Propp's character types, enigma codes, micro/macro features, camera techniques

Vladamir Propp was a Russian and soviet formalist scholar. He analysed the plot components of Russian folk tales to identify their basic narrative elements.

He looked at one hundred folk tales and came to the conclusion that they were all made up of 31 plot elements, which he called functions. 

He also found that despite the large number of characters which appeared in the folk tales, there were only 7 character types.

7 character types: 

The villain 

The helper 

The princess or prize

Her father

The donor 

The hero 

The false hero 

The dispatcher 

Todorov's Equilibrium Theory:

Order of events in every disaster movie:
1. Equilibrium 
2. Disruption of equilibrium by an event
3. A realisation that the disruption has happened 
4. An attempt to repair the damage or disruption 
5. A restoration of equilibrium

Tzvetan Todorov proposed a basic structure for all narratives. He stated that films and programmes begin with an equilibrium, a calm period. Then agents of disruption cause disequilibrium, a period of unsettlement and disquiet. This is then followed by a renewed state of peace and harmony for the protagonists and a new equilibrium brings the chaos to an end.

key terms:

verisimilitude: how real the world of the story appears to the audience - is it believable (eg).

Diegesis/ diegetic world: the world in which the film takes place.

juxtaposition: placing one object next to another to create meaning.

narrative theory: theories can categorise narratives and find features too common to them.

Levi-Strauss and Binary Opposition:

“Cinema is a set of universal rules, a set of relations that could be described as the grammar of film”.

Levi-Strauss theorised that since all cultures are products of the human brain, there must be, beneath the surface, features that are common to all.

Structuralism attempted to deromanticise the filmmaker as auteur and apply a more scientific approach to uncover the underlying structures of film.

LEVI-STRAUSS’ BINARY OPPOSITION 

Narrative tension is based on opposition or conflict. This can be as simple as two characters fighting, but more often functions at an ideological level.

Action and enigma codes - Roland Barthes

Barthes enigma code: refers to any element of the story that is not fully explained and hence becomes a mystery to the reader.

Action codes: An action code is simply a reminder of some future event or action important to the case. 

Denotation: what you can see ( obvious features)
Connotation: the meaning you derive from a text. For example, we have many different associations with the colour red, such as anger, passion and glamour.
When analysing a text, it is important to consider these connotations. So in an episode of X factor, why is the set blue in colour? why is the logo red?.

Genre and Audience Pleasures:

Rick Altman argues that genre offers audiences a set of pleasures:

Emotional Pleasures

How does the text make you feel? – happy, sad, nostalgic etc.

Visceral Pleasures

Gut responses such as excitement, fear, laughter

Intellectual Pleasures

Does it make the audience think?

micro features:


Micro features: 

mise-en-scene: 
props
setting
blocking
colour palette
lighting
hair
makeup
performance; facial expressions, body language, hand gestures


Camera work:
shot size; XCU, CU, MCU, MS, MLS, LS,XLS
camera movement: dolly, crane, tilt, (up/down)
pan (l/r)
handheld
tracking
POV shot
camera angle; bird's eye, high, eye-line/level, worm's eye


Sound: 
diegetic: ambient sound/background sound, foley

non-diegetic: music (score), voiceover, hyperreal
(also known as diegesis)

Editing: 
pacing
length of cuts
transition - dissolve, fade, straight cut, wipe
elliptical editing
shot/ reverse shot
180* rule


Macro features:

narrative
aesthetics
representation
ideology 
genre
stereotype



Camera techniques:

• Camera techniques are one of the most essential parts of any narrative or fictional program/film.
• Camera Shots are used to demonstrate the different aspects of setting, themes and characters. 
• Camera Angles are used to position the viewer so that they can understand the relationship between the characters. 
• Both camera angles and shots are very important for shaping meaning in film as well as in other visual texts. 

birds eye angle:

• A birds eye angle is an angle that looks directly down upon a scene. This angle is often used as an establishing angle, to establish setting. 
• A birds eye angle will be used if the director wants to make a dramatic comment on a character or scene.

This is from Regeneration. 

The effect of this shot is to show the viewer the madness of War.

High angle:

• A high angle is an angle that looks down upon a subject. A character shot in this angle will look small and vulnerable. 
• This type of angle is commonly used to show the audience a perspective of a particular character. 
• High angles can also be used similarly to Birds Eye, in the sense it can be used to draw the attention of the viewer to the importance of an environment or setting of the specific scene.

Eye-line angle: 

• An Eye-Line Angle is a shot taken from a neutral angle.
•  This is the most common angle found in films. This shot allows the audience to feel comfortable with the character. 
• They are used to photograph scenes that explain the story development.

Low angle: 

• With this angle, the audience looks up at the character. 
• This is used to make a character seem powerful and to make an audience feel small and vulnerable. 
• The director will use this angle to symbolically show the importance of a character without actually telling the audience. 

Blade Runner:



Depth of Field ( DOF): 

• Depth Of Field is the media term which refers to the different ranges of shot from the camera.

This is a very important concept in video work, for two reasons: 

1. To have full control over your focus
2. Being able to manipulate DOF opens up a massive range of creative of creative possibilities.

Shallow:

• Also referred to as a ‘small DOF’, this technique may be used when only a small amount of the image is in sharp focus; with the background or surrounding areas in view being blurred out, to not distract the viewers attention. 
• This DOF is particularly well suited to portrait and product photography.

Deep: 

• A large DOF is most often associated with landscape photography, but it can also be used in architectural photography. 
• It is also known as the storytelling DOF because it can have multiple visual storylines or characters at various points of the photos. 
• There are 4 factors that affect depth of field: aperture, distance (between you and the subject), focal length and the sensor size. 

