Theoretical Research

There are three theorists that I will be looking at in particular throughout the process of my creation of a music video, this is because I feel they will help me with my new idea of a narrative story line and they will open my eyes to other concept ideas for my music video.  

 

VLADIMIR PROPP

Vladimir Propp was born on April 17, 1895 in St. Petersburg to a German family. He concluded that all the characters could be resolved into 8 broad character types:

1. The villain — struggles against the hero.  

2. The dispatcher — character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off.

3. The (magical) helper — helps the hero in their quest. 

4. The princess or prize — the hero deserves her throughout the story but is unable to marry her because of an unfair evil, usually because of the villain. The hero's journey is often ended when he marries the princess, thereby beating the villain.

5. Her father — gives the task to the hero, identifies the false hero, and marries the hero, often sought for during the narrative. Propp noted that functionally, the princess and the father cannot be clearly distinguished.

6. The donor — prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object.

7. The hero or victim/seeker hero — reacts to the donor, weds the princess.

8. False hero — takes credit for the hero’s actions or tries to marry the princess.

These roles could sometimes be distributed among various characters, as the hero kills the villain dragon, and the dragon's sisters take on the villainous role of chasing him. Conversely, one character could engage in acts as more than one role, as a father could send his son on the quest and give him a sword, acting as both dispatcher and donor.

This connects to my own music video as I wish to create the concept of a Villain and Hero. My idea could indicate that at the beginning, when the person is lost and lost faith and hope in them self, that the people could be their own enemy (there own villain), then when it comes to the end and they begin to feel confident and find them selves, they become a hero!

Claude Lévi-Strauss 

‘The world began without the human race and will certainly end without it.’

Claude Lévi-Strauss (28 November 1908 – 30 October 2009) was a French anthropologist and ethnologist. He argued that the "savage" mind had the same structures as the "civilized" mind and that human characteristics are the same everywhere.

•French anthropologist

•Developed the theory of ‘binary oppositions’

~ Villian and Hero

~ Life and Death

~ Happy and Sad

~ Strong and Weak

~ East and West

These are all Binary oppositions. This again connects to my music video with the idea of having a good and a bad within my video, and again connecting to good and evil with the persons different personalities and attitudes to her life.

Todorov

Tzvetan Todorov born March 1, 1939 in Sofia. He has lived in France since 1963
Todorov looked into the idea of breaking up something into three sections. •Equilibrium (The beginning, where everything is normal and day to day life)


•Disruption (Something happens that changes the normal day to day life, and usually consists of a bad situation or problem)

•New Equilibrium (Where the situation has been resolved and everything is all good again)

This relates entirely to my idea for my music video as you see the transformation form a normal girl, to enquiring a problem and changing into someone who feels very lost, hopeless and lonely. Then at the end, finally conquering all and becoming that "hero" and having her life back to normal but usually with something extra special in her life now that would not of been there before.

Stuart Hall - Audience Reception Theory
Stuart Hall has this theory that with any text there are different types of audience reception...