Propp's narrative theory and Barthes 5 codes: applying these to our film

Vladimir Propp developed a character theory for studying media texts and productions. This indicates that there are 7 broad character types in the 100 tales he analysed, which could be applied to other media:
    •    The villain (struggles against the hero)
    •    The donor (prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object)
    •    The (magical) helper (helps the hero in the quest)
    •    The princess (person the hero marries, often sought for during the narrative)
    •    The false hero (perceived as good character in beginning but emerges as evil)
    •    The dispatcher (character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off)
    •    The hero (AKA victim/seeker/paladin/winner, reacts to the donor, weds the princess)

When applying Propp's narrative theory to our film, we have found it hard to get the roles exact as our film doesn't entirely apply to this theory, however the following roles somewhat do apply:

• The villain: Henry's parents are the villain's in the movie as they don't accept him for being gay and disown him when they find our that he's gay and has HIV as they are strongly religious and don't believe it. 
• The donor: The Doctor is equivalent to the donor as she helps Henry to understand how HIV is going to effect his life and how to deal with it in the best ways possible. 
• The (magical) helper: Henry's pastor is the (magical) helper as he helps Henry to understand that being gay isn't wrong or a sin and he helps him to accept himself for who he is. 
• The princess: Henry's boyfriend is the princess as even though they have difficulties in their relationship (the HIV), they end up together again at the end of the film.
• The false hero: We haven't got a false hero in our film.
• The dispatcher: Again, the doctor helps Henry to come to terms and understand his HIV status and send him off to live his life.
• The hero: The hero in our film would be Henry as he reacts to what the donor (doctor) has to say and at the end of the film is back together with the princess (his boyfriend).

Applying Barthes 5 narrative codes to our film/ film opening:

• Hermeneutic/Enigma code: In the opening scene, the mystery in the text is whether or not Henry has contracted HIV/ AIDS or not.
• Proairetic/Action code: In our film, we will have sequential elements of action with the film flashing back to Henry finding our his boyfriend has contracted HIV, Henry's parents finding our he has contracted HIV and that he is gay, etc. However in the opening scene we will also include sequential elements of action with Henry being in a doctors surgery awaiting his results, to him hearing a sermon read on how sinful being gay is and Henry's reaction to hearing that, as well as shots of him and his boyfriend in happier times of their lives together. 
• Semantic code: We have included a pastor reading a sermon in our opening scene for our film as it foreshadows how later on in the film we find our that Henry's family are extremely religious which will influence their extremely negative views towards Henry being gay and contracting HIV.
• Symbolic code: With Henry coming from a posh, religious background and his boyfriend coming from a under privileged, drug using background, we are immediately contrasting the difference between the two of the them which symbolises the different views that their families will both have and the ways in which they both handle the news. 
• Referential code: We have made the main storyline of our film about HIV, therefore if we were filming a whole film we would include scientific and medical facts concerning this topic. However as we are only filming our opening scene, we will not include any of these within that.