Claude Levi Strauss

Claude Levi Strauss was an thinker for European academic from the middle 20th century. He suggested that all narratives had to be driven forward by conflict that is caused by a series of opposing forces.

Binary ----> Conflict ----> Driven  narrative forward

Here are some examples of the theory of binary opposition:

- Light and Dark
- Good and Evil
- Strength and Weakness
- Right and Wrong
- Human and Alien
- Silence and Noise
- Sanity and Insanity

An example of Claude Levi's theory is used in Harry Potter the movie. As you can see below is that there is more light shown on Harry Potter as he is the good guy (victim) and the evil  mean is Voldemort has less light shown on his face so he is representing that he is evil. I can also spot that Harry looks like a normal human being whereas Voldemort looks deformed and alien type as he has no 
nose.

The Theory of the 'Male Gaze'

The theory of the male gaze was founded by Laura Mulvey. Laura Mulvey wrote s very influential essay ''Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema'' (1975.) This suggests that the way women are viewed in cinema is 'unequal'. The camera necessarily presents women as ''sexualised'' for the pleasure of men.

Overall Laura Mulvey says:
- Women are presented as sexual spectacle objects of pleasure
- Men have this gaze to avoid being 'castrated' 

Here is a diagram of the male gaze I drew in lesson explaining how the 'male gaze' works during a scene.

An example of the male gaze is Carrie (1976) in the first shower scene of the movie. As you can see in this scene in the movie is that teen age girls are happily changing in the changing rooms and smiling at each other which does not happen in reality. This is an example of a male gaze because a man would think this would happen in a girls changing room and walking about openly without clothes. Also the camera zooms up in the areas Carrie is washing herself in the shower without showing a lot but shows how a male would be pleased by it.

Critical Theory!

Here are some opinions from some critics based on the movie Halloween (1978.)

Halloween (1978)

Last week during my media lessons, I have been looking with my class at the move Halloween (1978) and how the director uses camera angles and shots for specific reasons to make scenes scary. What I found different about this horror movie is that the first scene is from a point of view shot of the killer and that he is walking around and in the house. Then as the killer is about to murder the girl who so is the killers sister, puts on a mask which can see through as it is a point of view which makes me feel uncomfortable seeing as the audience. In the end of the scene we find out that the killer is a young boy who was the girl who he just killed little brother. Due to editing I found that after finding out that a young boy was a killer, the pace of the point of view shot was slow which seemed to me as an viewer that a child does not know what he is exactly doing and if he is doing something wrong whereas a normal killer would be rushing and running with tension.

Here is the trailer to the movie:

Common Conventions of Horror

I researched and came up with a list of what I usually see in most horror films generally. By doing this it would help me create my horror trailer by looking at the common conventions that are usually used in most horror movies and will apply it in my way in my trailer.

Conventions of  Horror Genre =

Mise-en-scene:

-Knives

- Blood stains

- Darkness

- Isolated places (big empty houses, countryside – away from the city)

- Contrast between light and dark (normally to represent the characters)

Camera work and editing:

- Quick cuts

- Hand held shots (documentary)

- Zoom

- Slow panning

- Point of view 

- Eye line match

Music and sound:

- Slow calm music then goes silence (e.g. insidious 2)

- Loud frightening music

- High pitched screaming

- Phone ringing.

Common characters:

- Innocent child which is usually the villain until it is revealed in the end

- Men/women wearing red to symbolise danger

- Ghosts/spirits

Icons:

- Dolls moving 

- Big knives 

- White masks e.g. scream

- Candles

- Religious Imagery e.g. cross 

Narrative and themes:

-Hybrid

- Slasher

- Zombies/aliens

- Paranormal (e.g. spirits) 

Todorov's Theory

Todorov was a Franco-Bulgarian philosopher who lived in France since 1963. His work on narrative theories from the 1960s onwards, suggested that stories in films begins with a equilibrium or status quo where any potential opposing forces are in balance. This is then disrupted by an event which sets a chain of series of events and then problems are resolved so that everything goes how is mean to be in the world of fiction.

Equilibrium = State of well being and normality between the protagonists.

Disequilibrium = Normality is disrupted  due to a conflict or an occurrence of an event.

New equilibrium = The outer force is defeated and a new state of well being s acquired.

 I applied Todorov's theory on the film Insidious 2 as well...

Equilibrium: everyone starts settling down in the grandmothers house without tension whilst their old house was causing them problems.

Disequilibrium: The same things that happened in insidious 1 started to happen in the grandmother’s house with the piano playing and things being moved about at night times.
New Equilibrium: In the end they get rid of the bad spirit and the family is safe and at peace.

Propp's Theory