Research for production - Analyzing a trailer in terms of Todorov

Tsvetan Todorov is a theorist from Bulgaria who is famous for suggesting that conventional narratives are structured in five stages.

Although many critics have regarded this theory as being accurate to a overwhelming amount of films produced, what I am going to do is try and apply Todorov's theory to the trailer I analyzed in the Trailer Analysis and make my own decision on whether Todorov's theory is correct in regards to that trailer.

From watching the trailer of Apollo 18 it is apparent that Todorov's theory has in fact been applied to the trailer in all aspects aside from one. 

1. This can be seen by the fact that there is a state of equilibrium at the start seen by the image of a spaceship taking off and the astronauts wondering around the moon which creates a sense of normality within the theme of the film.

2. However disruption is quickly shown to challenge this normality as it becomes apparent the astronauts are not alone which is told to audiences by the sudden change in the tone of the music and movement of the camera, as well as from the images on screen showing a disruption to the equilibrium. 

3. This disruption is then recognized by these two characters seen by there frightened reactions to the sudden change of the equilibrium. Although it isn't clear who caused the disruption these two characters recognition of it is clear due to the psychological and physical impact it has on them seen by the image of one of the characters infected as a result of this disruption.

4. A attempt to fix the disruption is then seen by the image of both of the characters wondering around the room with a hammer as a defensive weapon trying to figure out what has happened and more importantly why it is happening

However, as you can see the fifth stage of his theory is missing. The reason for this though is as it is a trailer with the ultimate goal of trying promote the film to audiences showing a resolution to the problem would mean having to reveal what happens and so leaves no sense of suspense for audiences meaning they are less likely now to want to come and see the film. What is apparent though is that in regards to Apollo 18 Todorov's theory has been (excluding the fifth stage) perfectly applied to.

HOW THIS WILL BENEFIT ME?


Learning and applying Todorov's theory of narrative will help me massively when it comes to creating my own trailer as the narrative structure and the way we present it will be a big part of creating the actual trailer. So learning this now has helped me see certain ways in which we would be able to structure our trailer, whether we want to stick completely to Todorov's theory or even challenge some elements of it. Because of this my next step will now be to see how I can adapt Todorov's theory to our own trailer and whether we can challenge it any sort of way.