Vladimir Propp sequence of events

I found this on Wikipedia, now as Patrick has drafted (at the moment) the Character theory, I thought I would expand on the research. To the sequence of events what happens in films.

1.ABSENTATION: A member of a family leaves the security of the home environment. This may be the hero or some other member of the family that the hero will later need to rescue. This division of the cohesive family injects initial tension into the storyline. The hero may also be introduced here, often being shown as an ordinary person.


2.INTERDICTION: An interdiction is addressed to the hero ('don't go there', 'don't do this'). The hero is warned against some action (given an 'interdiction').

3.VIOLATION of INTERDICTION. The interdiction is violated (villain enters the tale). This generally proves to be a bad move and the villain enters the story, although not necessarily confronting the hero. Perhaps they are just a lurking presence or perhaps they attack the family whilst the hero is away.

4.RECONNAISSANCE: The villain makes an attempt at reconnaissance (either villain tries to find the children/jewels etc.; or intended victim questions the villain). The villain (often in disguise) makes an active attempt at seeking information, for example searching for something valuable or trying to actively capture someone. They may speak with a member of the family who innocently divulges information. They may also seek to meet the hero, perhaps knowing already the hero is special in some way.

5.DELIVERY: The villain gains information about the victim. The villain's seeking now pays off and he or she now acquires some form of information, often about the hero or victim. Other information can be gained, for example about a map or treasure location.

6.TRICKERY: The villain attempts to deceive the victim to take possession of victim or victim's belongings (trickery; villain disguised, tries to win confidence of victim). The villain now presses further, often using the information gained in seeking to deceive the hero or victim in some way, perhaps appearing in disguise. This may include capture of the victim, getting the hero to give the villain something or persuading them that the villain is actually a friend and thereby gaining collaboration.

7.COMPLICITY: Victim taken in by deception, unwittingly helping the enemy. The trickery of the villain now works and the hero or victim naively acts in a way that helps the villain. This may range from providing the villain with something (perhaps a map or magical weapon) to actively working against good people (perhaps the villain has persuaded the hero that these other people are actually bad).

8.VILLAINY or LACK: Villain causes harm/injury to family member (by abduction, theft of magical agent, spoiling crops, plunders in other forms, causes a disappearance, expels someone, casts spell on someone, substitutes child etc., comits murder, imprisons/detains someone, threatens forced marriage, provides nightly torments); Alternatively, a member of family lacks something or desires something (magical potion etc.). There are two options for this function, either or both of which may appear in the story. In the first option, the villain causes some kind of harm, for example carrying away a victim or the desired magical object (which must be then be retrieved). In the second option, a sense of lack is identified, for example in the hero's family or within a community, whereby something is identified as lost or something becomes desirable for some reason, for example a magical object that will save people in some way.

9.MEDIATION: Misfortune or lack is made known, (hero is dispatched, hears call for help etc./ alternative is that victimized hero is sent away, freed from imprisonment). The hero now discovers the act of villainy or lack, perhaps finding their family or community devastated or caught up in a state of anguish and woe.

10.BEGINNING COUNTER-ACTION: Seeker agrees to, or decides upon counter-action. The hero now decides to act in a way that will resolve the lack, for example finding a needed magical item, rescuing those who are captured or otherwise defeating the villain. This is a defining moment for the hero as this is the decision that sets the course of future actions and by which a previously ordinary person takes on the mantle of heroism.

11.DEPARTURE: Hero leaves home;

12.FIRST FUNCTION OF THE DONOR: Hero is tested, interrogated, attacked etc., preparing the way for his/her receiving magical agent or helper (donor);

13.HERO'S REACTION: Hero reacts to actions of future donor (withstands/fails the test, frees captive, reconciles disputants, performs service, uses adversary's powers against him);

14.RECEIPT OF A MAGICAL AGENT: Hero acquires use of a magical agent (directly transferred, located, purchased, prepared, spontaneously appears, eaten/drunk, help offered by other characters);

15.GUIDANCE: Hero is transferred, delivered or led to whereabouts of an object of the search;

16.STRUGGLE: Hero and villain join in direct combat;

17.BRANDING: Hero is branded (wounded/marked, receives ring or scarf);

18.VICTORY: Villain is defeated (killed in combat, defeated in contest, killed while asleep, banished);

