The fact that there is no hero in my trailer makes it hard for me to compare theorist ideas to my work as they all include a hero character. In my trailer I will only have two characters - the two lovers.
Joseph Campbell theory of narrative has found some currency in the modern hollywood blockbuster. It is often called The Hero's Journey. It comes in three acts - departure, initiation and return. Campbell's theory doesn't relate to my trailer because I don't have a hero. My reason for not having a hero is that I am producing a romantic genre and I wanted it to stay between the two characters - I didn't want any complicated storyline with lots of people. I wanted two lovers who fall in love and find a problem that is caused by their own personal dilemmas and will be fixed this way too. This way, the audience are more likely to relate to the story line when watching the movie.
Tzvetan Todorov is another theorist, arguing that all stories follow the basic structure of an equilibrium, disruption and resolution. It involves talking about ideology and power relations. This theory can apply to my trailer a little better. In my story, the equilibrium is when the couple are in love. This will be shown through shots of the couple laughing and spending time together. The disruption is when Scarlett realises that when she goes to University, it may cause problems between their relationship as she will be moving far away. The resolution, however, is rarely shown in a trailer because otherwise you would be giving the whole story away and no one would want to watch it. By leaving out the resolution, you can leave the audience wondering what will happen between the characters and that is what will make them want to watch the movie.
If a narrative begins with an idea of equilibrium or balance, whose idea of normal is it?
This is an interesting question. The script writers/producers etc. would do market research to find out what equilibrium is to the target audience when in a relationship. With this, they can create a normal world that the audience will find suitable. All members of the audience will be aware that when you are in a relationship, it is not happiness all the time. All couples have arguments eventually, which is why something like this has to happen in the trailer. If the characters fell in love and they lived happily ever after, the story wouldn't be interesting enough to capture the audience's attention. Therefore, if trhe equilibrium is disrupted by an event, there has to be something that goes wrong. In my trailer, the thing that will be going wrong is that Scarlett will be going to University far away soon and they will struggle to maintain a long distance relationship. The events that happen in my trailer are arranged according to the ideas that they contain.
In the narration, the viewer does not know more than the narrator. However, I don't think I will be having a narrator voice over during my trailer - I would like to stick to captions on the screen and dialogue from the film clips. The point of view comes from an outsider watching their relationship. The narrative doesn't cheat in any way. The events are compressed in time because obviously I have to fit a lot into a short amount of time. Even in a trailer, the time will very often be compressed to fit more into the time schedule.
No comments:
Post a Comment