By Hollie-Jade Higgins and Kurt Plumb

Propp looks at characters, he believes that characters have a narrative function and provide structure to a text. Propp identified 8 characters...

• The Hero • The Villain• The Donor• The Dispatcher

• The False Hero • The Helper• The Princess• The Princess’s Father

Despite Propp originally being used for fairytale stories, it is possible to use the same ideas for our film. Blood Circle uses a number of these characters as identified by Propp…

The Hero- Blair Fox; Blair fits this as she is trying to save her friends and tries taking control of the situation

The Villain- Aerial; Aerial fits this as she is trying to kill the 4 girls

The Helper- Angel Yates; Angel tries to make the spirit leave the Ouija board

Barthes looks at enigma codes- these are codes that are used to keep the audience hooked to continue in watching the remainder of the film. Enigma codes are set up in order to be answered at a later period. Examples include ‘who is the Killer?’ Through out our ‘Blood Circle’ teaser trailer we have used enigma codes to make the viewer want to watch the film to gain knowledge of the full story, making it more pleasurable to watch.

There is one/two main enigma code (s) which is…

Are the girls going to die/ will they survive?

This captivates the audience and makes them want to find out what actually happens- to solve the puzzle.

Levi Strauss looks at binary opposites.. Examples include hot| cold, old| young etc. In the trailer for blood circle we have used the following binary opposites…

Red/ White- these two colours are used in the front room where the girls play with the Ouija board. The red signifies blood and danger, where as the white signifies peace and innocence. This gives the idea that the red might ruin the white the girls naivety (innocence) over the spirit world.

Innocent child/ Vindictive child- The fact that Aerial is a ‘devil child’ rather that a good little girl is quite significant, it makes audiences feel uneasy as it is not expected for a ‘sweet girl’ to be taking the body parts of a doll.

Todorov looks at the pace of a narrative, he set out 5 steps, which have been followed by Blood Circle

|A state of equilibrium| The four girls are calm and having fun playing with the Ouija board, the sound is relatively slow paced.

|A disruption of the equilibrium| The girls realise that there is a ‘bad spirit’ they sound scared and the pace speeds up.

|Recognition of the disruption| The girls are seen running and hiding

|Repair of the disruption| Blair slides down the wall and is quiet, which slows down the pace of the film.

|New equilibrium| The end credits are calm, and slow bringing the pace down.