Propp character theory using cabin in the woods

1
Theorists and 60 second bunny task
2
Tzvetan Todorov

• Tzvetan Todorov (born March 1, 1939) is a
  Franco-Bulgarian historian and essayist, to use
  his own definition of himself. He has lived in
  France since 1963, and is the author of books and
  essays about literary theory, thought history and
  culture theory.
• Todorov has published a total of 21 books,
  including The Poetics of Prose (1971),
  Introduction to Poetics (1981), The Conquest of
  America (1982), Mikhail Bakhtin The Dialogical
  Principle (1984), Facing the Extreme Moral Life
  in the Concentration Camps (1991), On Human
  Diversity (1993), Hope and Memory (2000), and
  Imperfect Garden The Legacy of Humanism (2002).
• http//theoryofnarrativepropp.blogspot.co.uk/2012/
  01/1-acj-narrative-narrative-is-defined-as.html

3
Vladimir Propp

• Was born on April 17, 1895 in St. Petersburg to a
  German family. He attended St. Petersburg
  University (19131918) majoring in Russian and
  German and philology . Upon graduation he taught
  Russian and German at a secondary school and then
  became a college teacher of German.
• 1.The villainstruggles against the hero
• 2.The donor prepares the hero or gives the hero
  some magical object
• 3.The (magical) helperhelps the hero in the
  quest
• 4.The princess and her fathergives the task to
  the hero, identifies the false hero, marries the
  hero, often sought for during the narrative.
  Propp noted that functionally, the princess and
  the father can not be clearly distinguished
• 5.The dispatchercharacter who makes the lack
  known and sends the hero off.
• 6.The hero or victim/seeker heroreacts to the
  donor, weds the princess
• 7. False hero takes credit for the heros
  actions or tries to marry the princess.
• These roles could sometimes be distributed among
  various characters, as the hero kills the villain
  dragon, and the dragon's sisters take on the
  villainous role of chasing him. Conversely, one
  character could engage in acts as more than one
  role, as a father could send his son on the quest
  and give him a sword, acting as both dispatcher
  and donor.

4
Films and how they perform at the awards shows vs
public opinions

• The most popular types of genre amongst people
  are romance, horror and video recording
  documentaries. Amongst the Oscars Drama films are
  the most title winning movies, whilst sci-fi is
  one of the ones that doesnt achieve so well.
  Although when blended with another genre it tends
  to do well in the Oscars, an examples being
  Gravity and Apollo 13 being sci-fi drama

5
60 second bunny movie task

• http//www.angryalien.com/aa/thecabininthewoodsbun
  s.asp
• Cabin in the woods is a teen slasher movie. The
  film itself is clever due to the character theory
  the film shows. one of the films characters who's
  is involved in the project, states that the films
  characters were to be killed in a certain order,
  due to the character theory order.

6
Hero
Dana Is the hero of the film she is one of five
victims of A layout that the company made to
save mankind from the gods, although Dana and the
others did not know this. She is the hero because
of her drastic change of personality by the end
of the film, she is a strong leader and the last
one standing. In the film the company were to
plan how the five were to be killed and have to
have it happen in a particular order in order for
the sacrifice to happen. They also had to make
sure that the others fitted a certain stereotype.
Dana was under the virgin character, who was
able to live Or if she was to die to be killed
last out of the five. Due to being the hero she
managed to fight evil and win.
7
The Helper
Marty is the one who helps Dana with fighting to
survive the cabin in the woods. Although Dana is
the hero she still needs the help of Marty on
multiple occasions in order to defeat the god.
Even at on point saving her from death. In cabin
in the woods stereotype he was the Fool and
Marty was to be killed second in the ritual.
Though this became a problem for the company as
the audience believed that Marty had been killed
by the red neck zombies, only to be revealed as
alive.
8
The false hero

• The character curt is the false hero as he is
  shown throughout the film as the hero. He is
  always trying protect the princess who is his
  girlfriend yet is unable to do so as she is the
  first to be killed by the zombies. However he is
  killed showing the characters mortality.
• In cabin in the woods stereotype he was the
  Athlete and Curt was to be killed in the
  ritual. Though he became the second to be killed
  due to Marty still alive and was Crushed into a
  camouflaged force-field with motorcycle, falling
  to his death.

9
The princess

• Jules is the princess who is to be rescued by the
  hero, who at the time is thought to be Curt, yet
  he is unable to do so as she is killed by the
  zombies. Jules was given the character type of
  the whore she was to die first in which she had
  been. She had to be killed either way before the
  virgin.
• However it is not known exactly what the
  princesses role is.

10
The Donor

• Holden is the donor because he is the wise one of
  the group and is continuously helping the hero.
• He is the literate supposed to be killed in the
  ritual. He is the third to be killed after Jules
  and Curt.

11
Cabin in the woods character theory
The company are the dispatchers who have sent the
main characters on their mission which is to have
the characters choose how they are to be
eliminated and to be eliminated in a particular
order to save humanity. They could also be
classed as the secondary villain of the film.
12
The villain

• The director is the villain is the main villain
  of the film. She is the head of the ritual
  although she is killed and the hero comes out on
  top.

13
How doe this link into my research and planning
of my film?

• This is so that I am able to research character
  theory and to be able to apply this to my short
  film which is
• Masked killer Villain
• False hero Holly
• The victims Jess, Emma and Thea could be classed
  as the princess as their characters are not
  entirely known.
• This is also to be able to use this PowerPoint as
  a revision tool for my upcoming exam