Todorov's 5-Part Narrative Formula

WHAT I HAVE LEARNED + WHAT I CAN APPLY

Todorov is a Bulgarian/French historian, literature critic, philosopher and sociologist. In 1996 he created a theory which he believed to be able to be applied to any film. He was convinced that all films followed the same narrative pattern.

The following where the 5 stages of his theory:

1. A state of equilibrium - where everything is as it should be
2. A disruption of the equilibrium through an event in the film
3. A recognition by the characters that there has been a disruption
4. An attempt to repair the disruption
5. A reinstatement of the equilibrium

In our music video we have a clear state of the equilibrium, where our male and female protagonist are still happy, having a smoothie together during the summer. Whereas there then is a disruption of the equilibrium later on when they fight. Often in music videos there aren't the full 5 parts of equilibrium and therefore our music video only contains 2 parts. 

Reflection on narrative shoot

Kristian and I went to shoot the narrative scenes together with our male and female protagonist, Emilie and Wayne. Our music video contains a linear narrative, which consists of scenes where the two of them first have ice cream from a shop during the summer and then later on in the music video break-up. 

One thing that we really focused on this time was that our character's would wear different costumes in the different scenes. 

We especially emphasised this by trying to signify different seasons of the year, summer and winter. This was achieved very well with the difference in costume. In the summer scenes, the female protagonist was wearing sun glasses, a flower covered blouse with short sleeves and some nike shoes and the male protagonist was wearing a very simple T-Shirt. By also having them drinking a smoothie, verisimilitude is achieved and the footage really comes accross as having been filmed during the summer. 


Whereas in the winter scene, where the couple fights, they are wearing warmer clothes. Our female protagonist is wearing a warm blue scarve, gloves, a warm jumper and a leather jacket over it, and our male protagonist is also dressed more warmly by wearing a winter coat and gloves.

The only issue we faced with our narrative shoot was that we didn't get enough footage of them being happy together. Unfortunately our actor's weren't available for some weeks and therefore we intend to  film after the winter holidays at the end of February. 

As for the special effects, we added an effect called "Dream", so that it would look as if the leadsinger was having flashbacks back to the time when they were happy and where after a while everything escalated. Our music video therefore follows 2 steps of Todorov's 5-part narrative formula.