Lesson 1 Question 1B Intro & Narrative

Introduction to Question 1a)
 Question 1b) is a 25 mark answer and you will have 30 min
to write your response.
The content requires you to select one production and evaluate
it in relation to a media concept. The list of concepts to which
questions will relate is as follows:
• Genre
• Narrative
• Representation
• Audience
• Media language
 Questions will be set using one of these concepts only.
 You will be expected to select the production that appears to
relate most effectively to the specific concept that arises in
the exam question.

Past Questions
 Describe how you developed research and planning skills
for media production and evaluate how these skills
contributed to creative decision making. Refer to a range of
examples in your answer to show how these skills developed
over time.
 Describe the ways in which your production work was
informed by research into real media texts and how your
ability to use such research for production developed over
time.
 Describe how you developed your skills in the use of digital
technology for media production and evaluate how these
skills contributed to your creative decision making. Refer to a
range of examples in your answer to show how these skills
developed over time.

You only have half an hour for the question and you
really need to make the most of that time by quickly
moving from description (so the reader knows what
you did) to analysis/evaluation/reflection, so he/she
starts to understand what you learnt from it.
Final tips: you need some practice- this is very hard
to do without it! So you will be practicing doing
detailed plans with lots of examples and writing
essays on each of the areas. The fact that it is a 30
minute essay makes it very unusual, so you need to
be able to tailor your writing to that length- a tough
task!

Basic essay structure for 1b (Choose only ONE product to
write about):
Paragraph 1: Intro
1. First, define the concept you have been given in the question.
For example, for Narrative you might say that every text tells a
story. Add a quotation, such as for genre, "Genre is a type"
(Daniel Chandler, 2001).
2. Outline the production you've chosen to evaluate.
3. Tell the examiner you're going to discuss (x) number of ideas
about the concept.
4. Use no more than 5 theories in your answer (so you'll need to
have learnt about 6-7 theories in total).

Paragraph 2: Using the theorists, describe some of the key
features of the concept you are being asked to apply. Outline
two or three of the theories/ideas of particular writers, relating
them to your production.
Paragraph 3: Start to apply the concept, making close
reference to your product and to other examples to show how
the concept is evident in it.
Paragraph 4: Show ways in which ideas work in relation to
three areas of your product - production, distribution and
exchange - and also ways in which those ideas might not
apply/could be challenged.
Paragraph 5: Conclusion - Sum up by returning to the
question and, having discussed key issues, say how your
product follows or challenges the conventions of that issue.

NARRATIVE
Preparation for Exam Question 1b: Lesson 1 & 2
Lesson 1

What are the narratives behind these images?

Starter Questions & Discussion
 What do we mean by narrative?
 Why is narrative important?

In media terms, narrative is the /organisation given to a series of
facts. The human mind needs narrative to make sense of things. We
connect events and make interpretations based on those
connections. In everything we seek a beginning, a middle and an
end.
Successful stories require actions which change the lives of the
characters in the story. They also contain some sort of resolution,
where that change is registered, and which creates a new equilibrium
for the characters involved.
When unpacking a narrative in order to find its meaning there are a
series of codes and conventions that need to be considered. When
we look at a narrative we examine the conventions of:
1.Genre
2.Character
3.Form
4.Time
Narrative…

NARRATIVE…
“Narrative is defined as “a chain of events in a
cause-effect relationship occurring in time”
(Bordwell & Thompson, Film Art, 1980)
Story is about trying to determine the key
conflicts, main characters, setting and events.
Plot is about how, and at what stages, the key
conflicts are set up and resolved.

