Joseph Campbell's 'Universal Hero Monomyth'

Joseph Campbell created the influential work 'The Hero with a Thousand Faces' and with this he developed the idea of 'Universal Hero Monomyth.' 

This idea suggest there is an underlying structure of iconography, themes, concepts and narrative structure that is common to the religions, myths and legends of almost every culture in the world. Great success such as George Lucas was influenced by this in order to create 'Star Wars' as in conforms to the Universal Hero Monomyth is every way. 

Ordinary World – The ordered world that the hero will choose (or be forced) to abandon.

Call To Adventure – A problem or challenge arises.

Refusal Of The Call – Fear or reluctance may strike the hero.

Meeting With The Mentor – The mentor is a key character.

Crossing The First Threshold – The hero commits to the adventure.

Test, Allies, Enemies – The hero must learn the rules that will govern his quest.

Approach To The Innermost Cave – The most dangerous confrontation yet, perhaps the 

                                                                     location of the treasure, or the object of the quest.

Ordeal – The hero must face his fear or mortal enemy who will seem more powerful. Mental or

                 physical torture may occur.

Reward (Seizing The Sword) – The hero can celebrate the victory.

The Road Back – Vengeful forces controlled by the villain are unleashed.

Resurrection – Perhaps a final confrontation with death.

Return With The Elixir – Return to the ordinary world with some wisdom,  knowledge or 

                                              something else gained from the adventure.

Although I haven't followed this narrative structure from the start of my production, I still feel my story line can follow the 'Universal Hero Monomyth' and this is how it would look. 

Ordinary World - Protagonist always stays at home, not many friends playing WoW all the 

                                time. 

Call to Adventure - Grandad becomes ill, this creates a problem

Refusal of The Call - Protagonist does not go and visit his Grandad, despite being asked. 

Meeting with Mentor - Mum, who becomes a main role, tells the protagonist about Grandad.

Crossing the First Threshold - Now than the protagonist is benefiting from his Grandad he 
                                                           begins to go 'off the rails' which is ultimately the start of his 
                                                          'quest' ahead. 

Test, Allies, Enemies - He is told to be sensible with his money and is given different 
                                          suggestions of how he can spend it or use it wisely. 

Approach to the Innermost Cave - Rather than a confrontation, the protagonist is more 
                                                                 swept into a world of 'misuse' and finds a way of enjoying
                                                                 his new income.

Ordeal - Everything begins to go wrong with the protagonists life as he begins to lose family 
                and friends. He begins to fight against them in a way. 

Reward (Seizing the Sword) - Protagonist begins to celebrate as he feels as though he is
                                                        more important now and can do as he pleases. 

The Road Back - He is kicked out of his home and realises that 'the battle' is not won just yet. 

Resurrection - After realising he has done wrong, the protagonist tries to undo what has
                           become of him and wishes to put things back to normal. 

Return with the Elixir - After the whole quest, the protagonist returns back to normal life at 
                                           home with the remainder of his money, more respect for his family
                                           and begins a more successful and sensible lifestyle. 

Vladmir Propp Character Theory

Vladmir Propp was a Russian theorist who studied the narrative structure of Russian Folk Tales. He concluded that within all of the 100 folk tales he analysed, all the characters could be resolved in seven broad character types. 

These different character types were as follows, with Star Wars examples: 

The Villain - The Character that struggles against a hero  (e.g. Darth Vader)

The Donor - Prepares the hero giving him equipment that will become useful. (e.g. Obi-Wan,
                        Yoda)

The (magical) Helper - The character that assists the hero throughout his journey. (e.g. Han 
                                          Solo, C3PO, R2D2)

The Princess and Her Father - This character gives the task to the hero and identifies the 
                                                          false hero. The princess often marries the hero and is sought 
                                                         for throughout the narrative. Propp noted that functionally, the 
                                                         princess and father cannot always be clearly distinguished. 
                                                         (e.g.Princess Leia) 

The Dispatcher - This character makes the lack known and that there is something wrong and
                                 therefore sends the hero off. (e.g. Obi-Wan) 

The Hero or Victim/ Seeker Hero - This is the character that reacts to the donor and weds the
                                                                 princess. (e.g. Luke Skywalker)

False Hero - This character takes credit for all the work the real hero has done and therefore 
                        tries to marry the princess. (e.g. Han Solo?) 

My film does not have a lot of different characters featured within the narrative, it is mainly focused around the one character but 'The Hero' would be the main protagonist 'Sam Shaw' because it is mainly based around his life and despite doing wrong tries to fix everything which therefore makes his Mum 'The Dispatcher' as she highlights how his Grandad is ill but also how he has messed everything up. 'The Donor' would be the Grandad who passes away because if it wasn't for him giving all his money to the protagonist then he would never have experienced a 'new way of life.' In a way, 'The Villain' is also the main protagonist because, despite him being 'The Hero' as well, he is struggling against what he has done in order to fix everything.                                            

Kate Domaille's Narrative Theory

Kate Domaille believed every story ever told can be fitted into one of eight narrative types. Each of these narrative types has a source, an original story upon which the others are based. These stories are as follows:

Achilles - The fatal flaw that will eventually lead to the destruction of the 'flawless' for example 

                   Superman.

