Vladmir Propp

The Hero

There are many ways in which different theories can relate to thriller films.
The ideas of Propp shown below can be used similarly in our thriller opening sequence by showing the audience characters that they would recognise such as the villain, helper and hero that is so traditional within many films including famous fairy tales. This would be useful for our thriller opening sequence as the audience would be able to connect automatically to characters with roles that the audience would recognise.

Vladmir Propp
Propp focuses on characters within a film that relates to traditional fairy tale characters. This can be shown in thriller films for example, in the thriller film 'I Robot' we have traditional characters that can be seen as a traditional character known in fairty tales:


  



The Helper



The Villain



Levi Strausse - Horns

The film horns explores a variety on genre boundaries and pushes into different catagories. Within the trailer we can see the oppositions being the actor with the horns being seen as the bad guy and then the rest of the public being seen as the genral good. However, the film is from Radcliffes perspective and therefore he views himself as the good guy and the public who are fighting against him. The news reporters are the villains. The films main theme is around a murder and so there is also the binary opposites of life and death.

Levi Strausse - Semiotics

Semiotics suggests how an idea or concept is portrayed through signs, symbols and motifs. A semantic field shows how many words are linked together through a semantic field, which all suggest a recurring theme throughout the text or film. The Cohen brothers used a lot of motifs and symbols to suggest a hidden topic or theme through the film. Often the words in the semantic field are binary opposites and for example a semantic field of money might have (wealth, poverty and capital), where wealth and poverty are binary opposites.

Levi Strausse

There are many ways in which different theories can relate to thriller films.
This can be used similarly in our opening sequence of a thriller film. This is because our target audience mainy would notice traditional binary opposites such as good and bad or light and dark. Therefore by using binary opposites such as this the audience may find the thriller opening sequence easier to understand and follow and therefore would enjoy the film more being able to relate to the characters and their role in the storyline.

Levi Strausse
Levi Strausse had the idea of binary opposites and how binary opposites such as good and bad can relate to films providing interesting films for target audiences and well understood characters and themes. For example in the film Speed we see binary opposites:

Bad

Good

Fight Club - Todorov's Theory

On the other hand, you can't apply the theory to all films. There are films which you can't apply this narrative theory to, such as Fight Club.

1. The movies starts with Edward Norton trying to cure his insomnia.

2. He discovers that when he cries at these support groups he is able to sleep. This is an attempt to repair.

3. After some arguing Edward agrees to hit him and punches him in the ear. After Tyler punches Edward in the stomach and they start to fight. Afterwards they go back to Tyler's house, which is in terrible shape. Time goes on and they start to have other people fighting with them in the parking lot, until eventually they get to go into the basement of the bar to fight after it's closed and it is then called fight club. This is the recognition of disruption.

4. Tyler goes into his boss's office and tries to blackmail saying he won't tell any of the company's secrets if he pays him. An attempt to repair the damage of disruption.

5. Tyler eventually tells Edward that fight club has evolved into Project Mayhem. This is the new equilibrium.

Taken - Todorov's Theory

Todorov's theory relates to almost every film in some way. An example of one that it relates to is taken. In the beginning of the trailer the equilibrium is set, the main protagonist has gone to his daughters birthday party. The disruption is that the main protagonists daughter tells him that she is going to Paris. The recognition of this disruption is when on arrival in Paris she is on the phone to her father the daughter sees her friend being kidnapped and is then kidnapped herself. The resolution is the fathers successful attempt to rescue the daughter. The restored order and new equilibrium is the daughter being returned home and the new and strengthened relationship between her and her father.

Todorov

There are many ways in which theories can relate to thriller films.

This can relate to our thriller opening sequence as using the structure Todorv shows it is easier for our target audience to follow the opening sequence allowing them to understand what is happening in the film creating a connection with the characters and the storyline.


Todorov
Todorov focused on the structure of a film including an Equlibirum, an event or series of events, distruption and then order. This can be shown in the film Taken.
There are many ways in which theories can relate to thriller films.

Natasha Williams