Theorists

In Thursdays lesson with Mrs Hammond we learnt about theorists and how we can appropriately apply them to fit into our advertisments. The main theorists we learnt about were Todorov, Barthes, Propp and Levi- Strauss.

Todorov's work was based on the fact that nearly all stories start with equilibrium, followed by a disruption finished with a new equilibrium.

Barthes talks about narrative codes, these codes are used to keep the audience interested and their attention to the storyline. These codes are:

>Enigma Code - Something in a film that is not explained, and raises a problem within the storyline. This enables the audience to think about what is going on.

>Action code - This is basically any action within a film. Props or dialogue will let the audience know that action is/will happen and keeps them interested.

>Semantic Code - This is how the audience interpret something that has happened or is said. The audience are thinking about the suggested meaning.

>The Cultural Code - This is where a film can relate the storyline to the audience based on their knowledge, for example an opening scene of snow and presents the audience know it is christmas.

Propp from his research on children's stories found that all films have set key character roles. They have:
The Hero
The Villain
The Donor
The Dispatcher
The False hero
The Helper
The Princess
Her Father

Obviously we have to break conventions of this research because we are doing an advert, so cant apply all of the roles to our advert.

Levi-Strauss talked about binary opposites in stories, for example love vs hate, beautiful vs ugly and good vs evil, they could be viewed as moral messages within the storyline. This could mean something will only be defined in relation to something it is not.