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TRANSCRIPT
What We Already Know…
• A narrative is a story • Narrative movies are fiction films • At the broadest conceptual level, narrative is
a cinematic structure in which filmmakers have selected and arranged events in a cause-and-effect sequence occurring over time
• In that way, almost all movies employ some level of narrative
• Or really, narrative is EVERYTHING • Because of this, its easy to take narrative for
granted
Unobtrusive Craftmanship
• Hollywood stories are told in a manner that draws viewers into the diegesis - the world of the story - and does not call attention to the storytelling process.
• Filmmakers use other formal properties beyond the screenplay to create this seamless narrative style: mise-en-scene, cinematography editing, and sound.
Components of Narrative
• Narration: the ACT of TELLING a story • Narrator: WHO or WHAT TELLS the story • The CAMERA is the primary narrator
Point of View • POV: A particular PERSPECTIVE on the
narrative’s events • First-person narrator: a character in the
narrative who typically imparts information in voice-over
• Third-person narrator: A voice imposed from outside the narrative
• Omniscient narrator: Knows all and has UNRESTRICTED ACCESS to all aspects of the narrative such as ANY character’s experiences or info that no character knows (vs. restricted narration)
Characters
• Virtually every film narrative depends upon 2 essential elements: a CHARACTER pursuing A GOAL
• Protagonist: The primary character who pursues the goal
• Narratives crave IMPERFECT characters because those imperfections provide OBSTACLES
Kinds of Obstacles
• Obstacles can come from within the character, from other characters, from non-humans, and from nature
• Obstacles may come in the form of concrete physical challenges, the actions and desires of others, or psychological/emotional issues
• Characters tend to overcome obstacles on more than one level.
Narrative Formula?
• Most stories may follow the same general progression, but narrative is not a single simple recipe
• There are several ways to organize story events: – 3 part structure – 5 part structure – 7 part structure (television)
• AND IT DOES MATTER!
The Simple Structure
• 3 Act Structure: – Beginning: sets up the story, establishes
the NORMAL WORLD, and introduces us to the protagonist(s)
• Inciting incident: the CATALYST presents the character with a goals that will drive the rest of the narrative
– Middle: (the longest) develops the story – End: resolution
• Middle: – Narrative depends on obstacles to block, or
at least impede, our protagonist’s quest for the goal– the middle introduces our ANTAGONIST
– Antagonist: The person, people, creature, or force responsible for obstructing the protagonist
– The stakes get ever higher as the ACTION RISES
– Rising action: mounting tension, building towards a peak (A CRISIS)
– Climax: when the protagonist faces the MAJOR obstacle
• End: Gives the story a resolution – Falling action: the narrative wraps up
loose ends and moves toward a conclusion
– Sometimes the struggles continue in this final act
– Virtually every story resolves the conflict (though some may provide unhappy endings or ambiguous endings)
A 4 Part Structure?
• 3 Part Structure
Act 1: Exposition leads to turning point Act 2: Complications lead to climax Act 3: Action leading to resolution
• Kristin Thompson (film scholar)
• Act 1: Exposition leads to turning point
• Act 2: Complicating action leads to major turning pt. at halfway mark
• Act 3: Development; struggle towards goal leads to climax
• Act 4: Epilogue
Story vs. Plot
• Story: – 1) All the narrative events that are explicitly
presented on-screen PLUS – 2) all the events that are IMPLICIT or that we
infer to have happened – A linear sequence of events
• Plot: the specific actions and events that the filmmakers SHOW and the ORDER IN WHICH THEY ARRANGE those events to effectively convey the narrative
Story vs. Plot
• Story and plot frequently OVERLAP • The filmmaker must understand what
story is being told before going through the difficult job of selecting events to show on-screen and determining what order to present them
• The story is an ABSTRACTION that we piece together as the elements of the PLOT unfolds
Order
• Unlike story order, which necessarily flows chronologically, PLOT ORDER can be manipulated so that events are presented in non-chronological sequences that emphasize importance or meaning or that establish desired expectation in audiences
Duration
• Cinematic time: human-made time • Duration: a length of time • 3 Kinds of Duration:
1. Story duration: the amount of time the implied story takes TO OCCUR
2. Plot duration: the elapsed time in/of the plot
3. Screen duration: the movie’s running time
Screen Duration & Plot Duration
• We can generally characterize the relationship between the two in 3 ways:
1. Summary relationship: screen duration is SHORTER than the plot duration
2. Real time: screen duration CORRESPONDS DIRECTLY to plot duration
3. Stretch relationship: screen duration is LONGER than plot duration
1. Summary relationship: Essential to telling movie stories, especially long and complicated ones
2. Real time: rarely used throughout a whole film, but creates uninterrupted “reality” on the screen
3. Stretch relationship: Often used to highlight a plot event, stressing its importance to the overall narrative (usu. achieved through editing)
Dura&on:Storyvs.Plotvs.Screen
Story duration = 1 week
Plot duration: 3 days out of that week
Day 1 Day 4 Day 7
Screen duration: 90 minutes
Suspense vs. Surprise
• Surprise: being taken unawares– SHORT-LIVED
• Suspense: the DRAWN-OUT anxiety brought on by partial uncertainty (meaning: the end is certain but the means is uncertain)
Repetition
• Repetition: the number of times, that a story element recurs in a plot
• Familiar image: any image (audio or visual) that a director periodically repeats in a movie to help stabilize its narrative
• By its repetition, the image calls attention to itself as a narrative (as well as a visual) element
Setting
• Setting: the time and place in which the story occurs
• Sometimes provides the explanation for actions or traits that we might otherwise consider eccentric
• Certain genres are associated with specific settings
Scope
• Scope: the overall range, in time and place, of the movie’s story
• Determining the general scope of a movie’s story– understanding its relative expansiveness– can help you piece together and understand other aspects of the movie as a whole.
Alternative Storytelling Forms
• A number of narrative filmmaking traditions have modified or rejected the rules of the dominant Hollywood method of storytelling. – Art films – Independent films – Non-western films – Unconventional Hollywood films – Experimental / Avant-Garde films
Rejecting Traditional Rules
• Lack of clarity: multiple, conflicting lines of action, inconsistent characterization, extreme degree of character subjectivity – Run, Lola, Run & Fight Club
• Lack of unity: broken chain of cause and effect – Mulholland Drive & Reservoir Dogs
• Unconventional characterizations: audience is distanced from characters rather than invited to identify – There Will be Blood & Badlands
• Unclear character goals; unreliable narrator – The Graduate & The Usual Suspects
• Devices such as direct address that call attention to the narrative process – Do the Right Thing & 25th Hour
• Some non-traditional films may be open-ended - that is they conclude without resolution – No Country for Old Men
• Frame narration consists of a character who narrates an embedded tale to onscreen or implied listeners – Citizen Kane & The Princess Bride
• Episodic narratives: events are not tightly connected in a cause and effect sequence and characters do not focus on a single goal – The 400 Blows & Pulp Fiction