Todorov & MulveyBy Zoë Richardson and Charlotte Coe

Todorov…• Todorov believes that conventional narratives are

structured in 5 different stages:• The state of the plot/life at the beginning. • A disruption of the plot by some action.• A recognition that there has been a disruption.• An attempt to repair the disruption• Reinstatement of everything.• This type of narrative structure is very familiar to us

and can be applied to many mainstream films.

• TRANSFORMERS:• The beginning starts with Sam’s

life at school and a love interest, then the disruption of the plot is when the transformers arrive and everything starts going wrong, then there is the part where he is trying to repair everything, and then the ending which is where everything is back to being good.

For example…

He also believes that there are only a certain number of characters which appear in most feature films.

These are:The Protagonist:

This is the hero which leads the narrative. These are usually looking for something to solve.The Antagonist:

This is the villain and who usually gets in the protagonists way.Heroine:

This is usually some sort of prize or award for the hero. Father:

An authority figure who offers an award to the hero for completing their quest. Helper:

This is the person who acts as the sidekick.The donor:

This person gives the hero something to help the protagonist complete their taskThe mentor:

The person who teaches and guides the hero.

Continued…

• For example, in our music video our obvious protagonist is the main character- Ellie. However, we have slightly gone against this typical conventional idea and made her the villain also. Our main antagonist, however, is Charlotte who plays “The Other Girl”- who is a common character in many other music videos. For example, “Jar of Hearts” by Christina Perri, who sings about an unfaithful lover. Lastly, for our heroine of the video we defied the stereotypical idea that the female in the story is the heroine and made our heroine the male.

How does it apply…

• Mulvey is a huge feminist and believes that cinema has been based on our subconscious idea that the world is essentially partriarchic (dominated by men.)

• She believes that Hollywood narrative films use women in order to provide a pleasurable, visual experience for men.

Mulvey…

Megan Fox in is a example of women being in movies mainly to provide pleasurable and visual entertainment.

• Laura Mulvey invented the term the “Male Gaze.”• This term is the concept of: how men look at women, how

women look at themselves and how women look at other women.

• An example of this is when in movies or music videos the camera is seen lingering on the female body when sexiness has nothing to do with what is being advertised or said.

• Pitbull “Hotel Room Service” is a prime example of the camera lingering on women's body parts and also how women are just there to provide entertainment for the men. Here is the first 30 seconds of the video:

• Youtube- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2up_Eq6r6Ko

Continued…

Thank you for listening!