singer/songwriter genre. They conform to Propp’s character types but to keep it simple they only use about 3-4 due to the small amount of time they have to convey a story. For this reason I will consider the amount of characters and plot line of my music video to prevent confusing the viewer.