The document provides a summary of a proposed blockbuster film called "The Tramp's Mission". It includes: 1) A storyline about a man named Clive who witnesses the Queen's murder in London after struggling with personal issues. He reports it to police and gains publicity. 2) Details about the key characteristics of successful blockbuster movies, including large budgets, marketing, merchandise, wide appeal and holiday release dates. 3) An overview of several narrative theories that could apply to the film's structure, including those proposed by Propp, Todorov, Barthes and Levi-Strauss. 4) Background on different audience theories like uses and gratifications, two-step flow,

1. The Tramp’s
Mission
Unit 26: Film Studies
Create a blockbuster
Charlie Grover

2. The story line
• Clive, (Robert Downey Jr) is a man who is now currently living on the streets of London after
being dropped from the Army, because of a failed mission. His wife has now left him since
he has been a terrible husband since the army.
• It is the 5th of June, the Queens Jubilee, however, this is one party the Queen won’t be
attending. The Queen is kidnapped and murdered down a back street in London.
Fortunately, there was a witness. Unfortunately, the witness was Clive.
• Clive bucks up some courage and finally goes to the Police station to tell them what he saw.
He is seen as hero and gets a lot of publicity. This means that Clive can now afford a house
and a better style of life.
• Everything is going swimmingly, the Police think they have a lead, thanks to their 2
detectives, James (Simon Pegg) and Louis (Nick Frost), Clive is having a better than normal
life, and everything is going to plan.
• However, the head detective starts to believe that it is all a set up. He thinks that Clive
murdered the Queen, just to get publicity. The tramp is the suspect and starts to be hunted
down.
• Can he win his wife back? Can he find the real killers and clear his name before the court
summon him to prison?

3. Seven Key Characteristics of Blockbuster movies
1. It is a ‘star’ vehicle movie
My film has an A-list actor, Robert Downey Jr, who plays the lead role of the tramp
2. A Large Production Budget
For my film to be a blockbuster it needs to be a BIG movie, with lots of effects. To pull this
off my film will need a large production budget
3. A Large Marketing Budget
For a film to be recognized it needs to be marketed appropriately and effectively. With a large marketing
budget I am able to market my film in many different effective ways; Trailers, toys, gadgets, posters, bill
boards, advertisement on public transport etc.
4. A range of merchandise
For a blockbuster to become a ‘blockbuster’ it needs to have a strong merchandise strategy. Toys
and games can be put into fast food meal deals, and larger figures or cuddly toys can be put in
toy stores. My film mainly targets an older audience therefore ill have to think carefully about
what merchandise I will use. Figures and console games are a great way to advertise.
5. A wide demographic
6. A holiday release date
Every blockbuster has a holiday release date. This date normally links, or has some sort of relevance to
the film. If it’s a horror it may come out in October, if it’s a love film then February may be a good time,
and obviously a Christmas film will come out in the Christmas holidays. Since my film relates to the
Queens Jubilee, I hope to bring it out in that bank holiday.
7. A wide release
A blockbuster isn’t just seen and remembered in one country. Great films such as Avatar,
Harry Potter and Titanic are films known all over the world.

4. Narrative theories
There are 4 main narrative theories;
1. Vladimir Propp’s Theory
2. Todorov’s Theory
3. Roland Barthe’s Theory
4. Claude Levi-Strauss’ Theory

5. Vladimir Propp
Vladimir Propp had a theory that challenged the way a film is
structured. He come up with 31 different things that occur in movies. He concluded that there
are no authors anymore, every film is based around different theories.
Below are 11 elements that link to my film.
-A member of a family leaves home, (in my case, hero leaves war).
-The villain makes an attempt at reconnaissance.
-The villain gains information about the victim.
-The villain attempts to deceive the victim to take possession of victim or victim's belongings.
-Hero is tested, interrogated, attacked.
-False hero presents unfounded claims.
-Difficult task proposed to the hero.
-Task is resolved.
-False hero or villain is exposed.
-Hero is given a new appearance.
-Villain is punished.