Candide - This is the story that the indomitable hero cannot be put down. Examples are James 

                   Bond, Rocky etc. 

Cinderella - This story is when dreams come true and it's happy, more seen in romantic 

                       genre's such as Pretty Woman. 

Circe - This is about a chase, hero versus villain. A battle between the good and the bad. 

Faust - This narrative story is more about 'selling your soul to the devil' and becoming better off  

              but will ultimately fail and your soul will belong to the devil. 

Orpheus - In this narrative, something personal or loved becomes lost or taken and therefore 

                    the narrative follows the journey in order to retrieve what has been lost. An example 

                   would be 'Taken.' 

Romeo & Juliet - This is the 'love story.' A romance between two characters. An good 

                               example is 'Titanic' and possibly 'Dirty Dancing.' 

Tristan & Iseult - Yet again more often seen in romantic genres, a love triangle. When a 

                                character loves another however they are already spoken for or a third party   

                                becomes involved. 

Out of all these narrative types I believe my film follows the 'Faust' narrative structure. The reason being is because, although he doesn't sell his soul to the devil, the protagonist has to lose something in order to gain which is my film he loses his beloved Grandad and eventually inherits all of this money. After doing so he goes off the rails and loses everything completely.  

Bordwell and Thompson Theory

Bordwell and Thompson offer two distinctions between story and plot. These relate to the deigetic world of the narrative that the audience are positioned to accept and that which the audience actually see. This is based on the Russian Film Theory:

Fabula - This is the story. This means that all the events in the narrative that we see and infer. It 
                is defined as the chronological series of events that are represented or implied. 

Syuzhet - This is the plot. This means that everything that is visible and audible are presented 
                   before the audience. Syuzhet is seen as the order, manner and techniques or their 
                   presentation in the narrative. 

The story of my film is that a boy lives at home with his Mum with not many friends and therefore doesn't get out much, even when he does get invited out he never does. His Grandma and Grandad are beloved relations and when the Grandad becomes ill it is fairly dramatic for the Mum as well as the protagonist. The Grandad and protagonist both buy a lottery ticket and the reason for the Grandad doing so was in hope that he could leave something behind. He wins but unfortunately passes away the next day leaving the winnings to his Grandson. All the winnings go to the protagonists head making his behaviour and nature completely change before finally losing everything he had before and having to rebuild his relationships. 

The plot of my story, so what the audience actually see, is that the boy is selfish and doesn't really care for much that happens in his life. He doesn't show any remorse about his Grandad passing away and instead of being sensible he uses the money that has been left behind to 'have a good time.' This ultimately goes wrong leaving the protagonist all alone and being kicked out of his house. 

Lottery Scene in film trailer

This is a scene in my film trailer that shows the protagonist walking into a shop and buying a lottery ticket. 

This scene shows the editing technique I have been influenced by in the '127 Hours' trailer. The reason it is effective is because there are several jump cuts but because the previous clip is still playing it also shows progression. Not only that, but by putting the three clips together it shortens the length of time taken to portray this scene to the audience leaving more time to highlight other key areas of the film. 

Ending to my film trailer, first edit.

This is the first edit of the ending to my film trailer. The story is, is that the protagonist has finally been kicked out of his house and is walking away, where to nobody knows. 

The first shot of the protagonist walking up to the door cuts off his head. This can be interpreted as a bad shot however, the connotations of it show that because we cannot see his face we are unsure of who this person is anymore. 

As he walks up to the camera he becomes a black silhouette. I do like this shot because it adds enigma, there is nothing to this character anymore and we know longer know who he is. 

The soundtrack I feel is pretty well timed, I will probably perfect when putting the whole piece together as well as re-shooting the shots in order to get the right angle and compare them to see what works best. Overall, not a bad first edit. 

Classic Narrative Structure

The narrative means the structure of the story, and within the narrative there is always the classic narrative structure;

Equilibrium -> Disruption -> Quest -> Resolution

Equilibrium means there is balance within the diegesis. This is generally how most media texts begin before there is a disruption. The disruption is when something within in the media text changes causing the protagonist of the text to go on a quest in order to fix the change. Finally there is re-equilibrium/resolution at the end of the media text.

A classic story-line for this narrative structure would be a protagonist is a Police Man doing his daily job, equilibrium, but then a criminal, antagonist, robs a bank which causes the disruption. The quest then becomes the protagonist chasing the antagonist and finally catching him causing a resolution.

Following the classic narrative structure, my film trailer begins with a boy who stays at home with no zest for life and nothing really changes, the disruption is then his granddad dying and him inheriting all of his money causing him to go off the rails. The quest then becomes, after being kicked out, to make up for what he has done and try to rebuild his life and relationships. However, due to this being a film trailer, the resolution cannot be revealed otherwise there would be no reason to see the film.

In order to create verisimilitude within my media text I must ensure than the narrative is believable thus creating a diegesis, a fictional place of which is takes place, that the audience can understand and relate with as well perceiving continuity and spacial and temporal coherence.