Nazha Sultana Miah

Toderov’s Narrative Theory

Equilibrium– The beginning were

character(s) and settings are introduced. Balanced.

Disruption– Oppositional character(s) appear. The natural order of things is disrupted. Plot develops.

Recognition of Disruption– Character(s) endangered and tension

builds between characters.Attempt to Repair– The

most exciting/dramatic part of the story. The

danger/suspense intensifies. Often involves a search/chase.

Equilibrium– The tension is relieved. Natural order resolved. The story is

brought to a close. Balance restored.

THE END!

Real text example• The Hunger Games; the film starts

(equilibrium) with the people of District 12 suffering from poverty. They gets disrupted with the “reaping” which could be seen as the disequilibrium. The balance is restored (equilibrium) when the protagonist, Katniss Everdeen, wins the Hunger Games.

• 21 Jump Street; the films begins with an equilibrium of the two main characters, Jenko and Schmidt, joining the police force and because they look young, they’re assigned (disequilibrium) to be undercover and stop drugs spreading through the high school. In the equilibrium Jenko and Schmidt find the main culprit and go back to being rookie police officers.

Equilibrium• In the beginning of Escape, the audience are

introduced to the main character running in the forest and this challenges Toderov’s theory as we started the short film with the ending, this is effective because we wanted to excite the audience. Roland Barthes narrative enigma explains the cliff-hanger and mysterious secret. For example, very Eastenders Christmas special episode it always has a cliff-hanger, for instance, when Ronnie swaps her cot-dead baby for Kat’s alive baby.

• The plot is starts with The Man getting out bed, dressing, eating breakfast and travelling to work. This was creative because the audience gets to see how boring and dull his mornings are.

Disequilibrium• Audience are introduced to colleagues.• Everyday routine is repeated• The Man wakes up late and runs late for

work• Boss tells The Man off• Stress relieving by going Gym• Everyday routine is repeated, our editor

used a minimum of 45 cuts during the climax and made the speed of the clips extremely fast.

Equilibrium• Balance is restored, this is visible when

the audience see the sky and The Man running in the forest again.

• We used medium close ups throughout the film so we can frame the character without filming their face. We challenged the conventions because we wanted to keep The Man’s character a mystery, until the end were The Man’s face is revealed.