When applying narrative theories to short films in particular, it is quite difficult to fully put forward Propp's theory of the 8 characters as from looking at the codes and conventions of short films, the amount of characters tends to be quite low. The narrative theorist Tzvetin Todorov's take on narrative is one that can be applied to a wide range of short films. One of the short films I watched called 'Where You Are' uses sections of Todorov's thesis on narrative well.
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/180000452" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe>
<p><a href="https://vimeo.com/180000452">Where You Are</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/user28501454">Graham Parkes</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>
The beginning of the short film or the equilibrium shows a mother and son playing hide and go seek together. The mother plays along with her son as he hides, she knows that he has hidden in the red hamper in the room yet she plays along checking other places in the room to finally come and catch her son in the hamper. All is normal until she goes to the hamper where she seen her son, and when she opens it up, he is gone.
The disequilibrium comes in to play, the mother is so confused and begins to panic, going through the rooms of the house to look for her missing son, in each room she goes into something very unnatural is happening, a chaotic wide shot shows the mother's husband sat at a table covered in paint acting like everything is normal while the mother is even more confused. The mother keeps on looking for her son, she goes upstairs to his discover his new oddly decorated room to see him but he is 10 years older. The scenes get even more bizarre and intense as her son runs off and she keeps searching for him, she ends up in an under-construction housing estate where nothing but disruption is taking place; people fighting, men in cages, slaves and her son sitting on a makeshift throne on a pile of rubble inciting a fight from down below. Things spiral even more out of the ordinary when after her son runs away again, she searches to find him and when she does, he is a fully grown man moving out of the home where he once lived.
The resolution comes internally with the mother as all of her fears of what her son is up to conclude with pride in what her son has become. She sees her son as a man moving out with his partner, starting his own new life and he is fine, this relieves the mother of all of the terrible thoughts in her head. The mother tells her son 'I love you James'
The resolution comes internally with the mother as all of her fears of what her son is up to conclude with pride in what her son has become. She sees her son as a man moving out with his partner, starting his own new life and he is fine, this relieves the mother of all of the terrible thoughts in her head. The mother tells her son 'I love you James'
Some elements of Todorov's theory do not apply to this short film, but the new equilibrium is still a feature. At the end of the film the son comes back out of the red hamper and is reunited as a child from the beginning, The new equilibrium.
In applying Strauss' narrative theory to Where You Are innocence vs bad behaviour is contrasted, where the mother has the idea in her head that her son is being bad behaved as she goes into her head imagining all of the worst things he could possibly do, but in the end she comes back to the reality that her son is still just an innocent young boy.
In applying Strauss' narrative theory to Where You Are innocence vs bad behaviour is contrasted, where the mother has the idea in her head that her son is being bad behaved as she goes into her head imagining all of the worst things he could possibly do, but in the end she comes back to the reality that her son is still just an innocent young boy.
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