Narrative Patterns

Vladimir Propp

Propp was a Rusian formalist who analyzed the basic plot of Russian folk tales to idntify their narrative elements. It is this format that he created which directors of some music videos follow today to create a narrative in the video.

1.The villain — struggles against the hero.
2.The donor — prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object.
3.The (magical) helper — helps the hero in the quest.
4.The princess and her father — gives 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 dispatcher — character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off.
6.The hero or victim/seeker hero — reacts to the donor, weds the princess.
7.[False hero] — takes credit for the hero’s actions or tries to marry the princess

However in the music video that we want to create there are not going to enough characters to follow this format or a story that includes these characters. Our idea is simplistic with just two characters being involved.

Kate Lydon