MICRODRAMA Exercise: EG and RD

Microdrama Exercise:
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For this short micro drama, our task was to use the narrative theories played down by Vladimir Propp, Levi-Strauss, Barthes and Todorov.
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To start with we have an establishing long shot of a detached house (connotes wealth).There is a Mercedes car parked at the front to connote wealth again and middle class-upper class (A-C1). There are little bits of shaky camera movements here but this can create verisimilitude. There is also diegetic/ambient sounds coming from the road in front of the house, of cars driving by which also creates a sense of realism.

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The second shot is a worms eye view with a very shallow point of focus which gives a sense of narrative enigma (Barthes theory) of when the girl walks into the shot.
She is wearing jeans rolled up which connotes some femininity. 
She could have been on the phone speaking to someone to give the audience an idea of who she is, where she is from, how old she is and where she's just come from. But since we have no vocal evidence of any of this, this creates a sense of narrative enigma. 
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The next scene is of the girl walking into the house through the door, no shaky camera movements, long shot and there is already a sense of continuity editing. I have taken the continuity editing approach for this scene and the next approaching few scenes of the girl getting into her bedroom to sit at her desk.



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This shot is finally when she has sat down already, she has got her laptop out (MacBook pro) which connotes that she is modern and that there is wealth in the family she is in. Also the setting is connoted from this (modern day) so therefore verisimilitude is created through the realistic objects (MacBook pro) in that setting.  There are many signifiers in this shot such as the Pulp Fiction poster of Uma Thurman on the left. This connotes that this girl is not the norm stereotype of a teenage girl. Relating to the Uses and Gratifications theory, this girl must see Uma Thurman as an role model (identifying with her). There is still continuity editing here leading on to her typing on the laptop as soon as she opens it. 
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Normally, in TV, overuse of electronic noises (diegetic sounds) are always used when there is an electronic object to represent a stereotype of electronic objects. 







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There is a huge contrast here between the shots in lighting (more yellow lighting). Also there is a fade cut to connote that there is a large gap in time and that there is a new scene completely different to the first few. There is now discontinuity editing because the shots are very cut up providing a large contrast. There is diegetic sound of barks from outside connoting to the audience there is a dog outside or something at the door.
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There is immediately a huge contrast between this scene and the last. The lighting is very dark in this shot and this connotes the dark vibe of this scene. The voice connotes that this is the stereotypical villain with a german accent also wearing all black. There is a prominent binary opposition here between the villain and dog since the dog is white to connote innocence and purity. Narrative enigma is created here because the audience can't see the face of the person speaking.

The narrative is:

Evie coming home from school, a normal day, then starts studying/working in her room.

She hears a scratching at the door, so she leaves her room and goes to the front door to see what the sound was.

She opens the front door and sees a small, white dog on her doorstep and she is shocked. She decides to keep him as a pet.

We then see the villain speaking in a german accent saying how he knows Evie has the dog now and he is going to come and steal it from her. 

There is an ellipsis in time to Evie showing her sister the dog she found, the sister is so jealous because she wants to keep him.

We then go back to the villain, who has arrived at Evie's house and is holding a map in his hands as if he's just found where her house is. He finds that the door happens to be open, so he sneaks in and picks the dog up and takes him away. 

Another ellipsis in time, Fred comes back home and as he is walking up the steps outside the door he sees a map left on the steps and picks it up and shows Evie once he is inside, therefore making Fred the donor. 

Evie sees that there is a place on the map circled and she thinks it must be where the dog has been taken so she asks Fred to come with her to find him therefore making Fred the helper also.

PROPP'S SEVEN CHARACTERS

1. The Hero - (Evie) Is the protagonist and goes on a mission to save the dog - succeeds.

2. The Villain - (Richard) struggles against the hero
In here our villain (or antagonist) struggles to get the dog back from the heroine. He succeeds at first, but ultimately fails when the hero and the helper come to save the dog.

3. The Prize - (Alfie, the dog) The hero deserves it throughout the story.

4. The False Hero - (Evie's 'sister') She tries to take all the credit for saving the dog and says the dog is hers.

5. The Dispatcher - (Fred)

6. The Donor  - (Fred) Gives the map (magical object) to the hero.

7. The Helper - (Fred) He helps the hero find/save the dog.

In terms of stereotypes the prize is usually a helpless princess. Also a young girl facing up to a sinister adult man (villain) is a common convention of the horror genre. 

TODOROV’S FIVE-PART NARRATIVE THEORY

1.    A state of equilibrium at the outset
- The young female protagonist is coming home from school, which is the normal routine for her

2.    A disruption of the equilibrium by some action
- The stray dog suddenly appears at the outset, and this happy state is disrupted by  the villain stealing the dog

3.    A recognition that there has been a disruption
- The girl soon realizes and the dog has gone missing, and deduces from the writing on the map that someone must have taken it.

4.    An attempt to repair the disruption
- Dispatched by the father/donor, the heroine goes with her father to save the dog from an unknown thief

5.    A reinstatement of the equilibrium
- After having saved the dog, and a clash with the step-sister, the heroine has regained her dog and the text ends with a happy family dinner (for most of the family), restoring the order of things.