How Does Narrative Theories Relate To Your Trailer?
In this essay, I will talking about Terror House's Trailer, a group from last year. The plot of the story is that there is a girl who seems to wake up in a room that she does not recognise and is confused as to how she managed to get there but she currently does not known that it is an abandoned hospital an there is a unknown spirit inside there with her. The trailer indicates that this will be a Supernatural horror movie due to known supernatural conventions used to make the sub – genre of the horror film obvious to the target audience.
The first narrative theory I will be discussing is Todorov theory. Todorov theory consists of 3 stages which go in a linear chronological order ( Equilibrium, Disequilibrium and Resolution) , however with Terror House trailer, there is no equilibrium and it goes straight to the disequilibrium, meaning that the trailer is non – linear, making it a montage. This is evident in the trailer when it goes to a jump cut of the antagonist standing behind the protagonist and it shows the antagonist in the corner of the mirror. There is evidence of also no equilibrium and no resolution inside the trailer as it does not show the background story of the protagonist and it also does not show how the film would actually end. This shows that Todorov's theory is applicable to trailers but they are always a montage and only uses the disequilibrium, which evidently helps sell the trailer to the audience.
The next narrative theory I will discuss will be Levi –Strauss. Levi –Strauss believes that all horror films have a binary opposition, which could be either evil and good, dark and light or villain and hero. In Terror Houses trailers, it is strongly evident that there is binary opposition. This is evident in the trailer because of the fact that the protagonist ( girl) has two sides to her as she has been possessed, so there is the possessed side of her which connote evil and there is the actual girl which connotes good as they are both trying to make the girl do things which supports this. This shows that the idea of binary opposition trailers is good and is actually needed in horror trailers and films to create suspense for the audience.
The final narrative theory is Propps archetypes characters. Out the 7 characters, the only main two present in the trailer is the Villain and the Victim. Propps intentionally idea of having the villain and the victim is that the story is a fairytale and there is a princess who needs saving and a villain that is trying to kill / harm her. However this trails subverts that so it is less of a fairytale story but the idea of having a villain and victim is still present. This is evident in the trailer as the villain is the possessed antagonist which is trying to harm the protagonist and the victim is the girl who is trying to escape from a locked abandoned hospital. Propps theory is not actually relevant to the trailer but it is used very briefly to help with the disequilibrium and creating visceral emotions in the audience when watching the trailer.
"The trailer indicates that this will be a Supernatural horror movie due to known supernatural conventions used to make the sub – genre of the horror film obvious to the target audience.
ReplyDelete" - but this should focus on Narrative - is it a Trailer, in which case how does it use Narrative effectively (does it?)
"There is evidence of also no equilibrium and no resolution inside the trailer as it does not show the background story of the protagonist and it also does not show how the film would actually end." - (A) WHAT reason for this - why don't trailers do this to be effective?
" This is evident in the trailer because of the fact that the protagonist ( girl) has two sides to her as she has been possessed, so there is the possessed side of her which connote evil and there is the actual girl which connotes good as they are both trying to make the girl do things which supports this." - (E) But HOW is this apparent through MES, CAM or EDIT or SOUND - if they are opposite then the evidence on screen should be opposite ie low angle vs high angle.
"Propps theory is not actually relevant to the trailer but it is used very briefly to help with the disequilibrium and creating visceral emotions in the audience when watching the trailer." (A) so what does that suggest about the nature of the REALISM the group were after, or the discussion of Horrors being MORALITY stories for teens