6. Tzvetan Todorov
Todorov came up with a theory, that every film has 8 character roles. If a film does not
have these characters then the film will not work..according to Todorov!
The 8 character roles are
1. The villain(s)
2. The hero
3. The donor - who provides an object with some magic property.
4. The helper who aids the hero.
5. The princess (the sought for person) - reward for the hero and object of the villain's
schemes.
6. Her father - who rewards the hero.
7. The dispatcher - who sends the hero on his way.
8. The false hero
In my film I have a villian (The murderers), hero (clive), a donor (2 detectives), the
princess (Clive’s wife), The dispatcher (the queen), and a false hero (head
detective)

7. Roland Barthe
• Roland come up with 5 different codes that each film or piece of writing has. He
believes that nothing is written anymore, they are more or less based around
different codes or conventions.
• The 5 codes are;
• Action Code (events taking place)
• Semantic (Characterisation)
• Enigma (Mystery)
• Referential (Explaining/Informing)
• Symbolic (Connations of signs)
• My film works in a similar way. You firstly see the events take place, (killing of the
Queen), then you find out more about Clive, then the mystery comes into place.
We then need and explanation or informative scenes, and finally signs come
together and we have an ending)

8. Claude Levi-Strauss
• Claude Levi-Strauss looked at narrative structure in terms of binary
oppositions. Binary oppositions are sets of opposite values which reveal
the structure of media texts. An example would be GOOD and EVIL – we
understand the concept of GOOD as being the opposite of EVIL. Levi –
Strauss was not so interested in looking at the order in which events were
arranged in the plot.
• The binary oppositions are;
Earth Space
Good Evil
Humans Aliens
Past Present
Normal Strange
Known Unknown
• My film doesn’t have any space related scenes, however, there is a mixture of
good and evil, past and present, normal and strange, and known and
unknown.

9. Audience theory
• There are 4 types of audience theory;
• The hypodermic needle
• The 2 step flow
• Uses and gratifications
• Reception theory

10. The Hypodermic Needle
• Uses and gratifications theory attempts to explain the uses
and functions of the media for individuals, groups, and
society in general.
• There are three objectives in developing uses and
gratifications theory:
1. to explain how individuals use mass communication to
gratify their needs. “What do people do with the media”.
2. to discover underlying motives for individuals’ media use.
3. to identify the positive and the negative consequences of
individual media use. At the core of uses and gratifications
theory lies the assumption that audience members
actively seek out the mass media to satisfy individual
needs.

11. The two step flow theory
• The two step flow theory is based on the opinions of people. It relates to a
theory of superior people being listened to because they are ‘older’,
‘higher educated’ or even seen as ‘cooler’.
• This theory asserts that information from the media moves in two distinct
stages.
• First, individuals (opinion leaders) who pay close attention to the mass
media and its messages receive the information. Opinion leaders pass on
their own interpretations in addition to the actual media content. The
term ‘personal influence’ was coined to refer to the process intervening
between the media’s direct message and the audience’s ultimate reaction
to that message.
• Opinion leaders are quite influential in getting people to change their
attitudes and behaviors and are quite similar to those they influence.

12. Uses and Gratifications
There a 5 main reasons why people go to the media.
• To escape
People want to escape from reality so they go to the media.
• Social interaction
It creates a common ground for conversations. People can talk
about the media the following day.
• Identify
People search for themselves in media. So they can relate. Soap
operas are a prime example of identity media.
• Inform & Educate
A majority of people go to the media to get a better understanding
and knowledge on the world.
• Entertain
A simple reason why people go to the media is just for
entertainment.

13. Reception Theory
• There are 3 different Reception Models;
1. Dominant
2. Negotiated
3. Oppositional

14. Dominant, Negotiated and
Oppositional
• Dominant-When a reader understands the text
and excepts it.
• Negotiated-When the reader has a small
understanding of the text and portrays it to
his/her life. They may see themselves in a text
and react to their life in the same way the text
did.
• Oppositional-When the media is completely the
opposite in which the position of the reader is in.
Eg, watching a political party debate who you are
campaigning against.