Propp and Todorov's Theory

Every film, story or narrative always has a beginning, middle and end. They always involve conflicts, problems, good guys and bad guys. This is what makes every film, story and narrative so interesting or else nothing would happen and it would be like watching someone else's average life.

Propp and Todorov are both people who came up with their own theory or idea about how films, narratives and stories are made up. They both broke them down to find the basic foundations of how they are structured. Propp was a russian soviet formalist scholar who published a book called "Morphology of the Folk Tale" (1928) and Todorov is Franco-Bulgarian Philosopher who came up with his theory in 1960; they both came up with their own theories:

Vladimir Propp (1895 - 1970)

Propp's theory involves:
Preparation
Complication
Transference
Struggle
Return
Recognition

Tzvetan Todorov (Born 1939)

Todorov's theory involves:
Equilibrium
Disruption
Recognition of Equilibrium
Attempt to repair disruption
A return of new equilibrium

Propp not only had a theory though, he also had character types to add onto it. Character types are certain characters that always appear in films, stories and narratives. Propp decided that there were these character types:
Hero - normally the main character
Villain - the character the hero is trying to stop
Prize - what the hero gains at the end
Mentor - the character who helps the hero all the way through
Helper - the character that aids the hero
Blocker - the character that delays the hero from getting what they want
Dispatcher - the character that sends the hero on his journey

To conclude, both their theories and Propp's character types can be applied to almost any film, story, narrative, literature, theatre, television series, video games, etc. By following their theories it allows you create suspense and to plan a story's plot easily because you have some guideline.

Gregory Crewdson's Photo Analysis 2

A photo of a man alone in the woods in a hole.

This is another photo by Gregory Crewdson. This photo is of a man, alone in the forest and night time. Why is he there? Why the hole? This photo also becomes enigmatic when you start to think about these things.

The lighting in this photo is more like twilight shining down, there is also more light towards the back of the photo. The light suggests mystery.

The man looks focused on opening what looks like a briefcase after briefcase or boxes that he looks like he has dug up. The man is also wearing a shirt but the buttons are not done up, it doesn't look liked he planned this at all. The car on the left shows that he was desperate to get there because there is a bit of trunk knocked down. The trees around the man shows that he is deep into the woods

The camera angle looking down at the man but not by a sharp angle, just a slight down angle, it's as if someone is looking at what he is doing. This also adds more mystery to this photo because we cannot see what this man is looking at or looking for. This again creates enigma.

This denotation of this photo is a man, alone in the woods opening cases but when looking properly at the photo and finding the implied meaning, the connotation of this photo shows a desperate man who has driven his car into the heart of the woods to find something which he had to dig for.

Gregory Crewdson's Photo Analysis 1

Gregory Crewdson's photo of two people eating dinner

This photo was taken by Gregory Crewdson a famous photographer.

He has taken a photo here of what seems to be two people having dinner. In the photo we can also see that they are in a lovely family home, quite decorated. However the other two chairs are vacant, where are the others? Are there any others? Why aren't the other at the table? Why is it so dark? This photo becomes enigmatic when you start to think about these things.

It seems to be like a painting because he uses so much artificial light. The only light source seems to be in the room behind them and the room with the family in seems to be dark. However, even though the light is coming from the room at the back, the shadows point towards it.

The facial expressions on the two people don't seem to show any happiness at all or even any interaction between each other, not even eye contact. The people are dressed well, not in rags, which represents the house in which they live.

The camera angle is at eye level and the shot type is a long shot suggesting the family is sort of broken up because the camera would normally be up close to a happy family to show how close they are.

This denotation of this photo is two people eating dinner but when looking properly at the photo and finding the implied meaning, the connotation of this photo shows a broken family or problems within this family.