yeah

1. Narrative Theory
Narrative theory is the way a story is told in both fictional and non-fictional media texts. I will
use Vladimir Propp as an example. Vladimir is a Russian critic and literary theorist; he
proposed that characters could be classified into clearly defined roles and purposes.
Below are classifiedroles.
 The hero (seeks something)
 The villain (against the hero)
 The donor (provides help by providing an object)
 The dispatcher (sends the hero on his way)
 The false hero (falsely assuming the role of hero)
 The helper (this is the sidekick that helps the hero)
 The princess (the reward for the hero but is blackmailedby the villain)
 Princess’ father (Very strict character that is protective of his daughter)
We have taken these roles into consideration when creating a narrative for our trailer as we
will display the main characters and try to communicate their role in the narrative. For
example if I were to try and communicate a villain in my trailer the colour red will be
dominantly used. I have already included Propp’s classifiedcharacters in most of my textual
analyses. Another element included is influenced from Tzvetan Todorov. He suggests most
narratives begin with a normal state. This is when their life is normal and the protagonists are
happy (equilibrium). Then the audience notice the change of state in which the characters
fight to return to a state of equilibrium. We intend to integrate equilibrium/disequilibrium
into our filmed element of our production as moving image work often relies on a narrative
structure. To correctly create a drama this must be applied as this shows a story the
characters have been in and how they act in certain situations. Below is the structure we will
include into our opening sequence, which is heavily influenced by Tzvetan Todorov.
Equilibrium → Disequilibrium → New Equilibrium
(New equilibrium is when the issue has been resolved but the main character has learnt to
much and changed along the way)
In an opening sequence that would last for thirty minutes, the audience would witness the
narrative pattern above, but because our opening sequence is around three minutes, we’re
focusing on showing the equilibrium and presenting an initial occurrence of disequilibrium.
To show this I will briefly evaluate moments from the opening sequence of ‘Grange Hill’ and
the pattern shown.
This is a state of disequilibrium
as this animation flashes onto
In this opening sequence a
disequilibrium state is
introduced instantly as the red
bully (on the left image)
suddenlyappears on the screen
communicating to the audience
a fight may start. We then see
the school in an equilibrium
state as they begin class.

2. The scenario then ends in a
equilibriumstateas the characters
are seen satin class and aboutto
begin their lesson.