Narrative theories in AS Thrillier

Narrative Theories – AS Thriller.

For the thriller we did for our AS, it was important that we established narrative theories. There are 4 main narrative theories, Todorov, Propp, Barthes and Levi – Strauss.

Todorov

Todorovs theory suggested that there are many parts to a story line, and that every story goes through the basic stages of Equilibrium, Dis-equilibrium, Realisation, Attempt to restore /resolve, resolution, re-equilibrium. For our thriller, we established equilibrium by him getting up in the morning and carrying out regular daily tasks, such as eating breakfast, doing his teeth etc. this quickly moved into dis-equilibrium when a strange letter came through his front door. Realisation was relatively quick to happen as he opens the letter and sees the code on the back and then ‘realises’ he’d been pulled into a scam or abnormal situation. Attempts of resolution, as our thriller was only the first 3 minutes, this would be further in the film. however because of the planning and storyboarding we know that in attempt to resolve he would take the photos into work and he tries to find a reason for the code. Resolution occurs when he then found that his boss is the villain and the hostage is saved by the wife and they get together against the boss. Re-equilibrium is then established as he can then go back to his normal life and is then promoted and so the balance is re-established, and he can go back to his normal life.

Propp

Propp’s theory gave the idea that each story has a villain, a dispatcher, a helper, a prize, a donor, a seeker hero and a false hero. In our thriller we had some clear roles, for example the use of the hostage as the villain, a dispatcher, who was the person who posted the letter, a prize – of freeing the hostage and ‘helping’ his boss, a donor, when he goes to the office his boss provides him with a way of helping.  The seeker hero is the main character who seeks to free the hostage and move up in his company and on with his life, and the false hero, who is the boss. Incidentally the helper is also the boss, often occurring when roles mix and so the false helper and heroes aid the main character but also want to cause trouble.

Barthes

He proposed 5 different codes.

            The enigma code – a narrative device used to play on the audience by hiding some information. It enforces tension and suspense. This is used by 3 techniques.

·       Snares: deliberately avoiding the truth.

·       Equivocations: partial or incomplete answers.

·       Jammings: openly acknowledge that there is no answer to a problem.

            The Proairetic code – This is also used to build tension, referring to any other event that will cause problems and indicates that something is going to happen.

            The semiotic code – This refers to connotations within the story. The use of motifs, signs and symbols influences what the audience can associate with what they see. It gives additional meaning to what they actually see in front of them.

            The symbolic code – this is a lot like the semiotic code, however incorporate the use of paradoxes and oppositions. For example the conflict between a young girl and an elderly man could show the struggle between life and death. It focuses on paradoxes and antitheses (direct opposites)

The cultural code – this is dependent upon the shared knowledge of the world or a particular culture. The audience can recognize certain things as being part of a particular culture.

In our thriller we used all of the codes, using the enigma code and the proairetic code to build tension, not telling the audience where the letter had come from or who it was from or what the code meant. The flashes of the hostage created more tension and kept the audience questioning. We used the semiotic code and symbolic code when choosing props and setting. For example we decided bran flakes would be the best cereal, the books and pens on the table etc. in order to truly show his character.

Levi Strauss

In our thriller we used binary opposition between male and female, as the main character and ‘hero’ was male and the hostage was a female or ‘villain.’ This conforms to the usual stereotypes on men being weaker than women, and the opposition is apparent. We also used binary opposition between light and dark, shooting some hostage scenes in black and white and using lighting to show characters having a ‘dark’ side or another side t their personality.

Ellie