Narrative NOTES

NARRATIVE: (THRILLER)

Story= events in the order of their occurrence.

Plot= order in which they are told to the audience.

Linear narrative= where the story has a start, middle and end (in that order).

Non-linear narrative= this is where the narrative is not in chronological order e.g. flashbacks.

Open narrative= no resolution at the end and events are left open for the plot to continue.

Closed narrative= at the end of the narrative events have been explained and resolution has been achieved e.g. the killer has been caught= case has been solved.

O’Sullivan:

Barthes: Enigma code, semantic, cultural and symbolic codes.

Todorov- Equilibrium(norm state at the beginning of the text). Any opposing forces are in balance), Dis-equilibrium (an action or conflict introduced into the narrative) and New Equalibrium (Resolution) (the conflict is resolved and the narrative strands are tied together).

Levi-Strauss: Binary opposites= Good vs Bad, Man vs Woman.

Propp: There are a limited number of character roles within a narrative (in my case The Villain (struggles against the hero (will be found out later on in sequence), Victim/Hero (reacts to the donor). When an audience reads a media text it deploys its knowledge of these character types in order to decode the meaning of the text. Connotation?

Narrative style: objective treatment- ‘objective point of view’ involves treating the viewer as an observer (Watching from omniscient vantage points). Keeping the camera still whilst the subject moves towards or away from it is an objective camera effect.

- ‘Invisible editing’, used in Hollywood. Cuts are intended to be unobtrusive except for special dramatic shots. Supports narrative rather than dominating it (the story and characters being the main attention). This technique gives the impression that the edits are always motivated by the events in the ‘reality’ that the cam is recording in rather than the result of a desire to tell a story. Includes: long takes, changes of shot through camera movement, motivated cuts!!!

Misenscene: meaning is conveyed through the relationship of things visible within a sing shot. Composition is important!!!!

*What is the narrative structure of the product?

*Does the trailer follow a linear narrative?

*Does the production adhere to or subvert narrative conventions?

*How does the narrative support the establishment of genre?

*How have narrative techniques been used to appeal to the audience?

*Does the trailer have a clear narrative (in other words, are the audience able to understand what is happening)

*Is there a narrative thread?

*Is there any suggestion of resolution in the trailer or, instead, do we have elements of the beginning/middle of the film, but not its end?

*How does the narrative of the trailer mirror or follow the film’s narrative?

*How did you make use of narrative theory in desigining your trailer? OR How can your trailer be interpreted using narrative theory? Propp / Todorov/ Levi-Strauss etc

*What response from the audience was I anticipating and what has the actual response been. In other words, what did I hope my audience wouldunderstand and what did they in fact understand.

Make use of the following terms:

multi-strand narrative: telling a story from more than one person’s point of view. or two stories of two different people that intertwine

restricted narrative: narrative from only one character in the story. Audience has limited access to narrative events as only sees them as this character does. The opposite of this is a non-restricted narrative.

linear narrative: where the story is told chronologically with a beginning, middle and end. The oppoisite of this is a non-linear narrative.