19.LIQUIDATION: Initial misfortune or lack is resolved (object of search distributed, spell broken, slain person revived, captive freed);

20.RETURN: Hero returns;

21.PURSUIT: Hero is pursued (pursuer tries to kill, eat, undermine the hero);

22.RESCUE: Hero is rescued from pursuit (obstacles delay pursuer, hero hides or is hidden, hero transforms unrecognisably, hero saved from attempt on his/her life);

23.UNRECOGNIZED ARRIVAL: Hero unrecognized, arrives home or in another country;

24.UNFOUNDED CLAIMS: False hero presents unfounded claims;

25.DIFFICULT TASK: Difficult task proposed to the hero (trial by ordeal, riddles, test of strength/endurance, other tasks);

26.SOLUTION: Task is resolved;

27.RECOGNITION: Hero is recognized (by mark, brand, or thing given to him/her);

28.EXPOSURE: False hero or villain is exposed;

29.TRANSFIGURATION: Hero is given a new appearance (is made whole, handsome, new garments etc.);

30.PUNISHMENT: Villain is punished;

31.WEDDING: Hero marries and ascends the throne (is rewarded/promoted).#
 

5ft 7 - MS

Roland Barthes

Another theorist I have been looking at is Roland Barthes. He studied the meanings behind signs and what different signs could signify. For our project we could think about the main signs we are using and think about the signifiers they have. At the moment the key signs we have in our film are the "bomb" and "money".

The main signifiers behind a bomb are:

- Explosions that can kill mass amounts of people
- Terrorists often use them
- They are made using lots of different chemicals
- Homemade boms
- Revenge
- Coloured wires

The main signifiers behind money are:

- Greed
- Power
- Status
- Recession
- Luxury lifestyle
- Stockmarket

PG

Eisenstein - argued that montage was the essence of the cinema

Eisenstein was a pioneer in the use of montage, a specific use of film editing. He and his contemporary, Lev Kuleshov, two of the earliest film theorists, argued that montage was the essence of the cinema. His articles and books — particularly Film Form and The Film Sense — explain the significance of montage in detail.

His writings and films have continued to have a major impact on subsequent filmmakers. Eisenstein believed that editing could be used for more than just expounding a scene or moment, through a "linkage" of related images. Eisenstein felt the "collision" of shots could be used to manipulate the emotions of the audience and create film metaphors. He believed that an idea should be derived from the juxtaposition of two independent shots, bringing an element of collage into film. He developed what he called "methods of montage":

1.Metric
2.Rhythmic
3.Tonal
4.Overtonal
5.Intellectual

I also found this PDF document explaining further, but there are quite a few pages too look through, from what I read seems quite interesting.
http://cla.calpoly.edu/~dgillett/ENGL_411/pdf/DP_Chapter_2_selection_I.pdf

User MS

Vladimir Propp

We could try to use Propps character theory when we are creating our media text. It might be easier to incorporate his theory into the whole story behind the film rather than necessarily trying to fit all the characters into the teaser trailer.

Propps theory says there were 7 broad character types in the 100 tales he analysed, these were:

1) The Villain - The person who struggles against the hero

2) The Donor - The person who prepares the hero

3) The Helper - The person who helps the hero in the quest

4) The Princess or Prize - The person the hero marries often marries the princess as an award for beating the villain.

5) Her Father - The person who gives the task to the hero

6) The Dispatcher - The person who sends the hero off

7) The Hero or Victim - The person who reacts to the donor and goes on the quest

8) The False hero - The person who tries to take credit for the hero’s actions or tries to marry the princess

As we start to produce our teaser trailer we are going to need to think about how we are going to portray the characters. For example the bomber would usually be shown as the villain but we could put him in the position of being the hero by making the audience side his/her beliefs.

PG

Stuart Hall

After seeing Matty's earlier post about theorists I remembered my teacher (Mr Wroe) mentioning Stuart Hall in one of our previous lessons. I looked up his work and found that he was one of the main theorists to come up with the idea of "reception theory".

His Reception Theory is about how different readers interpret texts in different ways due to their cultural backgrounds and life experiences.

