Film analysis

Narrative Theories

Verisimilitude: How real the world of the story appears to the audience-is it believable, for example. (The world of the narrative, how it appears to us and wether or not its believable.)

Get out is about racism, intense power and abuse, weird experimental stuff that happens. 

Diegesis/diegetic world: The world in which the film takes place.

Diegetic and Non diegetic audio: In the world and out the world.

Juxtaposition: Placing one object next to another to create meaning.
Narrative theory: Theories that categorise narratives and find features common to them.

Levi-Strauss and Binary Opposition
Narrative tension is based on opposition or conflict. This can be as simple as two characters fighting, but more often functions at an ideological level. 

White Vs Black

Rich Vs Poor 

Elitism Vs Poor

Old Vs Young

Good Vs Bad 

Right Vs Wrong 

Police Vs Criminals 

Working Class Vs Upper Class 

Male Vs Female 

Weak Vs Strong 

Vladimir Propp
Broken up into 8 characters:
The Villain (Girlfriend / family) 
The Helper (Police friend) 
The princess or Prize (Freedom)
Her Father (Society) 
The Donor (Walter) 
The Hero (Chris) 
The False Hero. (Girlfriend) 
The Dispatcher (Girlfriend) 
Different characters can inhabit multiple different roles.

Fish Tank:

The Villain (Conor)
The Helper (Tyler)
The princess or Prize (Billie)
Her Father (Joanne)
The Donor (Conor)
The Hero (Mia)
The False Hero (Conor)
The Dispatcher (Val)

Todorov's Equilibrium Theory

1. Equilibrium. - Chris Meets rose (mixed race couple) 
2. Disruption of equilibrium by an event. - Hypnosis moment 
3. A realisation that the disruption has happened. - Creepy characters indicating a disruption
4. An attempt to repair the damage or disruption. - Fighting his way out to escape
5. A restoration of equilibrium. - Crazy white people dead or arrested / He goes home 

Action + Enigma Codes - Roland Barthes 

Action Codes - 

What will happen next....She falls over - Will he catch her? 

She has been caught - what will he do with her? 

Actions which keep the audience interested in what is going on and what will happen

. Camera flash triggering the man to react and attack Chris the main character

. Roses brother attacks Chris 

Enigma Codes - 

The audience questions why.... Why is there a shoe on the floor? or in Get out why the man is kidnapped In the beginning?

Creates tension and uncertainty of what is happening and keeps the audience thinking of what is happening, why its happening and where its going to go. 

. Stirring The Tea was an enigma point as we don't understand why she's doing it but later on its used to hypnotise. 

. Photos of Rose with lots of black Boyfriends / Girlfriends 

. Gardener running past Chris for no reason makes us question whats happening.

. The behaviour of all the black people in the house is completely different to Chris or normal black people. 

Denotation - What you can see - For example a red sports car 

Connotation - The meaning you derive from a text to indicate something means something else. For example a man in a suburban area thats littered and deserted suggests they may not be meant to be there at all and are in danger. 

Genre and Audience Pleasures 

Rick Altman argues that genre offers audiences a set of pleasures:

Emotional Pleasure: Makes you feel happy, sad, angry, nostalgic etc. 

Chris escaping the house - Feeling of happiness and anger at whats happened

Visceral Pleasures: Gut responses such as excitement, fear, laughter

Killing Roses Father - Shocking scene, induces excitement

Intellectual Pleasures: Does it make the audience think?

Black Maid Was smiling, laughing and crying at the same time in a monotone voice creating confusion and making the audience think.