Media Theorists

Traditional Hollywood Narrative Structure-3 acts (linear)

• The traditional Hollywood Narrative Structure consists of three main acts. 
• Act 1:(25%) Set-up
• Act 2: (50%) Confrontation
• Act 3: (25%) Climax
• Follows a linear chronology consisting of few, if any, sub-plots with a tendency towards closure at the end of the film.

Roland Barthes-Enigma Codes.

• An Enigma: A Mystery.
• All texts are complex bundles of meaning.
• Enigma Codes (problem introduced)-usually takes place during the confrontation stage
• Closed texts: resolved at the end.(most common occurrence-"fairy tale ending")
• Open texts: Not resolved at the end
• Polysemic Texts: Has various different meanings

Levi Strauss-Binary Opposites.

• Narratives can be organised through binary opposition (two things opposed)  - usually dominant vs subordinate - e.g: hero/villain, male/female.

Todorov-Narrative Theory-5 Stages.

• Todorov produced his 5 stage theory in 1969
• He believed to be able to be applied to any film.
• Todorov believed that all films followed the same narrative pattern through various different stages:

1. A state of Equilibrium(all is as it should be).
2. A disruption of that order by an event.
3. A recognition that the disorder has occurred.
4. An attempt to repair the damage of the disruption
5. A return, or restoration, of a new Equilibrium.

Vladimir Propp-Character types.

• Through analysing traditional folk stories Propp discovered that there are eight main character types: 

1. Hero
2. Villain
3. Helper
4. Donor(Provider)
5. Father
6. Dispatcher
7. Princess
8. False Hero.

• One character can perform more than one role.

Laura Mulvey-Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.

• The theory of the male gaze
• In the cinematic world women are viewed as objects of male erotic desire
• Men are active/Women are passive.
• Women do not have agency-Do not advance the plot forward.
• The audience is more often than not audience is to identify with the male gaze.
• Cinema reflects the male dominated patriarchal society.
• Patriarchy and phallocentrism are linked-phallus is a symbol of power e.g. in film guns=phallus=power.