Narrative - Insidious

Narrative - Insidious

Narrative is a way of organising various spatial and worldy data into a cause and effect, chain of effects, with a beginning, middle and end. Narrative contains judgments about the nature of various events as well as demonstrates how it is is possible to know, and hence to narrate the events. Narative does this in 3 ways; structure, roles and codes.

Todorov looked at structure, and found 5 key stages of narrative, he carried out his research on russian tales in 1930, so his theory may be outdated. I have compared these 5 stages to a modern horror film (Insidious), to see how realistic Todorovs theory is in todays world.

1 - State of equilibrium

A

Insidious begins in a normal manner. Everything is calm, and Dalton and his family have just moved into a new house. Everything seems normal meaning there is a state of equilibrium. 

2. A disruption of that order 

One day Dalton hears a noise in the attic and he decides to go and check it out. When investigating the noise, he falls and bangs his head. That night Dalton goes to bed as normal but in the morning he does not wake. Dalton goes into a coma, His parents think this is down to the incident which happen the night before. The equilibrium has now been distorted.

3. A recognition that the order has been distrupted

Dalton returns home, still in a coma. He is kept in his room, where he is constantly monitored by medical equipment. His family begin to notice a few strange things occurring in the family house, these include blood prints on Daltons cover, weird noises from other rooms and noises coming from the baby monitor. The family then think that the house is haunted and decide to move house to getaway from the weird and spooky house. It is then when they notice that the haunted atmosphere and the unnatural things are following them. They then realise that it is not the house that it is haunted but it is Dalton that is haunted. This means that they have now noticed that something not right is happening.

4. An attempt to repair the damage begins

The family then decides to call Elise and her two assistants to help deal with the ghosts who are haunting the Lambert family. Elise (who previously helped Daltons father when he experienced a similar problem when he was younger) helps dalton by sending his Dad into 'The further' to guide dalton back to his body so that he will then wake up and all of the unexplainable things will stop occurring.

5. A state of new equilibrium is restored

Dalton then wakes up, as his dad has saved him from 'The Further'. Everything seems o have resumed back to normal. The family, who are still extremely cautious and aware begin to try and live normally again.

This example shows that Todorovs theory is still very much apparent in todays media.

Genre - The good the bad and the ugly.

The film 'The good, the bad and the ugly' is typical to its genre by using generic conventions and codes.  The genre of the film is western. We know this because the iconography, representation, narrative and ideology used, all fits in with this specific genre.

Iconography - during a clip from this film, many close ups of guns are used. This is typical icon used in western films, as many of them include scenes where characters shoot at others with guns. Also at the time period that the film is set in, guns showed power and control. Also two of the characters shown are wearing cowboy hats. This icon also represents western films, as many characters involved have their stereotypical look, of wearing a cowboy hat, scruffy clothes and a gun holster. Many people would suggest that is a typical looking person in a western film.

Narrative - The storyline of the clip I viewed is also very typical to the genre. The scene is a shoot-out scene which is always seen in western films. Also in western films, it is usually the good who defeat the  bad, and this is shown in the scene as the individual who is considered 'good' kills the individual who is considered 'bad', making it very typical to the genre.

Representation - in the scene I watched, not one women was shown. In a typical western film, the main character are men, as in the time the scene was set, the world was very patriarchal meaning the representation of gender is also very typical to the genre used.

The male gaze - James Bond 'Die another day'

The James Bond franchise is a clear example of a film objectifying females and forcing the audience to view females via the male gaze. The scene within "Die Another Day" when James Bond meets the character Jinx demonstrates my previous statement by objectifying Jinx for the pleasure of both James Bond and also for the audience. The scene begins with a view from Bonds perspective. This instantly has the audience viewing the text through a males eyes, meaning even females are viewing other women through the eye of a man. Also when Bond sees Jinx the scene is showed in slow motion, showing how the presence of the female has slowed down the text, giving the audience time to appreciate and focus on Jinx. When Jinx begins to walk on the beach towards Bond, she walks unnaturally, over exaggerating the movement of her hips, which catches the viewers eye and also highlights that area of body meaning she is not actually being looked at as a women but as an object. When bond and Jinx meet, Bond says "magnificent view" this is clearly aimed towards Jinx, showing how he has judged her by her appearance. This then feeds in to the audience who will then solely judge other women on how they look. Also in that section of the scene Jinx is always looking up to Bond which represents the patriarchal society that we live in as Bond is in a position of power as he is being looked up to, and then Jinx is not in a position of power as she is being looked down on. Finally once Jinx has left the sea and is drying herself with the towel,  a close up of her face is used, showing that she is wearing make up and it hasn't been ruined by the sea that she is was just swimming in. This then gives a false representation of women. Women will look at this scene and think that they have look like that all the time, increasing self consciousness and the use of make up. Also males will look at this thinking that all females should look like that at all times. This is then called a hyper reality, this is because the film is not representing reality and is instead reflecting a fake reality.

stereotypical representation of gender

Stereotypical representation of gender

Insidious Chapter 2

Audience Types

Audience Types

There are two different types of audiences in media. One of these is called a mainstream audience and the other is known as a niche audience. these two different audience types are completely different.

A mainstream audience is when a media text appeals to a whole range of different people. A media text with a mainstream audience would be popular with the majority. Television programmes with a mainstream audience would be scheduled at prime time as that is when most viewers are available. They would also be on popular channels which the majority of people have access to, such as BBC1 and ITV. A media text with a mainstream audience usually has lots of uses and gratifications as there is lots of different reasons as to why people would use that media text. An example of a mainstream TV programme would be the Eastenders as it is a very popular TV show which is shown on BBC 1 at around 7 o'clock. Eastenders is a very popular show because it uses many different story lines which many different people may either relate to or enjoy to watch.

A niche audience is the opposite to mainstream. A niche media text would only appeal to a smaller group of people with specific interests and hobbies. Television programmes with niche audiences would usually be scheduled at a less popular time (such as midnight, or midday) and usually on channels with a smaller target audience (such as ESPN). A niche audience would not use as many uses and gratifications as viewers would only use the media text for small specific reasons and not for a range of reasons. An example of a TV programme with a niche audience would be Bargain hunt. This is a TV show with a niche audience because people would only watch it if they were interested in the specific aspects of the show. Although the show is on a mainstream channel of BBC1 and BBC2, the show remains a niche media text because of the show is shown midday on weekdays meaning their viewers are limited due to people being at work or school.