A Short Term Effect

The film begins with the lead character Terry, narrating the events of his life. He explains that he has done a lot in his life, and he would like to share with the audience. He explains that the film is a love story, describing his love for Jennifer, which sets up the romantic tone of the trailer and film. The first dramatic element of the theme (although a slight one) is the fact Terry is due to go to the cinema with Jennifer, he describes how everything in his life was looking up for him, until she doesn't arrive. For a while, Terry is upset but thinks little of it until a few days later when he watches the news and finds out that she has been missing since the time they were due to date. Terry receives pleas from her parents asking if he knows anything, until one point where the police enter his house informing him that he is a suspect. He sees video footage of a man that looks mildly like him, but slightly different. At some point late one night, Terry meets someone who tells him that they are in fact the kidnapper, he attempts to get violent with them but to no avail. As the film progresses, Terry argues with the kidnapper, calls the police and then he gets arrested. The kidnapper Damian is present at the court; Terry notices that there are a lot of physical similarities between him and Damian. In the court room, there is the revelation that there was no such person as ‘Damian’. It ends with him in a psychiatric hospital, finding out that Damian was actually himself, and he had no recollection of kidnapping Jennifer. 

Todorov:

Equilibrium: The equilibrium of our film is that Terry and Jennifer are at school together, they both have normal families, and social lives. And then finally Terry and Jennifer are going out on a date.

Disequilibrium: The disequilibrium is when Terry finds out Jennifer is missing, and then has been kidnapped, thus creating a sense of chaos.

New equilibrium: The new equilibrium is when the audience finds out Terry has dissociative identity disorder thus making him Jennifer's kidnapper, and Terry getting put in a psychiatric hospital.

Levi Strauss:
1) Good V Evil
2) Love V Hate
3) Masculinity V Femininity

Propp:

Character types:
Princess: Jennifer Ida
Her Father: Her family (& friends)
The Villain: Damian (Terry)
The Donor:The police
The Helper: - His parents (bailing him out)
The Dispatcher: Jennifers parents
The Hero/Anti Hero: Terry

Barthes:
Our film is going to be 'open' throughout.
We have the use of action codes, for example, when Jennifer is kidnapped.
Also we have the use of enigma codes, for example, who is Jennifer's kidnapper.
The entire film is open to interpretation for the audience. This is because it's left for the audience to decide what Terry sees as real and what he sees as fantasy, making the film ambiguous.