Narrative

• What is narrative?

– It is the telling of a story, a structure where the events are arranged in a cause-and-effect relationship over time.

• Indirect Influencing factors

– Hays Office– MPAA

Elements of Narrative

• Aristotle: three-part structure• Today: five-part structure– Exposition (including inciting incident)– Rising Action (development)– Climax (turning point)– Falling Action (transition - winning or losing)– Denouement (resolution/conclusion)

• Jean-Luc Godard: Yes, to the beginning, middle and end – but not necessarily in that order.

Story and Plot

• Not the same thing• Story:– All narrative elements explicitly presented on

screen– All the implied events that are not presented

directly, but which the audience infers– All diegetic elements (the world of the story)

• Plot– Everything we see and hear in a film– All diegetic material– All nondiegetic material (outside the world of the

story, but available to the audience)

Implied events

Explicitly presented events

Nondiegetic material

Story

Plot

• Plot, for the filmmaker, is the job of selecting events that tell the story.

• As an example, consider Cameron’s Titanic and how the plot focuses on the story of Rose Calvert’s diamond.

Order

• While story order flows (as life does) chronologically, plot order can be manipulated.– To emphasize importance or meaning– To establish desired expectations in the audience– To challenge, puzzle and delight the audience

Duration

• Story Duration: the amount of time the implied story takes to occur

• Plot Duration: the elapsed time of the explicitly presented events – the elapsed time of the plot.

• Screen Duration: the movie’s running time onscreen

Duration: Story vs. Plot vs. Screen

Story duration = 1 week

Plot duration: 3 days out of that week

Day 1 Day 4 Day 7

Screen duration: 90 minutes

Duration within Scenes

• Summary Relationship: screen duration is shorter than plot duration http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTyOC8GF-qg

• Real Time: screen duration corresponds directly to plot duration http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajNXfx4FBOI

• Stretch Relationship: screen duration is longer than plot duration

Surprise vs. Suspense

• Surprise: the audience is taken unawares.

• Suspense: the audience experiences anxiety brought on by partial uncertainty.

Repetition

• Suggests a pattern and a higher level of importance

• A signal that a particular event has meaning or significance that should be acknowledged

• Can be done in several ways– A character may remember something several

times– Flashbacks– Slow-motion sequences (mythical quality)

Characters

• Round characters vs. flat characters• Frodo and Indi – flat or round characters?

• Don’t think of the term “flat character” as necessarily critical or derogatory.

• Protagonist vs. Hero – While some protagonists have virtuous qualities,

others may have a darker, more hostile nature.

• Antagonist:• Opposes the protagonist• Can be an individual or part of a larger group• Or a force of nature

• Motivation– All characters need motivation in order to be

believable, but occasionally some characters – often the antagonist – have eccentric actions for which we can identify no motivation…

… and with whom we (hopefully) do not have any familiarity.

Narration and Narrators

• We instinctively understand that the camera is a visual recorder – a visual narrator.– It can be omniscient or restricted (limited)

• Films may also have auditory narrators.– First-person narration http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klKekX-VXmA

– Voice-over narration– Direct-address narration (breaking the fourth wall)– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa0N3JtEE3o&feature=fvst