Tadorov's theory

Tadorov's theory 

The Narrative Theory

Todorov in 1969 produced a theory which he believed to be able to be applied to any film. He believed that all films followed the same narrative pattern. They all went through stages called the equilibrium, disequilibrium, acknowledgement, solving and again equilibrium.

There are five stages the narrative can progress through:

1. Period of equilibrium

2. Moment of Disequilibrium 

3. Period of Disequilibrium

A film that follow these steps is 'Seperation'.

1. Family moving into a new town and settling down (The equilibrium)

2. Find out theres a serial killer in the neighborhood and are spied on (Moment of Disequilibrium)

3. Serial killer comes and kills them (Period of Disequilibrium)

Criticisms

Postmodernists would see Tadorov's theory as basic and simple.

Modern texts are far more complex than this. 

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Synopsis - Props theory - Practical

Protagonist- Final girl = the hero/princess
A young, intelligent, and respectful girl who is the main character, known as the Protagonist and the 'Final girl'. She is the leader in her media class who does literally everything. For her coursework, as a group they are asked to produce a horror trailer based on the ideas their teacher has shown them. She comes up with the idea of filming in the woods. As they set to film, a class mate sets off to find signal on her phone, during this moment there is a scream and comes to find out her class mate has been murdered. The 'new girl' acts as the hero and wants to save her. She tries to call for help but is convinced by the 'helper donor' to save her self first.

Teacher=Villain/dispatcher

An exiting new media teacher joining a new school encouraging new media students to create a horror trailer as part of their coursework. He shows his students ideas as horror films but of the same stories and similar killings. He encourages his students to prepare a similar piece. He ends up being a real killer, an evil crazy monster. He hides his identity with a mask, the same mask the students decided to use as a prop.  

Student #1- Helper donor (geeky nice)
An innocent geeky boy who is willing to succeed in school. An easy target to be teased on and bullied. He is a media student who is asked to make a horror trailer with the rest of his class. They go out to film their horror trailer, but one of his class mates get killed. He tries and wants to save her, but uses his common sense to save the people he can first. He is known as the helper donor.

Student #2- False hero (coward)
A lazy, stupid, coward young boy, who doesn't know the definition of smart dress is known as the false hero in the horror trailer. He is a media student asked to create a horror trailer with his class. His personality crashed with the rest of the class mates as he's not bothered and makes only little effort. After going out to film their horror trailer, a class mate is killed. Him as the 'false hero' panics and runs to save his life leaving the rest of the group worried and scared.

Student #3- Promiscuous girl that dies first
A young, sexy, slutty girl who wears the most shortest skirts and reveals her body is known as the promiscuous girl. She is a media student set out to the woods with her group to make a horror trailer as part of their coursework. She is constantly using her phone to socialize and goes off deeper into the woods to find signal on her phone whilst the others set up the cameras and tripods, getting ready to film. She gets killed, and is the first to be murdered and left in the woods as her other class mates panic and try to save their own lives. She is the promiscuous girl that dies first. 

Script- Shots

School 

-mid shots of students getting off the bus and some shots of walking into the school

(could use a school bell)

-Establishing shot of the 'learner building' 

-Tone card 'New school' 

(can use a voiceover with the tone card narrative including words in the cards and fadeouts)

-Shot of the 'new girl' entering the building. - close up of her and her books sybolising her intelligence. 

-film her walking past students playing ping pong in the playground. following a shot with the pig pong ball bouncing off the table sybolising something is going to go wrong. 

Assembly

- wide shot from the middle and back of the hall welcoming the setting.

- head teacher introduces the new media teacher in the assembly

- shots of the teacher smiling an waving

- shots of the 'new girl' looking naive and timid. 

- Showing a mid shot behind the teacher as he turns his head showing his dark side. 

- fading into a tone card 'New teacher'

Classroom 

- wide shot of students walking into the classroom.

- Point of view shot of from the 'new girl' of the different characters.

- slutty character talking to the boy next to her sitting of the table, dressed proactively (establishing the characters).

- Nerdish girl/boy setting out her books and equipment. Quietly sitting there waiting for the teacher to arrive to class. 

- Lazy/dumb kid throwing paper in the bin and making paper planes. 

-Shows 'new girl' prepared to work showing her innocence. (sound bridge of student talking).

- Point of view shot of the teacher walking in 'quiet down' - silence (creates the atmosphere of a classroom)

- Low angle shot of him introducing himself sybolises his power as higher than the students. Showing the authority figure. 

- gives an introduction to the subject and explains the main task. "our task this term is to make and create a horror trailer as park of your coursework" 

-Jump cut 'Here is an example' (shows clip of a previous trailer of people getting killed in the woods)

- Students like the idea of the trailer so decide to do something similar.

- Tone card 'Same story' (maybe a red tone card symbolising danger and blood).

Woods

- (Introduction of next setting) Wide shot of woods merging in after the previous 'same story' tone card.
-  Longshot of the students walking in the woods carrying their props, cameras and tripod to show the audience they have set out to film their trailer.
- comments from characters to introduce their personalities more. 'This is long' 'I ain't got no reception'
- the slutty girl goes off to find signal on her phone, as she goes off the others carry on setting up and there is a scream.
- The slutty girl is found to be killed by something/someone with blood all over her body and clothes.
- Close up camera shots of her arms and legs to show how badly she's been slaughtered.
- Props theory- 'False hero'- Lazy boy panics and wants to leave the dead girl and run to save his life and tells everyone else to run. Others want to save the girl, 'helper' tells the 'new girl' to run as they need to save their own lives first.
- They run off with the camera on recording 'hand held' shots.
- They drop the camera on a hip showing them running for their lives down the hill
- camera shots of the masked villain walking towards the camera picking it up.
- camera stops recording.

Poster for actors

As directors, I had created a poster to find actors to play the characters in our horror trailer. As we are in a college, |I believed that updating a cv would be a powerful idea attract students to read the poster. 'Keep calm' quotes are very famous, so i used this as young people are familiar with these quotes and like to read them.