Narrative Theory

Narrative

"Any account of connected events, presented to a reader or listener in a sequence of written or spoken words, or in a sequence of (moving) pictures". 

The narrative is often confused with the story, which is slightly different. The story is the whole story behind what we see in the film. 

The narrative is the part of the story that we as the audience see. It is the way that the story is presented to us, the plot that it follows. For example, in Star Wars, the story in its simplest form is a small band of rebels attempting to take down an evil controlling empire. The narrative is what we see, which is the adventures of Luke Skywalker and his supporters, such as Han Solo and the princess etc.



When looking at Narrative Theory, there are three main approaches that are considered.

Todorov

The first is a theory by Todorov.
This theory is quite simplistic but accurate.

It is focused on 3 parts of the narrative.

• At the start, there is an equilibrim, a normal situation that the audience get used to.
• After this there is a disequilibrim, a situation that upsets the balance of the story.
• At the end a new equilibrim is set, and balance is restored.

 

Syd Field

The next is by Sid Field,  an American screenwriting guru. He also believed that narratives were split into 3 sections, but added in more detail. His main contribution was the adding of the idea of Plot Points.

 These "plot points" were effectively the key points in the narrative where there was a real changing point that would have a big effect on the story. He also renamed the 3 sections, as Set Up, Confrontation, and Resolution.



 

Vladamir Propp

Propp is another significant theorist concerning narrative theory. However he focused more on character roles rather than the actual narrative itself.

1. The Villain is the character who struggles aginst the hero, and is usually the one who causes the disequilibrim or confrontation. This is normally an "evil" character, and the antagonist om the film. This character has a negative effect on other characters within the film.

2. The Hero or victim/seeker. This character reacts to the donor, and normally chases after the Villain, and weds the princess. 


3. The (magical) helper. This character helps and assists the hero in the quest. They usually accompany the hero for the majority of the film. However they are sometimes captured by the villain, and the hero is sidetracked on a mini quest to get their sidekick back.

4. The princess and her father. Gives the task to the hero, identifies the false hero, marries the hero, often sought for during the narrative. Propp noted that functionally, the princess and the father can not be clearly distinguished.

5. The dispatcher. This is the character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off.

6. False Hero, This character takes credit for the hero’s actions or tries to marry the princess.

7. The Donor prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object.

My Favourite Title Sequence (City Of God)

Saul Bass Case Study

Continuity Editing Task.

Here we were given a a opportunity to show and develop our editing skills, in the form of this continuity task. This was interesting for me as it was my first time editing video footage.

As this task was purely focusing on editing, we did not film our own footage. We were given some rough footage that had multiple different shots for each part of the scene.This enabled us to truly do our own edit as it meant we all could chose our own shot for each part, and so could to some extent put our own spin on the story and running of the film.

Considering that it was my first edit, i think it went reasonably well as I don't think the footage we were given was too difficult to edit, and i think the I managed to achieve reasonably good continuity within the edit.


(To insert video when I get it from mac)

Themes and Style

Theme -
An underlying subject or idea that the film revolves around, acting as a foundation for the film.

In title sequences the theme is often the key theme taken from the film. This is used to give an audience an idea of what to expect from the film. It usually has a similar tone regarding visuals, audio, narrative etc.

An example of this is Dexter. This is a show based on a blood splatter analyst, who is also a serial killer. He is obsessed with blood and cannot controll his urge to kill, so to consolidate this need he attempts to try to make the best of it and hunts down and kills only criminals who have escaped being sentenced for crimes. The main theme of this show is blood, and this is a main of the title sequence also. This is displayed with the use of blood and also other common objetcts which resemble blood, such as ketchup. Throughout the title scene there are uses of things that either look visually like blood, or are commonly associated with blood. An example of this is the cutting of meat and a splatter of ketchup just after which looked like a splatter of blood coming from the incision on the meat.



Other themes can usually be categorised under a few sections. Narrative themes, Location themes, and Genre themes, and occasionally themes of a specific object or idea.


For example, Friends has the narrative theme of friendship, which is evident throughout the narrative of the show.


Grand Theft Auto Vice City has the location theme of Miami, as well as the ongoing theme of a lavish lifestyle and fast living. Criminal activity is another theme throughout.