Example Exam Question
1(b) Apply theories of narrative to one of
your coursework productions [25]

Lesson Task
‘What happens next?’
Video

Questions to consider when looking at
narrative:
 What is the story or narrative of your text?
 How is your narrative structured? (the content
of the story and the form used to tell the story).
 What effect do you think your narrative has on
an audience?
 What is the narrative structure of the
production?
 How do the specific elements of the production
relate to the narrative structure?
 Does the production adhere to or subvert
narrative conventions?
 How does the narrative support the

KEY CONCEPT POINTS:
 In NARRATIVE, your task is identifying genre and
subgenre in your work and looking at how genre
affects your work.
 How narrative affects or structures the audiences
viewing experience.
 Since Aristotle (350 BCE) narrative plots are
supposed to have a beginning, middle, and end.
 Its only because we are used to reading narratives
from a very early age and are able to compare texts
with others that we understand these conventions.
 A narrative in its most basic sense is a series of
events, but in order to construct meaning from the
narrative those events must be linked somehow.

THEORISTS YOU MAY WISH TO LOOK AT
MORE CLOSELY:
 Vladimir Propp
 Bordwell and Thompson
 Tzvetan Todorov
 Roland Barthez
 Tim O’Sullivan
 Pam Cook
 Christian Metz
 Claude Lèvi-Strauss
We will be looking at some of these theorists in more
depth. It will be up to you to go away and find more
information on the others to see what they say.

Levi-strauss (who we’ll look at in a bit more detail later)
states that we see the world, people and places by forming
Binary Oppositions. His theory states that all narratives are
arranged around the conflict between the opposites.
 Good Vs Evil
 Men Vs Women
 Light Vs Dark
 Technology Vs Nature
 War Vs Peace
 Age Vs Youth
 Strong Vs Weak
 Democracy Vs Dictatorship
On the following slides, which of these films (based on
whether you have seen the film or from the poster) do you
think involves the following binary opposites and why?

Good Vs Evil
Men Vs Women
Light Vs Dark
Technology Vs Nature
War Vs Peace
Age Vs Youth
Strong Vs Weak
Democracy Vs Dictatorship

Good Vs Evil
Men Vs Women
Light Vs Dark
Technology Vs Nature
War Vs Peace
Age Vs Youth -
Strong Vs Weak
Democracy Vs Dictatorship

Important terms…
Narrative
The structure of a story.
Diegesis
The internal world created by the story that the
characters themselves experience and encounter.
Verisimilitude: Literally – the quality of appearing to
be real or true. For a story to engage us it must appear
to be real to us as we watch it (the diegetic effect). The
story must therefore have verisimilitude – following the
rules of continuity, temporal and spatial coherence.

Vladimir Propp (1928)
Russian theorist who studied the narrative structure of Russian
Folk Tales.
Propp concluded that regardless of the individual differences in
terms of plot, characters and settings, such narratives would share common
structural features.
He also concluded that all the characters could be resolved into only seven
character
types in the 100 tales he analysed:
1. The villain — struggles against the hero.
2. The donor — prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object.
3. The (magical) helper — helps the hero in the quest.
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 — character who makes the lack known and sends the
hero off.
6. The hero or victim/seeker hero — reacts to the donor, weds the princess.

Tzvetan Todorov (1977)
Bulgarian structural linguist. He was interested in the way language
is ordered to infer particular meanings and has been very
influential in the field of narrative theory.
Stage 1: A point of stable equilibrium, where everything is satisfied,
calm and normal.
Stage 2: This stability is disrupted by some kind of force, which
creates a state of disequilibrium.
Stage 3: Recognition that a disruption has taken place.
Stage 4: It is only possible to re-create equilibrium through action
(An attempt to repair) directed against the disruption.
Stage 5: Restoration of a new state of equilibrium. The
consequences of the reaction is to change the world of the narrative
and/or the characters so that the final state of equilibrium in not the
same as the initial state.

D) Simba the future king of the
prideland is born.
1. Equilibrium
E) Mufasa (Simba’s
father) is killed by Scar.
Simba flees the kingdom
in shame. Scar becomes
the new king2. Disruption
C) Scars reign has
destroyed the kingdom.
Simba realises he must
return to the prideland.
3. Recognition
4. Attempt to repair/Action
B) Simba returns to the pride
land and fights Scar. Simba wins
5. New Equilibrium
A) The pride land recovers. Simba is
now king. The Circle of Life starts all
over again.