Hall also developed his own theory ("Hall's Theory") of encoding and decoding. This stated that audiences have 3 different reactions to a media text

1)Dominant/Preferred Reading - How the director/creator wants the audience to view the media text

2)Opposition Reading - When the audience rejects the preferred reading and creates their own reading of the text

3)Negotiated Reading - A compromise between the dominant and the opposition readings, where the audience accepts the directors views but has their own views aswell

We cannot incorporate this theory into the building of our teaser, though we can analyse our text afterwards and see how people react to it.

PG

Breif Media theories

Ok when researching for theories, I came across www.alevelmedia.co.uk. Which had a breif  discription of media theories. However not all of them are to  do with film. So here is a breif outline of them, in further posts I will expand in more detail the relevant theories.

Coates - Examined that there are 4 ways to understand a society (linked to ideology)

Cohen, S - Coined the term moral panic in 1972 - Media was often seen as the trigger for a decline in moral standards in society

Corner, John - Examined the process of realism within media texts

Defleur - Development of the hypodermic needle effect - he stated that it was dependent on the psychology of the individual (psychodynamic)

Dutton - Developed an extension of Galtung & Ruge's news values - 12 most significant

Eisenstein - Developed the form of film with his use of montage

Fiske - Stated that there are 5 factors that determine the social position of an audience

Galtung & Ruge - Process of gate keeping and news values - to define how editorial choices are made

Gauntlett - He challenged the effects model on audiences and has investigated the impact of web 2.0 on identity and audiences. Media Studies 2.0

Gillmor - The notion of audience revolution in the construction of their own media products (we media)

Gramsci - That dominant ideologies can change over time, moving away from heritage and tradition if enough audiences/groups enforce their own discourse (we media)

Grossman - Examined the effect of video games on audiences

Hall, Stuart - Mediation is the process by which all media products are read by audiences. Theories of representation linked to encoding and decoding. Types of readings

Hartley, John -The idea that there is a 360 degree consumption. Saturation of the media for modern audiences. An advocate for media literacy. 7 Factors can affect audience interpretation of a text.

Kaplan - Feminism - defined women as a distinct group in two approaches - essentialist approach and anti-essentialist approach (women constructed by male society)

Kutner & Olsen - Conducted research into the effects of video

Leiss, Kline & Jhally - Developed 4 formats for advertising

Lyotard, JF - Developed concept of postmodernism - Media texts are self aware, independent from modernism and able to pick and mix meaning from real life and vice versa.

Marshall - Examined the changing relationship between games and movies (2004)

Marxist - The idea that Media and mass communication supports the ruling class/governments by reinforcing their ideology. Ideals and cultures can be enforced upon the masses.

Maslow - Created a hierarchy of needs (pyramid with 5 descriptors originally although developed), useful when examing advertising.

Mayers, R - Author of Robohog and shameless promoter of his work on his own websites, including this one.

McLennon - Developed theory of ideology and that 3 conditions needed to be present.

McQuail - examined models of communication - including modes through the media and how processes have changed. Developed models of society out of Marxist theory. Claimed there are 4 methods for measuring audiences.

McShane - Highlighted 5 points/methods that journalists follow

Meehan - Study of feminist representation in the 1970s - useful to contrast to modern day studies.

Morley - Stated that the position and interpellation of media groups affects how texts are decoded

Mulvey -Feminist Theory - the concept of women as objects in media and men as subjects. Contested in some modern films/adverts of today

Neale - Identified genres by their use of audience expectations and common conventions

O'Brien, W - Conducted a study into the development of 3rd generation gaming through historical commentary

Parkin - Examined audience positioning when looking at readings of media texts - dominant, negotiated, oppositional.

Perkins - Representation - Gave argument that the use of stereotypes can be good, that stereotypes can change and even be positive (1979)

Propp, V - Examined the importance of character within narrative after studying classic folk tales - 32 character profiles

Saussure - Concept of semiotics and language (linguistics) 1974 - the extended connotations of within a cultural system

Tapscott & Williams - Linked Web 2.0 to a new strand of economics (wikinomics, 2006)

Todorov, T - Identified 5 stages of narrative/story and the notion that plots have a circular narrative. Equilibrium and Disequilibrium. (film)

Tudor -Defined and categorised the types of montage used by Eisenstein

Williams - Identified 3 core characteristics in Drama and also categorised 9 forms of the TV programme.

Researcher MS