Understanding Narrative

“Any type of account of connected events presented to an audience in a sequence (it could be spoken / written words, still / moving images

or performance.”

Owen Flanagan (Philosophy Researcher)

All humans are story-tellers, whatever their culture.

Narrative is part of semiotics and meaning making.

Narratives help to make meaning.

STORY TELLING Most embarrassing moment

Best birthday ever

A great night out

Pick one of the above and explain it to your partner / group

Film Narrative When you watch a feature length film

where do you watch it?

Why / How does it hold your attention?

How does the filmmaker expect you to behave?

Manipulating Time

Time span of a narrative

The Shining a series of months

La Haine 24 hours

City of God 20 years

Montage condenses / compresses time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlGg4nt01G8 or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klJcD6HyeOg

Audience recognition of codes / conventions

We learn to read shot sequences to make assumptions.

Cinematography, editing, sound, performance, character types, cultural

codes, themes, connotations, genre awareness and events (alienation /

identification) all help us to make narrative assumptions.

Causality (Syd Field)

3 Act Structure The first act: Set up is important, typically within the first ten

minutes, the audience will decide whether they like the film and will normally be unwilling to change their minds later.

The film-maker must give the audience a sense of what the film is going to be about, who the main character is and why they should care about him/her and what they can expect in terms of style.

In the rest of the first act the audience should learn the nature of the problem facing the hero/ protagonist.

The second act: Confrontation (longest act of the film). The main character is involved in a number of more and more extreme problem situations where they confront their enemies normally quite helplessly.

Often there will be a mid-point where they begin to turn things around and win what looked like a helpless struggle, but there is still a long way to go and at plot point two they will realise that the way they have been going about things is not working and they will be ready for…

Act three: Resolution The hero will finally take control in the struggles with their problems (often by going to confront the enemy on their own home territory) and will achieve a final, decisive victory.

Todorov Equilibrium

Disequilibrium

New Equilibrium

Narration First person narrator

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrRbJezTOR4

Third person omniscient narrator (all knowing, impartial)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VeU8QQ8LMs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1376Tolhimg

Homodiegetic and heterodiegetic narrators

Multiple narrators

The Birthday Party

Horror

Romance

Comedy

Gangster

A table in a room resembling a birthday party but set up according to genre.

Bring props on Thursday