Task 3

Todorov's Narrative Theory

Todorov's Narrative Theory have 5 different parts: Equilibrium, Disruption, Recognition of Disruption, Attempt to repair Disruption and New Equilibrium. The Equilibrium is the normal state of the Character's life at the beginning of the story, the Disruption is a key event that occurs in the story that causes a disruption to the lives of the main characters, the Recognition of Disruption is when the protagonist is made aware of the Disruption and begins to do something about it, the Attempt to repair Disruption is when the protagonist tries to resolve the cause of the Disruption and the New Equilibrium is after the protagonist has overcome the cause of the disruption. My script links to this theory as it begins with Annie in her normal life just sitting at the bus stop, the disruption is when she receives a text message from her stalker, the recognition of disruption is when she looks up and sees the stalker there as she realizes it's serious, her attempt to repair disruption is running away from him and the new equilibrium is when she escapes from the stalker.

Propps Character Theory

Propps Character Theory is made up from 8 different character types which are: Villain, Hero, Dispatcher, Donor, Helper, Princess or Prize, Princess' Father or Keeper of the Prize and False Hero. The Villain is the character which fights The Hero, The Hero is the character whose story the audience follows, The Dispatcher is the character who makes The Villain's plan known and send them off to avoid the event occurring, The Donor is the character that prepares The Hero to help them, The Helper is the character that helps The Hero achieve their quest, The Princess or Prize is the character that The Hero is either looking to rescue or marry them, The Princess' Father or Keeper of the Prize is the character that has to be won over so they can get to the Princess or Prize and The False Hero is the character that takes credit for The Hero's work. This Theory doesn't link to my script because there is only 2 characters in my story and their character types are a Villain and a Victim. My script includes a Villain as there is a Stalker character and he either captures her or she escapes and he fights the Hero and a Hero because the script follows the character that is being stalked story. My script doesn't include a Dispatcher there isn't a character that makes the villains plan known to the hero, Donor because there isn't a character that prepares the hero to help them, Helper because there isn't a character that helps the hero achieve their quest, Princess or Prize because there isn't a character or object that the hero is looking for or rescue, Princess' Father or Keeper of the Prize because there isn't a character that they have to win over in order to achieve this and there isn't a False Hero because there isn't a character that takes credit for the hero's work.

Hero's Journey

The Hero's Journey is a model with 12 stages: Ordinary World, Call to adventure, Refusal of the call, meeting with the mentor, crossing the first threshold, tests, allies and enemies, approach, ordeal, reward, the road back, resurrection hero and return with elixir. Ordinary world is the Hero's normal life at the beginning, call to adventure is when the hero is faced with something that begins their adventure, refusal of the call is when the hero refuses the adventure, meeting with the mentor is when the hero meets someone who gives them advice and prepare them for their journey, crossing the first threshold is where the hero leaves the ordinary world for the first time and crosses threshold into the adventure, tests, allies and enemies is when the hero learns the new rules of the new world and endures strength of will and meets friends and comes face to face with foes, approach is when something causes the hero to try a new approach or adapt new ideas, ordeal is when the hero experiences a major obstacle, reward is when the hero earns their reward or accomplishes their goal, the road back is when the hero begins their journey back to their ordinary life, resurrection hero is when the hero faces a final test where everything is at stake and return with elixir is when the hero brings their knowledge to their ordinary life. None of my characters go through these stages from The Hero's Journey. Annie undergoes death if you choose the wrong path and rebirth if you choose the right path and escape The Stalker. Annie receives a call to adventure when The Stalker is across the road from her as she realises it is serious.

Binary Oppositions

Binary Oppositions is a pair of related terms that have opposite meanings. My story involves conflict between my two characters that are binary opposites against one another in the story as The Stalker is nasty character whereas, Annie is a good, innocent character so this shows that they are binary opposites as they have different intentions.

Representation

Representation is how different cultures, stereotypes, genders and sexual orientation are represented in different media products. My casting decisions were informed by the idea of representation by having The Stalker as a boy and the person being stalked as a girl as this is what most people expect. I had a fairly clear idea of what my characters would look like in my head and I feel we successfully found someone who fitted in with that idea. I decided to present Annie in casual clothes and natural makeup with natural lighting to make the character come across as a normal, natural kind of girl and I decided to present Danny (The Stalker) in dark coloured clothes with his hood up and a mask to emphasise the scariness of the character with natural lighting. I ensure the audience thought about the characters the way I wanted them to by dressing them appropriately to show the differences between the characters.

Hypodermic Needle Model

The Hypodermic Needle Model is where the media injects  message directly into the audiences head without knowing and causes change in the audiences behaviour and thoughts towards this subject. In my film it shows obsessive behaviour and how easy it is for someone in modern society to get stalked, which gives a message to all teenagers and parents to be careful around people. I decided to use a natural, everyday scene for my film as it makes it realistic, in addition to that this helps the audience to associate themselves with the storyline and I also edited my film in a natural way to keep the continuity and realism apparent further reinforcing in the fact that I wanted to keep my film natural and raw.

Uses & Gratifications

Uses & Gratifications is about how the audience portrays the media and what they do with it. The uses an audience will have from my media product is going to be diversion, education and entertainment. My film is trying to inform the audience about the danger around stalkers in modern society; a domino effect is going to be different audience members talking to each other about my media product, this will further spread my message and inform more people how to safely avoid these situations.

Encoding/Decoding Model

The encoding/decoding model is a theory of communication which audiences actively read media texts and don't accept them peacefully. In my film I have encoded the theme of stalking. I have done this by filming and editing techniques by repeatedly showing The Stalker and reinforcing his role in my film. I communicated to my audience showing that a dangerous situation was dangerous by including music and screams to build the atmosphere. Different audience members may decode my message due to the fact of previous encounters and life experiences such as, if a member knows or has been stalked they will sympathise more with person being stalked. Different social classes may have different opinions on my film due to life experiences. For example, the upper class audience members may not feel affected or worried due to the fact that both actors don't visually seem to be in the same class as them. On the other hand, medium and working class audience members may associate more with the characters because the demographic of people being stalked mainly contains people in their classes.