What I learnt in Media Term 1

In my term of studying media we studied narrative and then applied it to the film Avatar using propps theory of what happens in a film.

This is propps 8 Character theories;

The Hero – a character that seeks something.

The Villain – who opposes or actively blocks the hero’s quest.

The Donor – who provides an object with magical properties.

The Dispatcher – who sends the hero on his/her quest via a message

The False Hero – who disrupts the hero’s success by making false claims.

The Helper – who aids the hero.

The Princess – acts as the reward for the hero and the object of the villain’s plots.

Her Father – who acts to reward the hero for his effort.

We then watched the film Avatar and applied the character fuctions to this film to see if it had followed propps functions.

Aswell as this theory we also studied other narrative thoeries, these include:

Todorov- this is the theory that each film follows the same structure. It starts with a period of calm, and equilibrium, which is then disrupted. The disequilibrium is then brought to an end by the hero, and the chaos comes to an end

Roland Barthes- barthes suggested that narrative works with 5 different codes these are;
Action, Enigma, Symbolic, Semic, Cultural.

Claude Levi Strauss- Strauss' theory was of binary opposition.