Todorov's narrative theory

Todorov in 1969 produced a theory which he believed to be able to be applied to any film. He believed that all films followed the same narrative pattern. They all went through stages called the equilibrium, disequilibrium, acknowledgement, solving and again equilibrium.

There are five stages the narrative can progress through:

1. A state of equilibrium (All is as it should be.)

2. A disruption of that order by an event.

3. A recognition that the disorder has occurred.

4. An attempt to repair the damage of the disruption.

5. A return or restoration of a NEW equilibrium

 

A film that follow these steps perfectly is Die Hard.

1. Bruce Willis is coming home to his family for Christmas and all is calm. (The equilibrium)

2. Alan Rickman and his team of terrorists take over the nakatomi building which is hosting a Christmas part of which McClane and his wife are attending.

3. (2 points of recognition) McClane isn't in the room when the terrorsits storm in so is able to move up the builiding when he hears screaming. People outside of the building realise there's a disruption when a police man's car is shot at from the building.

4. The police try sending in a SWAT team in which fails. The situation is solved by John McClane throwing Gruber out of a high floor window which kills him.

5. The equilibrium is restored when the police got McClane, his wife and the other hostages out of the building, and the McClanes leave in a police car.

On the other hand, you can't apply the theory to all films.

for example 'the fight club' does not follow Todorov theory.

 

narrative task

mini music video

Review of task

I think this task has benifited me hugely as i worked independantly on the project  using other peoples footage was something i struggled with and found really difficult  therefore finding it hard to  cut up the clips and sync he music. But now i am alot more confident with doing those tasks although before i had a basic understanding of how to use adobe premiere pro, i have now developed my tecnhiques to a higher level. And now feel alot more confident when i will  make and edit my own music video.

Carol vernallis theory

Carol vernallis main points are that:

Editing in traditional fiction on tv follows the rules of continuity which music videos break in order to draw the viewers attention.

Special effects such as wipes and transition are common in music videos and can be really obvious to observer when used.

The short time limit of music videos means that the jump cuts keep the narrative of the video quick and short but still interesting, for this reason jump cuts are very popular within music videos.

Master shots are used to give the video structure.