Track and Dolly:

• This a camera movement where the camera is mounted on a cart which travels along tracks, producing a very smooth movement. 
• A dolly zoom is a technique where the camera moves closer or further from the subject while simultaneously adjusting the zoom angle to keep the subject the same size in the frame. 

Pan and Tilt:

• Panning means swivelling a still or video camera horizontally from a fixed position. 
• This motion is similar to the motion of a person when they turn their head on their neck from left to right. 
• Tilting is a cinematographic technique in which the camera stays in a fixed position but rotates up/down in a vertical plane. 
• Tilting the camera results in a motion similar to someone raising or lowering their head to look up or down. 

Crane and Zoom: 

• In filmmaking and video production, a crane shot is a shot taken by a camera on a moving crane or jib. 
• Crane shots are often found in what are supposed to be emotional or suspenseful scenes. 
• With a zoom shot, the camera is mounted on a cart which travels along tracks for a very smooth movement. It may also be referred to as a tracking shot or trucking shot. 
• Dolly zoom is a technique where the camera moves closer or further from the subject the same size in the frame.

Shot size:
There are many different types of shot size:

1. Extreme Long Shot (XLS)
2. Long Shot (LS)
3. Medium Long Shot (MLS)
4. Mid Shot (MS)
5. Medium Closeup (MCU)
6. Closeup (CU)
7. Big Closeup (BCU)
8. Extreme Closeup (ECU)

Extreme long shot and long shot: 

• Extreme Long Shots or wide shots mainly show the setting: if they include people, they’ll be very small. 

• These types of shots can be used as establishing shots at the beginning of a film or a sequence to show where the scene is set. 
• Long Shots show people from head to toe. 
• These are good for showing people together, for showing action.

Medium long shots and mid shots:

• Medium Long Shots are closer. They’re sometimes called three-quarter shots because that’s how much of the body they include. 
• Mid Shots show people from their hips to head.
• These kinds of shots are easier to use than closeup, particularly subjects, but they don’t have as much impact.

Medium close up and close up:

• Closeups let the audience see the expressions and emotions.
• A medium closeup shows the head and shoulders. It is a fairly loose shot, so the subject can move a bit. This is a good shot for presentations to camera.
• A Closeup shows the head and maybe a bit of the shoulders.

Big close up and extreme close up:

• Big closeup just shows the main feature of somebody’s face, showing a strong emotion like sadness, or to make somebody look scary. 
• Extreme Closeups show just part of somebody’s face like the eyes or the mouth.

Sound: 

In media there is 2 different types of sound:

1. Diegetic 
2. Non-diegetic

Sound is part of the production process but mostly within the Post-Production process.

Diegetic sound:

• Diegetic sound is sound coming from a source that is visible on the screen/the source is implied to be present by the action of the film.
• Diegetic Sound can be: Voices of characters, sound made by objects in the story or music represented as coming from instruments in the story space.
• Another term for diegetic sound is actual sound.

Non-diegetic sound:

• Non-Diegetic Sound is neither visible on the screen nor has been implied to be present in the action.
• This can be: Narrators commentary, sound effects which is added for dramatic effector ‘mood music’.
• It is represented as coming from a source which is outside the story space.

Transitions:

• This is a type of editing that would take place during the creation of a media project. 
• It is a technique used in the post-production of film editing and video editing-combining scenes or shots.
• Most commonly this is through a normal cut to the next shot. 

Pacing:

• Pacing occurs when the editor varies the length of the shots thus guiding the viewer in their emotional response to the scene. 
• Rapid Pacing suggests intensity and excitement. 
• Slower Pacing is more relaxed and thoughtful.

Mise-en-scène:

• Mise-en-scène refers to the arrangement of the setting, props, lighting, hair and makeup and framing and composition. The stage of a theatrical production or on the set of a film. 
• It can also refer to the setting or surrounding of an event.

Framing:

• The concept of Framing is one that is related to the agenda-setting tradition, but expands the research by focusing on the essence of the issues at hand rather than on a particular topic. 
• The basis of framing theory is that the media focuses attention on certain events and then places them within a field of meaning. 

Proxemics:

• This term is a complicated-sounding term that is used to describe a very simple thing; where you place objects, especially actors in a specific frame.
• In much simpler terms, Proxemics refers to the study of the distance between objects.

Production roles:

pre-production: this is where preparations are made for the production of the film. The production company is created and a production office established. The film is pre-visualised by the director, and may be storyboarded with the help of illustrators and concept artists. A production budget is drawn up to plan expenditures for the film. The producer hires a crew who carefully design and plan the film.

• Storyboard artist: Creates visual images for the director to see. 
• Director: Responsible for the storytelling, creative decisions and acting of the film.
• Assistant director (AD): Manages the shooting schedule and logistics of the production.
• Script Editor: Makes changes to the script and shows it to the director 
• Unit production manager: Manages the production budget and production schedule. 
• Location manager: Finds and manages film locations. 
• Production designer: Creates the visual conception of the film
• Art director: Manages the art department
• Costume designer: Creates the clothing for the characters 
• Casting director: Finds actors to fill the parts in the script.
• Choreographer: Creates and coordinates the movement and dance 
• Sound designer: Creates the aural conception of the film 
• Composer: Creates new music for the film.
• Production sound mixer: The head of the sound department who record and mix the audio on set.

production and post-production: 

• Executive Producer
• Line Producer
• Production Manager
• Production Coordinator
• Assistant Director
• Property master
• Script supervisor
• Assistant directors
• Stills photographer
• Picture editor
• Sound editors
• The clapper