D) Simba the future
king of the prideland
is born.
1. Equilibrium
E) Mufasa is killed and Scar
makes Simba believe that it
was his fault Mufasa died,
so Simba flees the kingdom
in shame. Scar becomes the
new king
2. Disruption
C) Scars reign has
destroyed the kingdom
and transformed it into a
wasteland. Simba is
reluctant to challenge Scar
but realises he must return
to the prideland.
3. Recognition
4. Attempt to repair/
Action
B) Simba returns to the
pride land and fights Scar,
Simba wins and does a
loud roar which travels
throughout the entire pride
land declaring that he is
back
5. New Equilibrium
A) The pride land recovers.
Simba is now king. Simba
and Nala mate and have a
daughter, Kiara who is
picked up by Rafiki. The
Circle of Life starts all over
again.
• 1 - D
• 2 - E
• 3 - C
• 4 - B
• 5 - A

Roland Barthes (1977)
Establishment of plot
or theme. This is then
followed by the development
of the problem, an enigma,
an increase in tension.
Finally comes the resolution
of the plot.
Such narratives can be unambiguous and
linear.
Why do you think this is important to

Lesson task :
Use the remainder of the lesson to write down how
the production you are writing about for Q1b) uses
narrative. You may wish to use the computers to re-
watch your work.
Back this up with at least 5 specific
elements/examples from your production that
show how you have used narrative.
Reference any theorists you have learnt about today

NARRATIVE
Preparation for Exam Question 1b: Lesson 1 & 2
Lesson 2: Essay Planning

REMINDER OF KEY CONCEPT POINTS:
 In NARRATIVE, your task is identifying genre and subgenre in
your work and looking at how genre affects your work.
 How narrative affects or structures the audiences viewing
experience.
 Since Aristotle (350 BCE) narrative plots are supposed to have a
beginning, middle, and end.
 Its only because we are used to reading narratives from a very
early age and are able to compare texts with others that we
understand these conventions.
 A narrative in its most basic sense is a series of events, but in
order to construct meaning from the narrative those events must
be linked somehow.

Reminder of Questions to consider when looking at narrative:
 What is the story or narrative of your text?
 How is your narrative structured? (the content of the story and the form
used to tell the story).
 What effect do you think your narrative has on an audience?
 What is the narrative structure of the production?
 How do the specific elements of the production relate to the narrative
structure?
 Does the production adhere to or subvert narrative conventions?
 How does the narrative support the establishment of the chosen genre
of the production?
 How have narrative techniques been used?

For example you may want to start with an ‘Essay planning table’
which could look something like this.
You now have 20 min to plan your essay on NARRATIVE…
Concept: Narrative
Project Name: Look at your two productions and choose the best one
Summary: This will form the basis of your opening summary for question 1b). Write a description
of your project. If you are using the same project for another concept then you can use this but then
mention the concept you will be using and how you aim to look at it.
Techniques you used to
construct your
narrative? How did you
use these techniques in
your production?
What it signified
about the narrative of
my text?
Which Theorist can
you apply to this
point and why? What
quotes can you use?
Examples in your work
Camera Todorov
Mise-En-Scene Levi Strauss
Editing
Sound

1(b) Apply theories of narrative to one of your
coursework productions [25]
Now using your lesson plan attempt the
question:
….You have 30 mins
Good luck!

HOMEWORK TASK:
 Take a look at your media theorists hand-out. Research
other theories that may use to apply to your texts. Find
quotes for each theorist you research:
 John Fiske – genre as ‘convenience’ for producers and audiences
 Henry Jenkins – genre constantly ‘breaks rules’ e.g. evolving
hybridization
 John Hartley – genre is interpreted culturally
 David Buckingham – genre in constant process of negotiation and
change

Lesson 1 Question 1B Intro & Narrative

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Lesson 1 Question 1B Intro & Narrative