Propp's Narrative Theory!

Propp's Theory applied to Mean Girls:

Hero-Cady

Villain-The plastics

The Helpers- Lizzy and Damien
The Father- Family and People and School

In the first part of the film Cady would be the part of the hero she is introduced immediately and is the protagonist of the film. We also meet her and her family who have left Africa and Cady is about to start her first day at a high school - this fits with sphere 1 part 1 of Propps theory

Cady is then told not to be friends with the plastics by Damien and Lizzy and this is when we find out ‘1st sphere part 2’ the interdiction is announced

They invite Cady to have lunch with them in order to meet her which shows that the interdiction is violated which is ‘sphere 1 past 3’

We are then introduced to ‘The plastics’ that would play the villain according to the theory. This also fits with the 1st sphere part 4 ‘Villain tries to meet hero’.

The plastics then find out that Cady has moved here from Africa and that she likes Aaron in her maths class this would relate to ‘sphere 1 part 5’ where the villain has now found out information that she is vulnerable and easily influenced and likes Regina’s ex.

The Plastics have now made the Cady, the hero part of there group in this way Cady turns quite evil which highlights a flaw in Propp’s theory because she has now turned into one of the villains for part of the film. Hovever the fact she has been tricked and is now turning into one of them corresponds to ‘Sphere 1 part 6/7’

The Hero is also tricked because Regina tells Cady she can’t go with Aaron because its against the girl rules and then Regina gets back with Aaron knowing Cady likes him

In ‘Sphere 2 part 10’ the hero decided on counteraction, Cady plots to get Regina back my doing horrible things to her and is helped by Damien and Lizzy

In Sphere 3 part 12 the hero is tested this is like when Cady is tested by Regina where she flaunts her boyfriend that Cady wants but Cady has to stay strong in order for her counteraction to work


After Cady sets up all these plans to make Regina unpopular she soon finds out and this is where the hero and villain are now in direct combat 'Sphere 3 part 16' Regina hates Cady and visa versa

The hero is then branded 'Sphere 3 part 17' - Cady is the new plastic however this is not a good thing and does not fit with a hero's description

The villain who is Regina is defeated and nobody likes her anymore - this fits with 'sphere 3 part 18'

So now Regina wants to get her own back so decided to hand in the burn book which is full of horrible things about people and give it into the headteacher corresponding with 'Sphere 4 part 21' Hero is persued

Regina then says thats she owns the burn book, when infact that was set up, and pretends shes very upset by what has been done which is like 'Sphere 4 part 24' false hero claims success of true hero

The difficult talk of 'Sphere 4 part 25' is that Cady is exposed as being mean and everyone turns against so she has to not lie anymore and get her friends back and to be liked

This is resolved by true hero 'Sphere 4 part 26' when she goes to the prom in order to do her speech and not take the crown but share it with everyone

Everyone likes her again and this is 'Sphere 4 part 27' - the truth is recognised
Everything then changes, Cady becomes like a normal girl, the plastics break up and everyone has joined new groups and have a new appearence which fits with 'Sphere 4 part 29'

Although not every part fits, considering this was made a long time ago alot of functions fit with a modern film Mean Girls. ady did not leave home but she changed and went through a mental journey in Mean Girls.

New Blog :)

heeey guys! here is a link to my new blog, where i will be posting everything about my media studies coursework; http://lizziescourseworkblog.blogspot.com/ enjoy!

Todorov's Narrative Theory

1. State of equilibrium
2. Disruption of that order
3. Recognition that the disruption has occurred
4. An attempt to repair the damage
5. A return or restoration of a new equilibrium


Monsters Inc.

1. State of equilibrium - monsters collecting screams from children in order to supply electricity to the ‘monster world’

2. Children becoming harder to scare, meaning monsters aren’t collecting enough screams to power the city. Sulley accidentally leaves a door open, allowing a little girl to enter the monster world (children are seen as toxic)

3. They dress the girl up as a monster to make sure no one notices, however Sulley develops an attachment to the child, whom he has named Boo.

