Who was Vladimir Propp?

Vladimir Propp

Vladimir Propp was a Russian and Soviet formalist who analysed Russian Folk tales' basic plot components to identify their simplest irreducible narrative elements. Below is a picture explaining his theory of basic narratives of a story.

As you can see in a normal tale there are usually 31 steps which took place in the following sequence:

1. A member of a family leaves home (the hero is introduced);
2. An interdiction is addressed to the hero ('don't go there', 'go to this place');
3. The interdiction is violated (villain enters the tale);
4. The villain makes an attempt at reconnaissance (either villain tries to find the children/jewels etc; or intended victim questions the villain);
5. The villain gains information about the victim;
6. The villain attempts to deceive the victim to take possession of victim or victim's belongings (trickery; villain disguised, tries to win confidence of victim);
7. Victim taken in by deception, unwittingly helping the enemy;
8. Villain causes harm/injury to family member (by abduction, theft of magical agent, spoiling crops, plunders in other forms, causes a disappearance, expels someone, casts spell on someone, substitutes child etc, comits murder, imprisons/detains someone, threatens forced marriage, provides nightly torments); Alternatively, a member of family lacks something or desires something (magical potion etc);
9. Misfortune or lack is made known, (hero is dispatched, hears call for help etc/ alternative is that victimised hero is sent away, freed from imprisonment);
10. Seeker agrees to, or decides upon counter-action;
11. Hero leaves home;
12. Hero is tested, interrogated, attacked etc, preparing the way for his/her receiving magical agent or helper (donor);
13. Hero reacts to actions of future donor (withstands/fails the test, frees captive, reconciles disputants, performs service, uses adversary's powers against them);
14. Hero acquires use of a magical agent (directly transferred, located, purchased, prepared, spontaneously appears, eaten/drunk, help offered by other characters);
15. Hero is transferred, delivered or led to whereabouts of an object of the search;
16. Hero and villain join in direct combat;
17. Hero is branded (wounded/marked, receives ring or scarf);
18. Villain is defeated (killed in combat, defeated in contest, killed while asleep, banished);
19. Initial misfortune or lack is resolved (object of search distributed, spell broken, slain person revivied, captive freed);
20. Hero returns;
21. Hero is pursued (pursuer tries to kill, eat, undermine the hero);
22. Hero is rescued from pursuit (obstacles delay pursuer, hero hides or is hidden, hero transforms unrecognisably, hero saved from attempt on his/her life);
23. Hero unrecognised, arrives home or in another country;
24. False hero presents unfounded claims;
25. Difficult task proposed to the hero (trial by ordeal, riddles, test of strength/endurance, other tasks);
26. Task is resolved;
27. Hero is recognised (by mark, brand, or thing given to him/her);
28. False hero or villain is exposed;
29. Hero is given a new appearance (is made whole, handsome, new garments etc);
30. Villain is punished;
31. Hero marries and ascends the throne (is rewarded/promoted).

(credit:http://mural.uv.es/vifresal/Propp.htm)

In modern music videos this theory doesn't apply as much as it used to, this is due to the fact that music video nowadays often doesn't have a story line or it has a very peculiar sequence which makes it unique. However Taylor Swift's music video for Love Story actually fits in with this theory, because the lyrics of her song is a modernised version of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

As you can see in this video it is similar to Propp's theory as it is somewhat based on a fairy tale where the Prince ends up with the Princess in the end of the story even though there are disruptions in their love story. However this video doesn't completely fit with Propp's theory because the problems are not the same as Propp's theory because this is a modern music video and therefore making the director show more of a unique take on Propp's theory in the way he narrates the video. 

I think that for my music video I don't think using Propp's theory would be useful because we are thinking about the uniqueness of our video and therefore the narrative structure would be different to his theory.