Many media theories can be implemented in films. Lots of those theories would be very useful within a film, but one that I would like to implement into my film is 'Todorov's Narrative Theory of Equilibrium'. To give some context, this theory states that every narrative has distinctive parts. His theory explains it in multiple parts, but to ease it out I will split it into three parts. Equilibrium, "the audience is introduced to characters and beginning of the story." Disequilibrium, "includes the initial disruption, something that disrupts the protagonist's life, as well as other actions before the climax. When the protagonist recognizes their life has been disrupted, they will work to repair the situation. In" New Equilibrium, "protagonist has resolved the disruption, or not (usually due to a good reason)." This theory though is really broken down as equilibrium, disruption, recognition, resolution, then new equilibrium. Now that you know the basic definition, this is how it could be implemented in a film.
Disruption
You may be wondering why I am starting with disruption rather than equilibrium. This theory starts with equilibrium so that throughout the story a conflict is made and then later repaired. Well for my film opening it would start out with an understood conflict. My characters would be in an argument at the beginning of the film. The story of the film is about a couple who is going through a rough patch in their relationship. In this context, the equilibrium would have already passed but the equilibrium will be shown during the recognition while the characters are reflecting on their past and the imperfections within their relationship. A new equilibrium will be established at the end. For my film, I will use inspirations from disruptions from the films Waves and Stronger. I want the conflict to be intense and to be able to show the obvious problems within their relationship even though we don't know anything about them so far. After the main conflict, I want to show the emotions of the characters after the argument, to demonstrate how it is affecting them.
Recognition
This is a step I did not talk about. Recognition is after the disruption has occurred. It is when characters are affected by the disruption and start to become aware of the problem that is occurring. For my film, this would start after the argument ended and the characters separated from each other within the house. During this scene we would see how the disruption affected them both, highlighting their emotions and recognizing that this is affecting them. This scene would have to show a strong sense of emotions that the characters are feeling from the argument that has occurred. Capturing these emotions will be hard but necessary for the film. This will then start the long process where both people in the relationship will have to deal with their emotions and possible past conflicts to get to a resolution.
Resolution
The resolution in my film opening will not be able to be shown due to the length, but if it were longer this is how it would be shown. After the characters go through the recognition phase, they will have already dealt with their emotions and reflected on the situation or the start of how the disruption started. The character will now be in a state of understanding, where the character will be trying to fix what is happening. I would have the character probably have a deep talk, where they reminisce on the past, but of course, highlight that they need to move on to the future. They need to forget the past and start a new one. The past is the past and they cannot use that love to repair what has been damaged. They must create new memories, and a newfound love for each other to repair what has been broken. This will set up what will become the new equilibrium.
New Equilibrium
For the audience, this would technically be the equilibrium because they were not shown the equilibrium at the start, but for the purpose of the theories and technicality, it would be considered the new equilibrium. At this part in the film either the couple would have broken up and possibly stayed as friends or they possibly repaired their relationship and it is as strong as ever. I would like to go the route where they stay together. So at his point of the film, the character would still show signs that something occurred but that it helped get the couple to the strong point that they are in now. This couple would be at an obviously better point than at the beginning of the story and most likely even stronger than it was during the equilibrium that was not shown. I would demonstrate this by showing the deep connection between the characters. There would be scenes showing things like intimacy, compassion, lust, love, and much more. The characters would also probably be at a point where they can use each other as comfort in certain situations. The couple would also be able to speak freely on things that the other person may be doing that is affecting the other, and would be able to say this without causing an argument like it did at the beginning of the film.
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