Todorov's theory includes four stages, which are shown above. Stage one is at the start of a film were the story plot is slowly introduced to the target audience through sound, location and characters,  this is the equilibrium balance between the film and the target audience to be steady. Stage two is the unbalance(disequilibrium) between the target audience and the film, which this is the scenes were something has happened, e.g.the dilemma. Stage three is still at this point of disequilibrium were the solution has still not occurred, this is at the second half of the film. Stage four is the finishing point of the film, this is called the new equilibrium were narrative is summed up through a happy ending, sad ending or a cliff hanger for the carry on of a film.


This theory of narrative organization has helped me through the creation of my films narrative. I have been able to shorten scenes down and concentrate on the main selling points of my movie, which is  important for a short film. The genre I have chosen for my film is horror, which fits perfect into Todorov's theory because I am going to follow each stage and give time limits for each one of the scenes to keep in my allowed time. Overall for a horror film the main selling point is mainly the dilemma, because of the target audience remembering main features, events, characters and this is why I have chosen to give majority of screen time to this stage of my film(disequilibrium).