1. The Villain who struggles against the hero.
2. The Donor who prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object.
3. The Helper which helps the hero in the quest.
4. Princess and the Father- gives the task to the hero, identifies the false hero and marries the hero. (can be difficult to distinguish)
5. The Dispatcher, a character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off.
6. The Hero or victim/seeker hero- weds the princess
7. False Hero- takes credit for the hero's actions and tries to marry the princess.
Laura plays the character of the lost little boy who tries to scare the two girls, Imogen and Sophie.
Imogen and Sophie act as the Princess acts from Vladimirs character types as they are seen as vunerable, weak and need saving. However, these character types are fairly vague and are more siutable to a fairytale story. I don't think all these character types are always found within the horror genre and some characters may be missing. The hero is not always present and doesn't always rescue the princess or fights the villain. For example, in super natural horrors the villain isnt always shown or ever seen by the audience espeically in films such as Paranormal Activity.
Tzvetan Todorov's Narrative Theory
Todorov propsed that all narratives whether that is a book, play or film contain these five fundamental stages in this order:
1. A state of equilibrium- when everything is as it should be in a state of equal balance.
2. A disruption of that order by an event- (disequilibrium)
3. A recognition that the disorder has occured
4. An attempt to repair the damage of the distuption
5. A return or restoration of the new equilibrium.
In these stages, narrative is not seen as a linear structure but a circular one. Todorov argues that the narrative invovles a transformation. The characters or the situations are transformed through the progress of the disruption.
In my film the two best friends, Imogen and Sophie are living a normal lifestyle until their car breaks down creating stage two of Todorov's narrative theory. The car breaking down creates disruption and this is when disorder occurs. When the two girls head off to find help and end up venturing into a haunted house. This is the stage 3 in the theory were the disorder is recongised. Number 4 and 5 stages of the theory aren't shown in my trailer as this would give away too much of the storyline and spoil the film itself.
Roland Barthes Codes Theory
Barthes describes a text as, "a galaxy of signifiers, not a structure of signifieds; it has no beginning; it is reversible; we gain access to it by several entraces, none of which can be authoritativley declared to be the main one..."
However, what Roland Barthes is trying to say is that the text is like a tangled ball of string. The string and the string needs to be unravelled. Once the string is unravelled, we encounter an absolute wide range of potential meanings. We can start by looking at a narrative in one way, from one viewpoint, one set of previous experience and create one meaning for that text. You can continue unravelling the narrative and create an entirely different meaning.
Barthes stated that texts can be 'open' or 'closed.'
Roland Barthes narrowed down the action of a text in to five different codes:
1.The Hermeneutic Code- This is the way in which a story avoids telling the truth or revealing all the facts, in order to drop clues to help create mystery. My film trailer does this well as I don't reveal the whole truth behind why the little boy has been left in the abandoned house or as to what he does the the vunerable girls. This then creates mystery to the storyline and opens up unanswered questions.
2.The Enigma Code- This code is the way that tension is built up and the audience is left guessing what will happen next. This is a very important code when it comes to horror genres as you want to keep the audience intriguied and excited as to whats happening. Especially in a trailer, the Enigma code is vital in keeping the audiences attention. I think I have done this well by creating a fast pace editing and intriguing sounds, when all placed together create a strong sense of tension.
3.The Semantic Code- The semantic code points to any element in a text that suggests a particular, often additional meaning by way of connotation which the story suggests. For example, my isolated area where the film takes place, straight away is associated with the horror theme as this gives the charatcers no where to run and allows the action to increase in one specific area. An isolated location indicates that no one is around to help them which in turn creates more chances for actions to go wrong. Also, the lighting can connotate what film genre it will be. Low key lighting is extremly stereotypical for a horor film as the connction between dark and the unknown makes the audience aware that the following actions won't be good.
4. The Cultural Code- The Cultural Code looks at the audiences wider cultural knowledge, morality and ideology. In other words, the cultural codes tend to point out our shared knowledge about the way in which the world works. For example, automatically we begin to feel worried for the two girls because in society girls are seen as the weaker gender and therefore more vunerable. This is why when I first started filming with both the boy characters and girl characters I felt the horror theme was not as strong. Whereas without the boys the girls seemed more vunerable and unprotected.
5.The Symbolic Code- This code is quite similar to the Semantic Code, however acts at a wider level, organizing semantic meanings into broader and deeper sets of meaings. This code is more about the symbolism within the text. It usually utilies the opposites to show contrast and create greater meaning. For example, in my trailer the clothing and appearance of the two girls is the complete opposite of the scary character. The girls look clean and well dressed whereas the little boy looks dirty and unkept.
Claude Levi Strauss
Claude Levi Strauss studied many myths and legends from all round the world. After looking and analysing these he found out that we as humans make sense of the world by seeing and using binary opposites. He discovered that narratives are arranged around the conflict of binary opposites.
Good vs Evil
Black vs White
Boy vs Girl
Protagonist vs Antagonist
Peace vs War
Young vs Old
Strong vs Weak
I think this theory is very strong because after looking back at the trailers and films I researched all of them follow this theory. My trailer also follows this theory as I have the good characters who are the two girls and the bad character of the little boy. I also have the opposites of clean and dirty, strong vs weak, the girls are clean and freshly dressed however are protrayed as weak whereas the boy is dirty and unkept ans seen to be strong.