4. Sulley feels obliged to sneak ‘Boo’ back to her room safely which results in many escapades for Mike and Sulley

5. They return Boo to her bedroom, and in the process, they realise that children are not a threat to monsters. In fact, the two discover something that changes the monster world forever - that a child's laughter is far more powerful than a scream

visit from a camera man...

Last Tuesday, we were visited by Axel - a very successful and knowledgeable camera man. He watched each of our preliminary tasks and informed us what was right and what was wrong. In my filming it became clear that I had left to much head room above the actors, meaning there was a lot of empty space in the shot. Instead of doing this I should have brought the camera down to fill the shot with the actors. Axel also explained how to allow us to have varying heights in one particular shot that involves movements, e.g. someone walking in and then sitting down. To do this without having excess head room we should use a tripod and tilt the camera. Axel reiterated the 180 degree rule to us, making sure we understood it. As well as helping us with our tasks, Axel talked to us about films he had worked on which included Tomb Raider and Star Wars, which was obviously very interesting! Thank you Axel!

my Preliminary Task Essay

What have we learnt in our preliminary task in terms of cameras, editing, use of sound, practical issues and establishing meaning through film?

Doing my preliminary task enabled me to learn a lot about using the camera, editing what I recorded on the camera, the use of sound, practical issues, establishing meaning through film and also the limitations of these things.

When using the camera to complete our preliminary task we had many concepts to take into account. Firstly there was the one hundred and eighty degree rule, meaning that two characters in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. If the camera passes over the imaginary axis connecting the two characters, it is called crossing the line. In our preliminary task we had to show an ‘over the shoulder shot’, an over the shoulder shot is a shot of someone taken over the shoulder of another person. The back of the shoulder and head of this person is used to frame the image of the character the camera is pointing towards. We used this because we had to show two people have a conversation and this type of shot is very common when two characters are having a discussion. When filming we had to consider the continuity of our shot, for example when showing the character knocking on the door from the outside, and then entering from the inside. We had to ensure that the continuity worked well because by creating an effect of smoothness between the shots. We also used ‘shot reverse shot’ and ‘match on action’ techniques. Shot reverse shot is a film technique where one character is shown looking at another character and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character. The match on action shot means that when something happens in the scene then when there is a cut the same piece of action must be happening. Both these camera techniques help with the continuity of our preliminary task. We mainly used the tripod to film, rather than using a hand-held technique, because it meant our shot were more steady, as we found that our hand-held shot were too shaky and although this would be good for some types of filming, for example in a horror film, it was not right for our filming. The length of time it took to film our preliminary task was highly underestimated when starting out our recording. It took much longer than we anticipated due to having to use a trial and error method to find out what shots would work best, how to use the camera, deciding where to film from, and so on.

After filming our preliminary task we had to edit it, by selecting the clips we wanted to use and putting them together. As my group was very new to this, having never even used a Mac computer before, we had to watch tutorials that are found on the Apple website. We edited our preliminary tasks using Final Cut Express, and although initially being rather challenging, after watching the tutorials we got the hang of it. However this meant that the editing process was time consuming and we had to complete it at lunch and break times.

When filming our preliminary task we did not take sound into consideration too much, except for ensuring that our actresses’ voices could be heard. However a member of the other group found that in her film there was an aeroplane flying over which disrupted the sound of her film and meant her actresses’ voices were drowned out. To get over this problem she managed to edit out the sound of the aeroplane using the editing facilities on the Mac.

Practical issues which occurred when filming our preliminary task included; seeing the reflection of the person filming in the door. To overcome this problem next time, we should consider where to place the person filming to ensure that this does not happen again. Also another practical issue was the tripod, which did not have all the pieces present, meaning it was not as effective as it should be and therefore causing our shots to be less steady.

When establishing meaning through film we considered the one hundred and eighty degree rule to prevent audience confusion, and also the continuity of our filming, such as the character coming through the door. Also our acting had to be realistic which was difficult as the script was quite over-exaggerated due to the small length of our task. We had to make sure our group worked as a team to ensure our filming was as efficient, and done as quickly as possible.

