Learning Objective:

•To develop our understanding of

narrative conventions

•To understand and identify ‘stock’

characters

Tuesday 11 April 2023

NICS

• Narrative

• Iconography

• Characters

• Setting

Setting

Iconography

When we sit down to watch a film the narrative structure help defines the story. It needs to be structured to help us, the audience, understand the message contained within, giving the film meaning throughout.

Tzvetan Todorov’s 5 stage narrative structure helps us enables most narratives to follow a conventional chronological structure.

Vladimir Propp’s 7 spheres of action provide us with typical ‘stock’ characters that are found within narratives

Recap - Narrative Structure

In pairs, brainstorm what characterises:

• a hero

• a villain

• What might they look like?

• How might they act?

• What locations would they be based in?

• What props would they have?

• Who would be supporting them?

• What might happen to them in the film?

Heroes and Villains

5 minutes

Conclusion

The Hero• Physically strong or physically fit• Good looking• Young(ish)• Works with limited help –a buddy

and/or the heroine.• Has limited weapons.• Quick thinking/intelligent.• Chivalrous.• Trustworthy.• Follow a code that preaches

loyalty, honour, duty, selflessness and spirituality. This guides their mission or quest.

The Villain• Usually physically weaker • Not as good looking (often scarred).• Often older.• Will usually have henchmen as back

up – or even an army .• Needs more weapons.• Will often watch as the hero jumps

out of the window…• Selfish/disloyal/greedy.• Creates suffering by causing war.• Shares the same quest as hero, such

as trying to obtain a valuable artefact, but out of greed or desire for power.

Binary Opposites

What are the binary opposites of...

• Strong• Powerful• Active• Heroic• Good• Dominant• Practical• Logical

What are the binary opposites of...

• Strong• Powerful• Active• Heroic• Good• Dominant• Practical• Logical

• Weak• Powerless• Passive• Cowardly• Evil• Submissive• Impractical• Illogical

Levi Strauss believed that the way we understand certain words depends not so much on any meaning they themselves directly contain, but much more by our understanding of the difference between the word and its 'opposite' or, as he called it 'binary opposite'.

He suggests that words merely act as symbols for society's ideas and that the meaning of words, therefore, was a relationship rather than a fixed thing: a relationship between opposing ideas.

• E,g,: , our understanding of the word villain' surely depends on the difference between that word and its opposing idea, that of a 'hero'.

Binary Opposites

As well as the good vs evil binary there are other oppositions that should help you understand the idea, such as youth/ age binary, and the masculinity/ femininity binary, and so on.

In Media studies, we use this when analysing images. For example, sometimes film makers juxtapose opposite images in the same frame to emphasise their difference.

Action Film Binary OppositesThe Mummy

Rick O’Connell (Brendan Fraser) High Priest Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo)

Action Film Binary OppositesSpiderman 2

Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) Doc Ock (Alfred Molina)

Action Film Binary OppositesPirates of the Caribbean

Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) Captain Barbosa (Geoffrey Rush)

Homework

• Using Word or Powerpoint, create a collage of at least 5 sets of binary hero/villain characters.

• 3 sets of binary characters must be from Action Adventure films.

• Due in this time next week.

Quick Quiz1. What does the term ‘genre’ mean?

2. Name any three films genres.

3. What does narrative mean?

4. Name two stages of Todorov’s narrative theory.

5. Name two of Propp’s character types.

6. If a character is a ‘stock’ character and is a generalisation, what is this also known as?

7. What does iconography mean?

8. Name three things you expect to see in an action adventure film.