JACK SPENCELY 9302 A2 MEDIA
Typical Synopsis
A typical synopsis of a narrative is a quick run down of the entire plot of a piece of ficitonal writing or a film. It tells the stories major plot points and events in a short form, sparing the details. Overall the narrative of a film is the films storyline. The plot, the characters, the event of the film and more often than not, something evil to cause imbalance.
Todorovs Narrative System
This is a system that has five stages and explains the narrative of the film.
1) Equilibrium
This is the beginning of the film where everything is seen to be fine, or in some cases just 'In
Balance'. There is no disrupton and everyhting can be considered normal. This is usually where
the protaganist of the film is introduced and the audience is occasionally allowed a few brief
glimpses at the antagnoist or the plot he has, assuming there is a 'villain' charcter at all.
2) Disruption of Equillibrium
This is when the antagonist of the film or natural disaster or an event that does evil things disrupts the calm of the equilibrium. It is not always obvious at first and can sometimes be seen as an isolated inccident.
3) Recognition of Disruption
The disruption is finally seen and acted upon by the hero of the film who take action against this disruption.
4) An attempt to Repair the Damage
This is normally the climax of the film in which the protaganist seeks to end the disruption affected the equilibrium, be that by either removing the antagonist from the equation or finds a way to fix the problem. This is usually the final outcome of the film.
5) Establisishing a new Equilibrium
The world has a new equilibrium established, usually with good triumphing evil, and lessons are learned that are put into practice to create a better equilibrium. However this is not always the case as some horror movies especially can end with evil stll in power, but nonetheless calm is restored.
Applying Todorov's Theory to Alien
1) Equilibrium
A team of scientists, including protaganist ellen Ripley find a derelict alien spacecraft and seek to investigate for scientific purposes.
2) Disruption
The facehugger attaches itself to the face of one of the crew. It drops off so the crew has no idea that about the Xenomorph embryo inside of him.
3) Recognition
The Xenomorph bursts out of his chest and proceeds to grow in size over the next portion of the film till it's man sized. The crew now realise their dilhema.
4) Attempt to repair
The crew try and stop the Xenomorph from killing everyone but everything is to no avail. The Xeno kills everyone bar Ripley whoo manages to eject the Alien out of an airlock and melt it with the engines of the ship.
5) New Equilibrium
The ship is once again calm however this is mainly due to the death of basically everyone on the ship excpet Ripley.
Applying Todorov's Theory to The Conjuring
1) Equilibrium
The family moves to a new house and find a secret basement that is locked with wooden planks.
2) Disruption
Once they open it stragne things begin to occur around them.
3) Recognition
The family realises that they are haunted by ghosts and the level of stragne supernatural events happening excalates.
4) Attempt to repair
The family hires paranormal investigators who find out that the house had played host to a diabolic ritual where a witch sacrificed her child to satan, and she possesses the mothers in the house and makes them kill their children
5) New Equilibrium
The Witch is expelled from the body of the mother, Carolyn, and life for the family returns to normal.