Does our trailer fit in with any narrative structures?

The narrative structures ensures that the story is defined and enables the audience to understand the messages within the film, which ensures the film has meaning throughout. This is also true of a trailer, even though much of the narrative should not be given away for the trailer to be considered successful.

One narrative structure was created by Tzvetan Todorov and involves five stages of a narrative. However, this can be broken down into three stages: a beginning (equilibrium), middle (disruption to the equilibrium by some crisis or action) and end (equilibrium reinstated). This is conventional narrative structure. My plot fits in with this structure as at the beginning the students in the school are just going about their daily business- everything is normal. Mindy joins the school and disrupts this with her jealousy and revenge. The reinstated equilibrium is not shown in the trailer, as we do not want to give too much away, but it is reinstated by her death and the fact she can no longer murder anyone.

The other two middle stages of Todorovs structure are:

Stage 3- The characters recognise the equilibrium has been disrupted and that there is a problem. This is true in our trailer because the character Riley realises that students are going missing.

Stage 4- The characters try to repair and change this disrupt and gain back the equilibrium that was disrupted. This means that obstacles need to be overcome to be able to regain equilibrium. This is where Riley tries to uncover what is really happening and tries to resolve it.

Even though we have been conventional with our narrative structure, once Riley discovers what is actually going on, the audience discover the twist, which is like an additional stage.

Another narrative structure was created by Vladimir Propp (dealing with characters/spheres of action). He stated that characters can be categorised into seven 'spheres of action'. These include: hero, villain, donor, helper, princess/prince, dispatcher and false hero. Films do not always use all of the 'spheres of action' and some characters can convey one or more of the spheres.

These 'spheres of action' (and which 'Paranoia' character would fit into the category:

Hero: The person/people who tries to restore the equilibrium = Riley

Villain: The person/people who's task is to disrupt the equilibrium = Mindy

Donor: The person/people who gives the hero something. This could include advice or significant information = this does not apply to our film

Helper: The person/people who aids the hero with their set task = at first, Heather, but later on, it does not apply

Princess (Prince): The person/people who need help, protecting and saving = Stella and Reuben (at the end)

Dispatcher: The person/people who send the hero(s) on their quest = this does not apply, because Riley decides for herself to solve the issue

Fasle Hero: The person/people who set out to undermine the hero's quest by pretending to aid them. Often unmasked at the end of the film = Mindy