RULE OF THIRDS

RULE OF THIRDS

The 'Rule of Thirds' is a photographic technique used to divide a photograph into 9 segments using a simple compositional structure which is made up of 3 horizontal lines and 3 vertical lines. The subject of the image is placed at the intersection of those dividing lines, or along the lines themselves. (or one of the four points it connects at) the rule of thirds helps draw the viewers eye into the image and places more emphasis o the subject ideally, the empty space that's left should be in the direction the subject is looking or heading into.

As can be seen below ↓ 

the subject meets at two intersection points and is looking at the space that has been left empty!!

VLADIMIR PROPP'S THEORY

VLADIMIR PROPP'S THEORY

Vladimir Propp was a Russian folklorist researcher/theorist interested in the relationship between characters and narrative. Propp argued that stories are character-driven and that plots develop from the decisions and actions of characters and how they function in a story.

He noted that there were repeated characters in many different media texts and they are found in almost all forms.

These archetypes include 8 types of characters and narrative that were found;

1. The Father; resistant throughout, finally accepts in the end.

2. The Princess aka prize; The hero wins her as a prize

3. The Hero; a character that seeks something

4. The Vilnian; someone who opposes the hero's mission

5. The Donor; someone who provides an object with special properties

6. The False Hero; someone who disrupts the hero's success by making false claims

7. The Helper; someone who aids the hero 

8. The Dispatcher; someone who sends the hero in their mission with a message

TODOROVS THEORY OF EQUILIBRIUM AND DISEQUILIBRIUM

TODOROVS THEORY OF EQUILIBRIUM AND DISEQUILIBRIUM

In order to improve our responses we were told to focus on Todorov's theory of 'Equilibrium and Disequilibrium.' It is the theory about a narrative structure that helps us in identifying the fluctuating flow of a narrative present within a film! 

It consists of the:

Equilibrium; when there is a good balance of things happening within the film and the main characters' life goes on as usual

Disruption of Equilibrium; messing up the balance of things and creating a change (this is usually when the climax begins and adds a suspenseful feel to the film)

Disequilibrium; everything is entirely off balance and makes viewers swim in a pool of curiosity.

Attempt to restore Equilibrium; here the protagonist tries to find that balance again by doing whatever they can do

Restored Equilibrium; the balance of things returns and everything goes back to normal (usually a happy ending) 

These points can greatly help us whilst attempting an extract and relating and using them to identify what is happening on the screen.

Laura Mulvey

She argued that most movies are filmed in ways that satisfy the male part of society. It is described as "The male gaze" this is the concept of woman as subjects in media and men as subjects (men looking at women) In her 1973 essay visual pleasure and narrative cinema she argued that classic Hollywood cinema puts the spectator in a masculine position, with the figure of the woman on screen as the object of desire. in both these examples, the male is active(the one doing the looking) and the female is passive (the one being looked at) 

FERDINAND DE SAUSSURE

 FERDINAND DE SAUSSURE - THEORY OF SEMIOTICS!

Founded by the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure, the theory of semiotics or semiology is the study of signs and sign-using behavior. he referred to it as 'the life of signs within society.'

He treated language as a sign-system, and his work in linguistics supplied the concepts and certain methods that was applied to sign systems other than language.

A basic semiotic concept is Saussure's distinction between the two components of a sign: 

-The signifier; which in the language is a set of speech sounds/marks on a page.

-The signified; a concept/idea behind the sign.

Both of these can be seen in different media texts through the use of technical conventions and hence making them symbolic as it adds meanings to them.