Film Story Theories

 

Main theories:
- Todorov's stages of narrative based on 'cause' and 'effect'
   - There is a distinction between the PLOT and the STORY
      Plot: summing up the 'action'/'events'
      Story: the plot is fleshed out with characters, emotions and context, and this         same plot can be constructed into a narrative into a number of ways - using          narrative devices
    - Story unfolds as 'cause-and-effect' from the first equilibrium to the last                equilibrium, with the final equilibrium being different from the first
    - Todorov identifies five key stages:
        1. Equilibrium
        2. Something happens - sets the narrative in motion
        3. A realisation that something has happened
        4. Trying to put things right
        5. New equilibrium at the end


- Vladimir Propp: archetypal characters
    - He argues that a good story always needs a specific set of archetypes
    - The characters themselves are not important - focus is on the role or function       as a type
    - Hero, villain, victim, helper and messenger, anti-hero
    - Folk tales - emphasis

- Levi Strauss: structuralist approach - conflict and binary opposition
    - Social anthropologist who studied primitive societies
    - These societies communicated with signs/paintings/drawings - visually
    - Primitive drawings and cave paintings recognised ideas around conflict - 
    opposites and binaries - Strauss argues that what is intrinsic to most cultures
    is an understanding of the world through CONFLICT and OPPOSITES =                MEANING

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