Narrative is essentially what the media text shows about the story, this is a very important part of the composition of the trailer. As trailers are intended to be a video representation of the film, it is important that the audience is given a favorable perspective of the story. Our trailer is intended to be slightly different from the general trend among other trailers, but a the same time, to avoid confusion, we have kept the narrative on the same basic structure presented through many different media theories. There are many theories surrounding narrative, these are the main theories which we have tried to include:
Propp's Spheres of Action
Vladamir Propp suggested that most films follow a trend of 7 constant characters. The hero (the main protagonist, the person who embarks on the quest to get the princess) the princess (the hero's prize for completing said quest) The villain (The antagonist, the person who threatens the hero's ability to rescue the princess) The donor (the person who gives the hero something to complete the quest) The helper (the person who assists the hero on his quest) The dispatcher (the person to send the hero on his quest) and the father (the person who rewards the protagonist the princess). Our trailer is only 2 minutes long and very few characters are represented, however some representations of Propp's theory can be clearly seen within our trailer.
The Hero- Obviously our main protagonist would be Will, as he is the character who has embarked on the quest. Will is relatvely suitable for this role within our genre because of his costume. He is wearing clothes which are very practical but at the same time have a sense of fashion about them. Making the charcter much more eye catching in comparison to the scruffy hoodies and jeans of the other characters.
The Villain- I would be considered the villain within our trailer, primarily because of the attempted murder on the hero. I am the main antagonist and represented in the trailer as a hurdle in which the protagonist has to overcome to complete his quest, with the music turning from calm to loud and fast when I beat up Will. I am well suited to be the main antagonist because of my costume and props, as I am primarily wearing a black, scruffy hoody atop dark jeans. The focus on dark clothing has clear connotations of evil, therefore it is appropriate for the main antagonist to wear this. The gun I use is a silver .44 , this is a very large revolver, meaning that is extremely hard to miss, making it appropriate for the main antagonist. All guns have a sense of subtle menace about them, but the size and grandeur of the gun accentuates this effect.
The Princess- Although we do not have a princess in the conventional sense, we have a clear and desirable goal for our protagonist to achieve: survival. The main theme of our film is the simple need to survive, in everything that the protagonist does; scavenging, hunting and fighting, he always has the ever present goal to survive. This is a relatively common "princess" within our genre, mainly due to it's complete universality among the audience, because no matter what class, gender or sexual preference an audience member may be, there will always be the desire to survive. This universal desirability of the princess makes the hero's quest much more relatable and therefore attract audience members due to sheer empathy
The Helper- the Helper in our film is Muhammed, although he is not working for the hero, he provides the role of helper to the antagonist. Being silent and not shown well, he provides a sense of mass to the antagonist, making him appear much more powerful.
Enigma code
The enigma code refers to any part of the text which is not immediately clear to the viewer, causing confusion and doubt towards the nature of the film. This confusion leads to intrigue as the audience get's much more interested about the events surrounding the trailer, leading to more members of the target audience coming to see the film. This is present in our trailer as most of the details remain shrouded in a certain amount of mystery, only showing some, non descriptive scenes to entice the audience in. This gave us our desired effect of showing without telling, however this could also be considered somewhat counter productive at the same time. Much of the audience feedback complained that the trailer was confusing and hard to understand, which was our desired effect but perhaps we took it slightly too far
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