Film Analysis

 Levi-Struass 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 drematicise the filmaker as auteur and apply a more scientific approach to uncover the underlying structures of film.

Vladmir Propp:
Created Russian folk tales to identify a basic narrative element.
Propp's character types:

Hero - Harry Potter - Defeating Voldemort
Villain - Voldemort - Trying to kill Harry Potter
Dispatcher - Hagrid - Helping Harry with resoruces and info
Donor - Dumbledore - Gave Harry the Gryfindor Sword
Princess - Ginny - To have a crush on Harry
Princess's Father - Arthur Weasly - To guide Harry 
The false hero - Malfoy - Tries to get most house points
The helper - ron and hermoine - friends of Harry

Key Terms:
Verisimilitude:
How real the world of the story appears to the audience - is it beleivable, for example.

Diegetic/Non diegetic world:
The world in which the film takes place.

Juxtaposition:
Placing one object next to another to create meaning.

Narrative theory:
Theories that catagoirises narratives and find features common to them.

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


Avengers:
1 - The tessaract is safe at Sheild HQ
2 - Loki Steals the tessaract
3 - Avengers are formed
4 - Avengers fight and defeat Loki
5 - Avengers take back the tessaract and stop a destructive alien invasion / takeover.

Action + Enigma Codes - Roland Barthes:
Action codes - what will happen next?
She falls... Does he catch her?
She has been caught... what will he do with her?

Enigma codes - The audience question why...? Why is there a shoe on the floor?

Denotation - what you can see.
Connotation - what is the meaning that is derived. 

Genre and Audience pleasures:
Rick Altman argues that genre offers audiences a set of pleasures:
Emotional, Visceral, intellectual.

















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