In conclusion my preliminary task was very valuable in helping me to understanding camera angles, and establishing continuity to prevent the audience getting confused. Also it was very good for helping me understand how to edit my clips on the Mac.

My Preliminary Task :)

Our first essay...

After watching the introduction of the film 'Children of Men' numerous times, it was time to write an analysis of it! Here is my first shot at a Media Studies essay...


Analysis of Children of Men


‘Children of Men’ is set in London, in the year 2027. London appears to be represented in a negative way. Rather than a positive representation of the advanced, modern London that you would expect to see in 2027 we are shown a dark, gloomy, polluted, miserable city with only a few ‘modcons’ such as motorised rickshaws and moving advertisements on buses. The modernised rickshaw could also represent the mass immigration which appears to be a strong them in the film from the start, as rickshaws are normally associated with India. We are shown this gloomy city through the usage off very dark, grey lighting with little colour visible on the set. Pollution in London seems to be high as there is a lot of smog surrounding the cars and buses on the street. The only colour we see is the red of break lights and buses, this may be because many see the colour red as the colour of death and drama, this could be representing what is going to happen later in the film. Also in the streets of London we see piles of rubbish bags, many more than we see today. This indicates to the audience that people have no pride in keeping their streets clean, and also indicates that society may be in meltdown as the rubbish is just being left in the streets rather than being collected.

In the film, with it being of the action genre, we assume we will see a ‘hero’ type character in the opening scene. However we see instead ‘Theo’, who we believe to be the main character as the camera follows, and concentrates on him. He does not seem to be an obvious hero, with grubby, tatty clothes, and he appears to have little authority at work, having to ask his boss to leave the office to go home. Therefore the only reason we believe him to be the main character is due to camera following him. In the film women seem to have equality with men and appear to be represented in a similar way until we go into Theo’s office, where all the women are crying over the death of ‘baby Diego’ whereas the men do not appear to be overly affected by it.

As mentioned in the first paragraph, the lighting in the opening of the film is very dark, with the use of greys and dark colours giving the illusion of a miserable, gloomy atmosphere, except for the juxtaposition of the red that is seen in the break lights and on the buses. The camera work in the opening of the film is very slow, using long shots, which does not give the impression of an action film. However this changes when the bomb explodes in the coffee shop as the camera pans one hundred and eighty degrees round Theo, moving back away from the explosion with him, until Theo goes out of shot and the camera zooms quickly into the explosion. The use of sound in the opening of the film is very minimal. After hearing the news report at the beginning we hear very little sound until Theo leaves the café and we hear music coming from the television which is violins playing to pictures and videos of ‘baby Diego’. I think the minimal use of music is purposeful to give the illusion of mystery.

The opening of the film leaves you wanting more, it makes the audience interested to know what is going on due to its bizarre concepts. For example, that ‘the youngest man in the world has died’, and also we see a bomb going off in a coffee shop and Theo acts as if this is normal. All of this leaves us intrigued as to what is happening and therefore we want to continue watching the film.

In my opinion the target audience for this film is men aged around sixteen and over. I do not think the audience is affected by lifestyle or financial situation as I think all men are attracted to it due it being of the action genre. I also think some women, perhaps women between twenty five to forty, due to the infertility storyline and baby Diego.

I think ‘Children of Men’ gives the message to society about how London will be in 2027, and if it will be how the film represents it. If it will, are we pleased with how London will end up, or would we want to prevent it getting like that?

‘Children of Men’ was made by Universal Pictures. I think this will attract viewers because people will trust Universal to make good films as they are well known. Due to the size and income of the company they will have a big budget, so the film should have good quality sets, editing, special effects and actors.

Media Studies so far...

After initially being undecided on whether to choose Media Studies as one of my A Levels, I am thrilled i chose it! All of us are having a wonderful time studying it, and are still enjoying it even after having to write an essay! The future is bright for the Media Studies students! xo