2.  A narrative is a way that you present a story to an
audience.
 There are many types of narrative:

3. e.g. The story follows Perseus in
time order as he journeys to
find Medusa in order to
defeat the kraken.
Explanations
of a few:
The story starts off Linear
and splits into four different
segments of the same story
making it Non-Linear
As Chucky grabs Glen’s
neck, the movie ends
and you don’t know
what happens.

4. Tzvetan Todorov is a narrative film theorist who looks at narrative
structure.
o He was born in 1939 and is a Franco-Bulgarian philosopher.
o He had three main points under the idea of narrative theory.
Equilibrium:
He suggested that stories begin with an
equilibrium where everything is in balance.
Disequilibrium:
This is disrupted by something small that
sets of a chain of events.
Problems are then solved so that everything
in the movie gets back to normal.

5. Examples of Equilibrium films: The girls at the school
have things the way
St Trinian's they want them
(Equilibrium) until the
MP comes to inspect the
school and wants to
shut the school down.
(Disequilibrium)
The girls win a show
based on intelligence
and find a stolen
painting. They are now
heroes. (New
Equilibrium)

6. Watchmen
You find out at the very
beginning that Superhero’s
are banned. (Equilibrium)
One of the ex superhero’s is
murdered and parts of his
old team try to find out who
killed him. (Disequilibrium)
They find the killer but
another member of the old
team is blamed. (New
Equilibrium)

7. Claude Levi-Strauss is a narrative film theorist who looks at
narrative content.
o He was born in 1908 and was a French anthropologist
and was called ‘The Father of Modern Anthropology’
o He looked into the narrative view called Binary
Opposition.
Binary Opposition
• It is the way we interpret and understand text

10. Vladimir Propp was a Russian scholar who looked at Russian
folk stories to explain the simple narrative elements.
o He was born in 1895
o He was also a film theorist who looked into character
profiles. He divided the characters in the stories into 8 parts:
The The Her
Villain Dispatcher Father
• The • The • The The False
person person The person Hero
The
who Princess The The Hero *The
against (Magical) who
sends the or Prize Donor *The person
the hero Helper
* The gives *The person who takes
in the hero off. * The the task
person the person who credit for
story person to the
prince who marries the Hero’s
who helps Hero.
marries at prepares the actions or
the hero in
the end of the hero. princess. tries to
his quest
the story. marry the
princess.

11. Examples of films with character theory:
The Villain is the voodoo
The Princess and the Frog man who tricks and
transforms the prince. He
is also the false hero as he
tries to marry the Princes
intended princess.
The Dispatchers are
unseen but are Prince
Naveen’s parents who
send him to marry a rich
girl.
The magical helper is the
blind old lady.
The princess or prize is
Tiana.
The donors are the
alligator and firefly.
The hero is Naveen.

12. Sleeping Beauty
The Villain is Maleficent
the witch.
The Dispatchers, Donor
and Magical helpers are
the fairies who find the
Prince and give him a
sword and shield.
The Princess or prize is
Sleeping Beauty
(Aurora).
Her Father is King
Stefan.
The Prince is Prince
Phillip.
The False hero is N/A.