How My Film Uses Theories of Narrative, Representation and Audience

The narrative theories that my film uses are first of all Roland Barthes who suggested that narrative works with five codes which makes the reader make sense of it. The ones that apply for my film are; The Enigma code, The Cultural code and The Symbolic code.
The Enigma code is where the film sets questions, and adds more during the film to keep the viewers interest, I will be using this theory because I do think it’s a useful idea to keep the viewer waiting with anticipation, and that the basis of my film is ambiguous and actually asks itself questions, with a ending leaving the audience thinking. The Cultural code refers to the knowledge of time, giving little symbols or messages that indicate where and when the film is set. I’m using this by identifying that even though it is a film noir genre which is usually set back in the day, that my film will be modern to and I will give off messages to show this. The last code is the Symbolic code, which is effectively Levi Strauss’s idea of Binary Oppositions, which show the opposites in a film to create a conflict not only in the film but also in the audience. I will do this by oppositions like sophisticated/ common, smart/dumb, good/ evil and many more.

I am also using Levi Strauss’s idea of Binary Oppositions but as I have already explained I will go on to the next theorist. I will use Todorov’s idea of the equilibrium, which he stated that all stories begin with what he called an equilibrium. This is disrupted by some event sitting in a train of series of events, to close with a different equilibrium. I will use this by having this equilibrium of a detective on a normal case that all policemen are one stating a normal positive setting. I will make the film suffer a disequilibrium where he has headaches and witnesses a murder. But instead of having a new equilibrium I will create a new type of equilibrium I call the inequilibrium where even though there has been a disturbance and all films it is usually solved, instead I create more confusion and may even suffer even more of a disequilibrium to some viewers and leave the end of a story on a question leaving the answer to the viewers interpretation.

The last narrative theorist I’m using is prop where he states that whatever the surface differences it was possible to group characters and actions into : Eight character roles which are :1. The hero 2.The villain. 3. The donor 4.The (magical) helper. 5&6.The princess and her father 7.The dispatcher 8. [False hero]. These are basically in every film and I will only use a few of these, are those will be; the helper, the false hero and the villain.