Narrative theory studies the devices and conventions overriding the organisation of a story (fictional or factual) into a sequence.

Vladmir PROPP.

A russian critic. Propp looked at 100s of folk tales and identified 8 character roles and 31 narrative functions.

The 8 character roles are  1. The villain 2. The hero 3. The donor – who provides an object with some magic property. 4. The helper who aids the hero. 5. The princess – reward for the hero and object of the villain’s schemes. 6. Her father – who rewards the hero. 7. The dispatcher – who sends the hero on his way. 8. The false hero (who seems to be the hero at the beginning but then realise that they aren’t).

The character roles and the functions identified by Propp can be applied to all kinds of narrative. In TV news programmes we are often presented with ‘heroes’ and ‘villains’. Such as in children’s fairy tales there are normally heroes, villains, princesses etc – the best story that develops this idea is probably Enchanted (which was a film brought out later than Snow White and many more children’s Disney films - more updated) because it has all of the conventions of what PROPP has portrayed.

My trailer challenges the forms and conventions of PROPPS theory because in my trailer there isn’t a hero, or princess or any od his 8 characters. There is just one main character and a villain (which does develop the form of PROPP’s theory but that is all) which tries to murder the main character.  The reason I decided to challenge the conventions of PROPP’s theory was because I found most people would tend to follow the conventions and use characters that he had based his theory on. I also decided to go against PROPP’s theory because horror films tend to scare the audience, the scenes usually contain a death of some sort or somebody with a severe illness (like Halloween – he seems to be mentally distraught with his actions).

Trailer that influenced my work was Friday the 13th. Link to trailer. The end of the trailer influenced me because of the stabbing several times, but not actually showing it properly. I found out that it was quite easy to follow – I didn’t use that from the beginning because it is quite a complicated trailer – but the ending Ii found quite good to portray mine.

Q1. 90% said that they wanted to watch my trailer after looking at my poster. A. Romantic Comedy B. Horror C. Fantasy D. Thriller

Q2. 90% of the audience noticed that the genre of my trailer is horror. 10% of the audience said that they though it was thriller, which I can see why but I do think that horror and thriller are quite similar.

Q3. 70% of the audience said that my film gave suspense to what would happen in y film.

30% said that my film didn’t give suspense on what would happen in my film.

Q4. 80% of the audience said that they would want to see the film after watching my trailer. However, 20% of the audience said that they would not want to watch the film after they have seen my trailer.

Q5. 90% of the audience said that they feel that my music went with my trailer well. But only 10% said that it doesn’t.

So I have learned from my audience feedback that my trailer was quite successful as 80% said that they would watch the film after they had seen my trailer. However I think my poster was more successful because more people would have watched the trailer after seeing the poster. The audience have said that my music went well – so I am pleased with that. From my audience feedback I have learned quite a bit, that my poster was one of my strongest points – but then it failed to get a good mark because of the simplicity of it.

Comments:

Magazine cover: “I really like this.”

“That looks really good I like the image”

Poster: “liking the poster”

“This is shaping up really well. Just need to ensure that you are using all the appropriate conventions and also make sure that you can read it all…”

Trailer: “This is a real step forward from the previous work but there is scope for tidying it up a little and giving it a bit more impact. Let’s find time next week…or discuss with Mr T in your lesson.”

“well done eve its very good especialy emilys voice”

Our blogs this year have been extremely useful, it’s very easy to use and easy to put documents on such as youtube clips, slideshows, photos, our photoshop poster and magazine covers – it’s been easier and better than our other blogs from last year – which were on our school’s website (the VLE). The blogs have different categories which will group all of our work into those groups so that it is easier for someone who wants to look onto our blog at a certain post – they can just go into the categories on what they think it might be under and it will be easier to find. the post they want to view. The blogs have widgets – which can have songs from different music sites such as www.grooveshark.com and other site. The blog also allows you to have links to different sites so that if you need to show where you got your research from, then you can link it through the link button when you have highlighted a piece of text . The teachers can view our blogs easily via the link button, because on the teachers blog he has a link to each of his student’s blogs so he can access them easier than having to keep wiriting it in the URL. You can make the blog suitable to you, with all different layouts – you can change the photo of your header – which can show your individuality at the same time.

Our blogs this year are high-quality in comparison to last year, the way that they were lay out was not so good, as you can see that they were not as complex as the blogs that we have now. Last year the blogs were quite simple and there was not enough space to have a load of photos or to upload each of our changes and updates of what we had done to our posters / magazine covers / contents pages – such as when I uploaded each update of my poster – for example – then it would not be able to upload a certain amount because we could not have a very large space for them – so they were apalling compared to the ones we are using now on wordpress.com. The screen shot on the left is of the blog from AS level and what was on it – how it looked. The screen shot below is the one of our A2 blogs on wordpress which are so much better – and a lot easier to use and access.

We used the media equipment when filming – using their cameras to film our trailers. They were not the greatest pieces of technology (especially when using the tripods because when the camera was on top of the tripod it’s supposed to keep the cameraa filming straight, but it didn’t, it kept falling sideways so that the filming wouldn’t look that good, but managed to hold it up right!!)

Thie AS blogs didn’t much variety and there was not really much that you could put on to them, they were simple and nothing you could really do to them to make them applicable to you. The way you uploaded picture as well was not as easy to grasp as it was to grasp the A2 blogs – they are much easier.

There are different types of posters such as:

The teaser poster: this will be used in the initial publicity for the film - often well before the release of the film. The purpose of the teaser poster is to build up interest and expectation. The teaser poster often gives a little bit of information of the film to tease the audience.

The main poster: this is often dominated by a single image or maybe a collection of photos from the film. Some of the information is also inluded – such as a slogan or a few key notes.

DVD Release poster: produced to encourage the audience to own a copy of the DVD. The poster can highlight some of the information from the film and it may have written on it that there are unseen sections (extended scenes, or director’s cut).

http://www.scribd.com/doc/26188252/Types-of-Film-Poster

I feel that my trailer, poster and magazine cover all link well and work together.

I do feel that my poster was very simply done ans there wasn’t much that I did to it. But I thought that the simplicity made it look good, and work with the story of the trailer. The fact that it was all different shades of blue, which makes it look creepy and like it’s resembling a horror film.

..Survey to be put onto blog.

+ What is the target audience of my movie magazine cover?

+ What attracts you straight away to my magazine front cover?

+ Do like the colours i have used and the font, and general composition of the front cover?

+ Does the magazine fulfil expectations of magazine front cover?

2. Do you, at an early stage, feel that it is a film or television programme that you might want to see when it is finally shown? Why?

3. Would you think that the trailer would be noticed by the genre, stars?

4. Does it remind you of anything else you have seen or have heard about? What other media texts are associated with the trailer – for example a theme song released as a single, or a soundtrack album?  

5. What do you feel about the magazine and poster? Do you feel that the genre needs to be expressed more, etc?