Good evening avid bloggers! (Or whatever time it is for you, I'm assuming evening). So today I have undertaken an assignment assigned to me by my oh-so wonderful film teacher. Which is to identify the tropes of our film, it's conformation to the three act structure, and how each scene in our script conforms to that structure. So let's get cracking! So many of you may wonder- what is a trope? Well that is a good question... A trope is basically any element of film, from the theme to the character to even the extras. An example would be the "Five Man Band," in a film like "Star Wars." So you get the idea, here's an image of a PERIODIC TABLE OF TROPES It's beautiful I know, try to contain yourself. So for my assignment I had to identify all the tropes in my script, and I identified the following based on the periodic table up there: Anti-Hero: The main character is a serial killer, enough said. Rounded Character: Despite the fact that he's killing people, he means well. Red Shirts: These are just characters included in the script just to die... so like 90% of our cast. Enemy Within: The main force opposing the character is himself, and his need to have his family. Villain Protagonist: Basically the same reason as him being an anti-hero. Reality is Unrealistic: Since my esteemed colleagues and I do not know all of the effects of paralytic drugs (we're not THAT weird) we are just going to assume the effect of death, so we are portraying a reality that is somewhat unrealistic.
So there's the tropes to our wonderful script. Now fasten your seat belts and keep all hands and feet inside the vehicle, we're about to get into THE THREE ACT STRUCTURE, and it gets pretty wild here. So the Three Act Structure is an outline for all stories to follow, and it states that in Act I the main character and the problem are introduced, in Act II the character fights to resolve the problem, and in Act III that problem is resolved. So "Dollhouse," follows this quite nicely, even with the manipulation of time. Scene by scene our film goes thusly: Scene 1: Introduction of the character's life (Opening credits) Scene 2: Problem is hinted at, not fully shown Scene 3: Formal introduction of the character Scene 4: Problem is fully revealed. Scene 5: The character fights (well sort of, not much to fight here) and the problem is resolved).
So there it is folks, the tropes and structure of "Dollhouse." I know, cah-razy.