Question 1b: Narrative

I have looked at several narrative theories and came to the conclusion that instead of just applying one of them to my work I am going to use a few of them and apply them to my work through the media language.

I am going to use Todorov's theory and have a Equilibrium, Disequilibrium and a Re-Equilibrium.

The Disruption will be the "Green Toad" defeating the main character "Jordan". I will create the Disequilibrium through the media language by using a close up on the fight, the diagetic sounds of the "Green Toads" evil laugh, The diagetic voice over and the setting completely changing from Lego to the real world. All of these concepts will illustrate to the target audience when the Disequilibrium is happening. I want to use this theory to create the effect of a story or quest in my media product that the audience can follow.

I am also going to use Propp's theory but in a twisted entropic way. The list below apply my own characters to Propp's theory:

Hero: Jordan- This is shown by a close up on his face and being the one with the most importance, the camera will always follow him so he becomes centre of attention. This is important as it is crucial the audience recognise who's playing who.

Villain- The Green Toad- This is shown by sound effects of him destroying things, a close up of him with a diagetic sound of his evil laugh and the voice over using negative words like "slimy" which are suitable for the target audience and will make them understand the difference between good and evil in my work.

I wanted to be redundant here so the audience can understand the important part of the narrative in my text but I wanted to be entropic as well so I make "evil" victorious over Good" to see if the audience will accept the text.

This leads me onto the next theory I'm going to use. I'm going to mix propp's theory with Levi-Strauss theory of Binary opposites. It is very important to me that I create a Children's TV Drama which clearly shows the concept of "Good" and "Evil". And by using Propp's idea of a "Hero and Villain" and using the media language to illustrate this, I can create binary oppositions where one side of which will be represented as the "right" side that my target audience should identify with and support. To help me achieve this I am going to use the "right" side of the binary opposition represent dominant values.

The idea of "Good" and Evil" are used in almost every Children's TV drama. I wanted to be the same as I want the audience to understand and follow my text like they would with similar texts. This is mostly because I want keep an element of mainstream to attract a large audience.

Lastly I am going to use Restricted narration through voice overs to create an "all seeing" effect which will create suspense and surprise for the audience. I want to create a text where the audience become attached to the main character and I think restricted narration is the best way to do this as it allows the narrative to only revolve around him and the audience will only know what he knows creating a sense of mystery and therefore making the audience become attached as they want to know what happens next.