NARRATIVE
ESSAY!!!
The
production of the Thriller opening sequence I created is the perfect
production to relate to the concept of Narrative. When producing the
narrative I had to consider a range of theorists so that the opening
I created would intrigue a large audience.
O’sullivan
states that ‘all media texts tell us some kind of story’ by this
he means that media texts have a way of tell stories about ourselves.
In order for the story to engage the audience it must have a
Verisimilitude (quality of appearing to be real or true) creating a
diegetic effect as it gives the audience more of a meaning to watch
it. I created this effect by creating a storyline that has the
tendency to be of a real life story where a young female is being
followed and taken because she has vital information on the follower
yet the audience would not be aware of the reason until further on
the film. The audience may even feel a personal _____ towards the
female character because she appears to be vulnerable.
However,
this supports Barthes concept of Enigma codes (sense of mystery)
which was very symbolic in my sequence as the audience are not given
the full story or any clues as to what will happen further on the
film therefore keeping the audience watching, it also gives the
audience the opportunity to start questioning their own ideas and the
characters involved. The way in which I managed to create the sense
of mystery was through supporting the narrative through the way in
which the sequence was filmed and edited, with the use of the
soundtrack and a mixture fast paced and a variety of close up and
long shots.
Todorov’s
theory regarding Equilibrium is a theory I used as the sequence
started with a close up shot of a characters eyes following a
character who appears to be innocent. At first we are not aware that
these two characters have any relation to each other until the last
few seconds of the sequence where the female character is taken. This
disruption of event is called disequilibrium followed by new
equilibrium which is the restoration of the equilibrium. This whole
idea is the sense of the five stages that a narrative will go
through; basically the narrative will involve a Beginning, Middle and
End.
Levi-Strauss
has the idea of Binary Opposites which are heavily presented in my
thriller opening where I have used a male who has the appearance of
someone who you would signify as ‘evil’ or ‘villain’ then you
have a female character who has the opposite appearance who gives off
the impression of someone who is ‘good’, ‘vulnerable’. This
relates to the narrative because without these opposites the
characters would be hard to distinguish also the narrative would have
no meaning.
Lastly
Propp says that narratives always have certain character types who
perform certain actions. When it comes to my thriller this is not
completely obvious through the sequence I created as I only included
small amounts of dialogue however, the audience do get the sense of
the type of characters through appearance, choice of camera shots and
techniques. Further on in the film the audience would get a better
understand of the character types and will eventually be able to
define the character type as they would see more action as the female
gradually becomes the ‘hero’ figure whereas the male still
appears to be the ‘villain’. The certain actions in which they
perform that are evident in my opening are when the male actor the
‘villain’ is seen following the female actor and is later on seen
taking her. However, when it comes to the female actor her actions
give her the sense that she is in a vulnerable state and
automatically the audience get the feel that something will happen to
her.
Overall,
I aimed to use as many theorists in the production of my work to
ensure that I would be meeting the concept of a thriller as the
audience in which the thriller was aimed would need to have an
interest and would watch the thriller as a sense of satisfaction as
they know what they would expect. I achieved this well through the
use of the mis-en-scene, soundtrack and choice of characters.
