Saturday, 11 October 2014

Thriller theory

                                         Media theory


There are many theory’s used in thriller some of these theory are used in every movie genre e.g., action adventure, horror, comedy, sci -fi, romance etc.  Here below are some of the theories and how it is used.

Enigma Code
Enigma codes presents questions to the audience which are then responded shortly after or later on in the film. For instance, who is he? Where is he going? Why is he doing that? They're questions permit the spectators to get captivated by the film and they become more curious with pushes them wanting to watch more of it. This is the Enigma codes acting because the curiosity pushes them to find out what happens next in the story and this helps to move the narrative.
 There are three different code under the enigma code.

Roland Bathes code
Definition of Code – a sign or convention through which the media communicates meaning to us because we have learned to read it. Technical codes – all to do with the way a text is technically constructed – camera angles, framing, typography, lighting etc. Visual codes – codes that are decoded on a mainly connotation level – things that draw on our experience and understanding of other media texts, this includes Iconography – which is concerned with the use of visual images and how they trigger the audiences expectations of a particular genre, such as a knife in slather horror films.

The bathes code interpreter that you have a film or story that you can interpret the whole story in a different way because the message throughout the story isn't straight forward. Also theirs no begin or ending to the film.  This can leave the audience in suspense depending whether it’s an open or closed story. Which falls into the Hermeneutic code you keep questioning everything that's happening because the hermetic code is been thrown in to keep the audience in suspense and questioning and avoid telling the true fact. 
The proairetic code is like the first code but its more in depth than the beginning of the movie. You can also say that the symatic code keeps the audience or reader guessing through the film or story because they are more than one meaning in general. The story line can be anything it’s up to the audience have to try and make out the meaning with all the deviance and clue that's given so far. 

However the cultural code is different to hermeneutic code because there’s only one story one truth and the story cannot be interpreted in another way. So the need interpret the stormy line in your own word isn't need, because everything is straight forward.

On the other hand, the symbolic code points to many part of the text or scene that can be interpreted in more than one way. For example inspector call the whole story was a mystery which was never solved. The inspector Goole as well the Birling family gave us clues along the way in order to try and solve the mystery, little did we know that there’s no end to the mystery it’s an open there’s no end to it because after the inspector makes everyone confesses and Gerald croft comes in and  inform the family about his latest discovery about the inspector . the family get their confidence back and as they head toward the study room were the inspector was and they find him gone  and a few minutes later the phone rings stating that a girl called eva smith is dead and an inspector is coming over .  

Binary Opposites

Claude Levi- staruus was a French anthropologist .he believed that human’s brain relates every term with other that has opposite meaning. For example left & right, night & day, sun & moon, they are opposites but it’s not always opposite often dominant VS subdominant. An example of a movie that clearly demonstrate this is Maleficent.








Laura Mulveys : The Male Gaze

Her theory was that women are viewed as sexual objects of male’s erotic desires. In a film the camera deliberately act as a Audience is forced to identify the male gaze whether that be it by the characters or the way the camera has captured it. E.g. if the camera lingers on the curve of the female body, events that occur to woman are presented largely in the context of a man’s reaction to these events.


Woman are not seen to take the major parts in film, they always have a side role, they do not move the plot forward. They play passive roles, only slow the  narrative. Cinema is a male dominated society. E.g. films like North by North west, Indiana Jones , Man of steel , Hercules are all male dominated.


Todorov's narrative theory 

His theory was presented in 1969. He believed that this theory can be applied in any type of film. he believed all films follow the same narrative pattern, through various stages:

1) There is a state of equilibrium at the beginning.
2) A disruption of that state by an action.
3) A acknowledgement that the disorder has occurred.
4) An attempt to repair the disorder the disturbance had made.
5) A return of restoration of a new equilibrium.

for example: Love &Basketball , Toy story , Takers , Orphan etc...


The Mcguffy

The  McGuffey is a plot device in the form of some goal design object or other motivator that the protagonist pursues, often with little or no narrative explanation. Hitchcock said the McGuffey is the plot device that causes the action to happen. it usually come in the first part of the film and sometimes return at the end.


Narrative

The classical  Hollywood  narrative is a dominant form of story telling in cinema that was introduce sometimes between the 1920 to 1930. it follows the unspoken rule which is typically excepted from the audience though it was introduce in the 19 centuries it is still commonly  used in today's films.There's a three act structure which shows an obvious format which we are familiar with. another important distinction in narrative is between open and closed texts
  1. Problem is introduces early in the movies
  2. Characters work on the problem
  3. the problem is then later on solved in the end.

Vladimir propps character theory .