Propp and Todorov's Narrative Theory

Vladimir Yakovlevich Propp was born on the 17th April 1895 and died 22 August 1970. He used the narrative structure in a formalist way and after breaking down many different Russian folk tales he believed that every film was made up of these eight main characters.

1. The villain who struggles against the hero.

2. The donor who prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object.

3. The (magical) helper who helps the hero in the quest.

4. The princess or prize — the hero deserves her throughout the story but is unable to marry her because of an unfair evil, usually because of the villain. The hero's journey is often ended when he marries the princess, thereby beating the villain.

5. Her father who gives the task to the hero, identifies the false hero, marries the hero, often sought for during the narrative. Propp noted that functionally, the princess and the father can not be clearly distinguished.

6. The dispatcher who character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off.

7. The hero or victim who reacts to the donor and weds the princess.

8. The false hero who takes credit for the hero’s actions or tries to marry the princess.

Tsvetan Todorov was born in Sofia on March 1st 1939. He believed that stories began with an equilibrium or status quo which was then disturbed or disrupted by an event or problem and finally the all would be resolved and everything brought back to its normal state. This is usually broken up into these three stages:

1. Equilibrium (Normality)

2. Disequilibrium (Normality is interrupted)

3. New Equilibrium (A new normality appears, however this may not be good)

In my film trailer I use the idea of Todorov's theory. The way I portray this in my film is that the equilibrium at the beginning of my trailer is when the women is with her fiance, where they are both happy and feel they are living the perfect lives. The disequilibrium, where normality is disrupted is when her fiancé goes crazy on her and his personality splits into two. The new equilibrium is then where she settles down in her new town with her new boyfriend and feels her life is returning to normality.