Narrative Essay

Narrative Essay

I feel that my trailer follows Todorov's theory partly. The narrative theorist, Todorov, said that there were three main stages that should be shown in a teaser trailer. These are the equilibrium, the disequilibrium and the resolution. My teaser trailer shows the equilibrium. This is the introduction of it, and it shows the setting of the horror trailer, which is what the equilibrium should do in teaser trailers. There is also a disequilibrium, which is when the antagonist is introduced to the audience. The disequilibrium is a disruption in the trailer, and when a thing goes wrong in it, so this follows that particular convention. However, there was no resolution in my trailer because I believed that it would be more complex and intriguing if it included more of the disequilibrium.

My trailer also follows Levi Strauss' narrative theory. Strauss believed that everything had a binary opposite, and in my trailer there were protagonists against an antagonist. There was also a hint of man vs. nature, when there was a shot in my trailer of the killers’ knife stuck in a tree. I followed Levi Strauss' binary opposition theory as it is conventional and also it is quite simple for the audience to understand and know what is happening in the trailer.

Another theorist that I will talk about is Vladimir Propp. In his narrative theory, he said that there are key characters that should always be in every horror trailer. These are the protagonist, the antagonist, the donor, the false hero, and the princess/prince. In my trailer, I partly followed this theory, as I included the protagonist, which is a group of teenagers, and the antagonist, which is the killer with a knife. However, in my teaser trailer there wasn’t a donor, a false hero or a princess/prince.

Finally, I am going to talk about Roland Barthes’ structuralism approach. Barthes said that there are three main codes that should be included in all horror trailers. These are the enigma code, which concerns the mystery within the trailer, the action code, which creates suspense, and finally the symbolic code which tells the meaning of the trailer. I didn’t follow the enigma code as in my trailer, there were lots of shots of the antagonist, and they were full shots of him as well, instead of just parts of him. In my trailer, I followed the action code and symbolic code, as the audience could get the meaning of the trailer from watching it.

Overall, I believe that in my trailer, I followed most of the narrative theories. However, I also feel that my trailer should have consisted of more conventional aspects in it, such as including a resolution. Although, changing it up a bit and doing something unconventional can be good for the audience, as it keeps them guessing, and they are not watching the same sort of thing over again.