Vladimir Propp Continued

In addition to the way the narrative is layed out for the audience, specific stock characters are almost always represented in the tale. 

If we take the 'Lord of the Rings' triology as an example.

The Hero: 

 The hero is the character that is tasked with a great burden and adventure that they   must undergo in order to reach an equilibrium, in this case the hero would be 'Frodo Baggins'.

The Villain:

The villain is the main antagonist of the narrative that makes a personal vendetta against the hero and all who oppose them, using whatever powers they have to do so, in this case the villain would be 'Sauron'.

The Donor:

The Donor is the character who helps the hero by either providing the hero with a magical item to help them on their quest, now there are many in the 'Lord of the Rings' triology but the main character that helps the hero throughout his journey would be 'Gandalf'.

The Dispatcher:

The Dispatcher is the person that presents the hero with a task to undergo, and sends them on their way to the destination. For this role, the character 'Elrond' would be considered.

The False Hero:

The false hero is someone who either falsely assumes the role of the hero in the narrative, or alternatively is the character who people could percieve to be the hero of the story when in fact they are not, for example we believe Aragorn to be the hero in the narrative for all the good he does.

The Helper:

The helper provides constant support for the hero throughout the narrative and never gives up on them, providing moral support and boosts that strengthen our hero, in this case 'Sam'.

The Princess:

The princess is the reward for the hero, a trophy and symbol for the triumph over the villain, and presented to the hero at the equilibrium and resolution of the narrative, in this case the hero does not have a princess to claim, but instead the secondary/false hero gets his princess 'Arwen'.

The Father:

The father is of the princess and ususally has a strong dissaproval to the person trying to win her heart, 'Elrond'.

Vladimir Propp - Theory

The theorist Vladimir Propp had a fascination with the way that, that the narratives of folk tales were told, and identified these thirty one characterics/conventions of folk tales that can be applied to films.

1. A member of a family leaves home (the hero is introduced as a unique person, whose needs may not be met by remaining)
2. An interdiction (a command NOT to do something e.g.'don't go there', 'go to this place'), is addressed to the hero.
3. The hero ignores the interdiction.
4. The villain appears and (either villain tries to find the wanted item, or intended victim encounters the villain).
5. The villain gains information about the victim.
6. The villain attempts to deceive the victim to take possession of victim or victim's belongings.
7. The victim is fooled by the villain, unwittingly helps the enemy.
8. Villain causes harm/injury to family member (by abduction, theft of magical item, spoiling crops, causes a disappearance, expels someone, casts spell on someone,  commits murder, imprisons/detains someone, threatens forced marriage, provides nightly torments). 
9. Misfortune or lack is made known, (hero is dispatched, hears call for help alternative is that victimised hero is sent away, freed from imprisonment).
10. Seeker agrees to, or decides upon counter-action.
11. Hero leaves home.
12. Hero is tested, interrogated, attacked etc, preparing the way for his/her receiving magical helper (donor).
13. Hero reacts to actions of future donor (withstands/fails the test).
14. Hero acquires use of a magical item (it's directly transferred, or offered by other characters).
15. Hero is led to the whereabouts of an object they have been searching for.
16. Hero and villain fight in direct combat.
17. Hero is branded (wounded).
18. Villain is defeated (killed in combat, defeated in contest).
19. Initial misfortune or lack is resolved (object of search distributed, spell broken, slain person revived, captive freed).
20. Hero returns.
21. Hero is pursued (pursuer tries to kill, eat or undermine the hero).
22. Hero is rescued from pursuit (obstacles delay pursuer, hero hides or is hidden).
23. Hero unrecognised, arrives home or in another land.
24. False hero presents unfounded claims.
25. Difficult task proposed to the hero (trial by endurance and will)
26. Task is resolved.
27. Hero is recognised (by mark, brand, or thing given to him/her);
28. False hero or villain is exposed.
29. Hero is given a new appearance (is made whole, handsome)
30. The villain is punished.
31. The hero marries and ascends the throne.

Influential film extracts 

These following clips of feature films are to reflect the same style of editing techniques, camera shots and also content presented by the protagonist and antagonist when it comes to making my short film.

From this clip the influence of the antagonist being histerical and toying with the protagonist throughout, provoking the anger within is a powerful idea I hope to be able to present in the narrative and eventually lead to a violent confrontation.

From this clip we can deduce the concept of the antagonist being almost as a mentor teaching and progressing the narrative.

Short film analysis

The reason this film has been selected for analysis is due to its depiction of isolation in those with mental illness. The central character is on his own and placed in a dark uncomfortable environment for the film; the colour scheme in this film is also highly saturated of colour, leaving it with a dark and depressing vibe. The reason this short film links towards my own production is because I would like to use the same style of colour used and create the same environment and atmosphere of isolation.

Target audience for films I have viewed

The films I have viewed revolve largely around a central character that is isolated from the rest of the world, and are internally tormented for the way they are and also by others around them. The main theme of these films is of a mental illness which causes termoil in that individuals life, which relates strongly to my own short film idea. So the main audience for the films I have viewed can be from any social group seeing as mental illness does not discriminated between those it affects; furthermore the films are more appropriate for those that know of someone close to them that suffers from mental illness.

These videos help for people to identify different characteristics in to look out for in the people they know and help relate to what a person can be suffering from. Also people who actually suffer from a mental illness are the audience for these short films because they themselves can see that others around either suffer also, or are doing something to raise awareness for mental illness and trying to remove the stigma from it.

Rick Altman's Theory - Syntactic Approaches

Syntactics are more concerned with the realtions between the elements and structures of narritives in genres. For example romantic comedies all follow the exact same sequence of events in the structure of their narrative; characters that are binary opposites of one another meet by unexpected chance and instantly clash, these interactions and meetings continue to happen for the first thirty minutes, and they then are drawn to one another either by a sad event occuring to one of the character's or the sexual tensions ends and they come together. From this point one of the characters will do something to portray the other, they will fall out of love and then the other performs a romantic act to win back the love. If a genre doesn't follow the structure they are supposed to such as in romantic comedies individuals in the audience will be confused and disreguard the product.

Rick Altman's Theory - Semantic approaches

The semantic approach to to film is the idea of generic conventions. The audience expect when they watch a product such as a film or television show certain conventions have to be placed into it, for example we expect to see in the genre stock characters such as the vulnerable blonde woman, and a large either masculine murderer or ominous and enigmatic spirits at work; the sound effects are set to be very sharp pitched sounds that are loud and build up the tension just as much as the actual footage, we expect to see if the antagonist in the product is human a melee type weapon such as a knife, and in terms of location and shooting styles we expect many close up shots to create a trapped atmosphere and they tend to be set in abandoned environments. Without these conventions the audience would not consider the film to be the genre it claims to be and therefore be confused by what they were actually viewing.