Narrative Theories

• Bordwell and Thompson (1980): “a chain of events in a cause-effect relationship occurring in time”.
• Sydfield, an American screenwriter: a good film needs to interest the audience and inform them of the narrative in the first ten minutes.
• My group and I had to conform to this theory to a huge extent, as we had limit of sixty seconds to draw the audience.
• Due to the trailer’s format, we used a restricted narration to interest the audience quickly through the use of an enigma. This is evident by the shot of the blonde, female victim opening the door (at the beginning) and seeing nobody there after the door knocks.
• We also used a restricted narration, as this is a common convention of the horror genre. Our trailer has a subjective character identification, as the trailer never focuses on one specific character.

• Vladimir Propp’s theory of narrative: characters have the role of narratives ‘spheres of action’ or functions.
• From a comprehensive study of folktales, Propp made seven character types, each with a different function such as the ‘hero’, ‘villain’, ‘donor’ etc.
• Our trailer partially conforms to this theory, as our hero is the main girl which subverts Propp’s suggestion of the hero usually being male.
• Having the main girl as the hero however, the one who restores the narrative equilibrium, is a convention of a slasher film.
• Our villain, the killer, disrupts the narrative (which conforms to the theory) after he knocks on the door. This is evidenced near the beginning by close up shots of him attacking the main girl and the two shot of the killer behind the young male with his knife, ready to attack him.

• Todorrov’s theory of narrative: conventional narratives are structured into five stages including the state of equilibrium, the disruption of the equilibrium and a reinstatement of the equilibrium (at the end).
• Our trailer conforms to this theory to an extent, as our trailer begins with a state of equilibrium of a party being held at a house.
• A disruption of this equilibrium is recognised once the killer arrives at house. This is expressed by the door knocks and the change in soundtrack – from a party beat to silence. On the other hand, we subvert the theory by not reinstating the equilibrium at the end of the trailer, which can be seen through the last shot which denotes a low angle of the killer which visually signifies his dominance.

• Alan Cameron’s theory claims that modular narratives “articulate a sense of time as divisible and subject to manipulation”. Cameron identifies four different types of modular narrative: anachronic, forking paths, episodic and split screens.
• In our trailer, we conform to this theory, as we use an episodic narrative which is seen by the killer attacking his victims.

• Aristotle’s unities, the first ‘narrative theory’ puts forward the idea that a narrative should be created within a ‘unity’ of time, place and action – it should all take place in the same location, in real time, and with all action moving towards a logical conclusion.
• Our trailer conforms to this as we have one plot, no sub plots which takes place in the same location. Having one location conforms to the convention of a horror film of victims being entrapped.

• Barthe’s codes claim that narratives are like “tangled balls of threads which need unravelling”, some open with many different interpretations and some being closed, with only one possible interpretation.
• Barthe narrowed down the action of a text in to Five Codes which are woven into any narrative. Our trailer utilises two of the codes, one being the Hermeneutic Code which is the way the story avoids telling the truth in order to create mystery.
• We conformed to this through our shot towards the end which denotes the killer appearing out of nowhere, connoting that he may have supernatural powers. However, the audience are not told this, so a mystery is created. In the same shot, the killer is behind the main girl with a knife, ready to attack her. This shot conforms to the Enigma Code as the audience do not see what happens to the final girl, leaving them guessing what happens next.