Practical Elements of producing a media product include:
- Actors
- Set
- Props
- Technicians
- Post Production Teams
- Equipment
- Scriptwriters
- Producers
- Musicians
Conceptual Elements of producing a media product include:
- Storyline
- Performance
- Emotions
- Events
- Characters
- Themes
- Protagonists/Antagonists
- Linear/Cyclical Structure
Key Terminology
- Linear – A straightforward structure with a very smooth progression and a definitive beginning/middle/end.
- Chronological – An order where events pass in an order of time.
- Sequential – When a media product is following a logical order or sequence.
- Circular structure
- Time based
- Narrative arc
- Freytag’s Pyramid
- exposition,
- inciting incident,
- rising action,
- climax,
- falling action,
- resolution,
- denouement
- Beginning / middle / end
- Equilibrium
- Disruption
- New Equilibrium
- Peripeteia – A drastic and sudden change in fortune.
- Anagnoresis – A sudden dramatic revelation, usually occurs within the protagonist.
- Catharsis – The idea that we as humans can feel and absorb emotions from consuming a piece of media.
- The 3 Unities: Action, Time, Place
- flashback / flash forward
- Foreshadowing
- Ellipsis
- Pathos
- Empathy
- diegetic / non-diegetic
- slow motion
Peripeteia in Blinded by the Light – When the tickets are ripped up.
Anagnoresis in Blinded by the Light – When his father is badly hurt.
Catharsis in Blinded by the Light – At the end when Springsteen’s music is played by his father in the car.
My Film Synopsis
My film will be about a guy who plays a load of football, then gets an offer from a big professional club and goes on a wild adventure through the professional footballing world coming from humble beginnings.
Statement of Intent
My film will start out with a the boy playing football in a field(?) and then being approached by a scout who offers him a big opportunity after watching him play – staying outside after the session. My two film posters would feature the protagonist before the big disruption in the story, being excited about the offer he’s just received, and then the climax, with the protagonist crying in an office(?) about how his career is declining with someone else trying to comfort him. The pathos should be significant here, with a lot of sympathy for the protagonist coming into effect. The type of audience which would consume this product is one of young people, typically males, who resonate with football and often dream about growing up to be a footballer themselves. The type of institution who would release this kind of film would probably be a mainstream one, with perhaps ties to sports clothing/ a sports brand or even with relations to football games.
Todorov
Tztevan Todorov proposed the idea of a Tripartite narrative structure, which breaks down narrative structures into having a beginning, middle and end. He describes these as Equilibrium, Disruption and New Equilibrium.
Equilibrium – State of calmness, things are okay.
Disruption – When something drastic occurs and the protagonist has to reroute his actions in order to solve it.
New Equilibrium – The new state after the disruption has been solved.
Unreliable Narration – Deliberately deceiving audiences and providing plots that reveal unexpected moments.
Frame Stories – Stories told inside of other stories, testing the narrative structure by presenting nested moments of equilibrium and new equilibrium.
Multiperspective narratives – Using viewpoints of different characters and perspectives in a story, and so presenting equilibrium as disruption in another person’s eyes.
Vladimir Propp
Propp’s work suggests that stories use STOCK CHARACTERS to structure stories. This doesn’t mean that the characters are the sae every time, but all stories draw on familiar characters performing similar functions to provide familiar narrative structures. This is important because it means that the products created become reactionary, and sales are more guaranteed in a “risky business” such as the media and creative industry. Examples of stock characters are:
- Hero
- Helper
- Princess
- Villain
- Victim
- Dispatcher
- Father
- False Hero
Often there is a villain who has done something to a victim. This means that we need a hero, who (often) accompanied by a helper is sent out (by a dispatcher) to fight the villain. The dispatcher or similar donor (such as a father figure) prepares the hero in his ‘quest‘ and gives the hero some magical object. The hero generally meets the princess as part of his quest / journey which usually provides a happy ending. During the narrative we (and the princess) may be presented by a false hero.
Paul Gilroy – Cultural colonialism
After the world wars, the widespread British Empire was not sustainable anymore and so many people all over the world were taken back to Britain. This led to racial tension as many people of different skin colours, races and origins were gathered all in one place. Paul Gilroy talks about this and he argues that the British are undergoing a crisis of national identity. This was to do with the loss of the empire, and so the “British” culture shifted to a point where no-one knew what the true, legitimate ideas to believe were. There was increased tension because of the fact that the British people were bitter and angry after the loss of their empire and dominant position in the world, and so violence an conflict in these times was inevitable. Gilroy says that the people in Britain who came from different areas all over the world are living, physical reminders of the great power Britain once had. This is referred to as postcolonial melancholia.
Claude Levi-Strauss
Levi-Strauss was one of the first to bring forward and discuss the theory of Binary opposition. Binary means 2 different, opposing and contrasting things that can be used for comparison. This theory suggests that narratives (=myths) are structured around binary options.
Binary Opposites in Ghost Town
| Opposition 1 | Strongly Agree | Agree | Neutral | Agree | Strongly Agree | Opposition 2 |
| Black | . | White | ||||
| Employed | . | Unemployed | ||||
| In control | . | No control | ||||
| Upbeat | . | Lowbeat | ||||
| Peaceful | . | Chaotic | ||||
| Buzzing | . | Derelict |