19 Film Trailers and Audience. Propp

Learning Outcome:
To apply Propp's theory on character functions to film trailers.

Recap. Who was Propp?
Vladimir Propp was a literary critic and a scholar who founded the idea that a certain type of character was to be used in every narrative structure. His theory has influenced many filmmakers to writing and producing successful narratives. Propp also suggested that all fairy tales follow a specific narrative structure.

Character Theory:
Propp suggested that every narrative has eight different character types, these character types are:

• The villain — fights the hero in some way.
• The dispatcher — character who makes the villain’s evil known and sends the hero off.
• The (magical) helper — helps the hero in the quest.
• 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 heros journey is often ended when he arries the princess, thereby beating the villain and resulting in a “happily ever after” moment.
• 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.
• The donor — prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object.
• The hero or victim— reacts to the donor, weds the princess.
• False hero — takes credit for the hero’s actions or tries to marry the princess.

Film trailers are short promotions. 

Therefore, they must give easily identifiable clues about characters types for the audience to recognise. Trailers use cliches such as costume, facial expression, voice over narration, dramatic music or low key lighting to convey messages about characters.

Task 1: 

Identify Proppian type characters in the trailers for the movies embedded below. 

Assess the visual, technical and sound codes that have given you clues to the character type.

Year 10 Written task success criteria

• Knowledge of the concept of genre/narrative/representation
• Awareness of relevant theories
• Demonstrates knowledge of the convergent nature of contemporary media
• Use of media terminology/key words
• Quality of written communication