Narrative and my response
- 2. 3 Ways Which Narrative is Structured • The three ways are: Episodic, Circular and Linear. • Episodic: This is where events of the film are told in more chronological order however return to one specific thing. Similar to a way a book is broken into chapters. • Circular: This narrative is a story which starts at the end and tells the story through a series of flashbacks and then goes full circle and returns to the end of the film. • Linear: This is the most basic narrative structure where a story told in the order of which things happen, it goes from beginning to end like it is expected. May also be referred to ‘cause and effect’.
- 3. Narrative Viewpoint • Restricted Narrative- This is where the story is told from the characters viewpoint, which makes the audience feel more of a part of it and can help generate more feeling to the narrative. As a result the audience will have to work out situations similar to the way the characters would. • Omniscient Narrative- This is giving the audience a high perspective so they are able to see a huge amount of things, a lot more than the characters can see, many fight scenes in films would use this. The audience will be able to see characters plotting against others and gives them more information about the story line.
- 4. Narrative Time and Space • Editing can have a huge impact on the narrative of a film. The order of events in a film is created through editing, pace of the scene is also decided in editing. Time has a huge impact on films , time can be stretched so something may last longer and can be cut short so bad parts are cut out. • Gaps in the narrative is called ellipsis, for example when a character travels somewhere or gets dressed you wouldn’t see everything involved unless it’s relevant and the audience accept this as part of the film world rather than the real world. • Time can also be exaggerated to build up tension or drama which would make a particular scene more dramatic etc.
- 5. Vladamir Propp • Propp's theory was written about 80 years ago about Russian stories and are relatable to nearly every film or short film every made, even though it is so old some of Propp's characters can be applied to many modern film narratives. • Propp's theory has eight main character types these are: the hero, the false hero, the princess, the father (of the princess), the helper, the villain, the donor and the dispatcher. • Each of these character types has a specific role in the narrative. Sometimes one character may take on more than one role. Furthermore it shouldn't be assumed that the princess should be a women or even a human because it could be a goal or reward which they are trying to reach.
- 6. Tvetvan Todorov • Todorov's devised a theory which looks at the narrative structures according to the different stages of the narrative these five stages are: • 1. The Equilibrium - which is the state of balance in the narrative, where the audience get to understand the characters and their specific situation. • 2. The Disruption - This is when oppositional characters or events are introduced to the story to help it move forward. • 3. Recognizing the distribution - The stroy develops different events and other characters become involved and more drama occurs within the film. • 4. Trying to repair the disruption - At this point there may be a twist or climax. • 5. The new equilibrium - The distrbution or problem is solved and harmony is resolved, however as a result things may have changed.
- 7. How it will affect my Short Film • The narrative theory will have affect my short film in a huge way. • For example I can use the episodic structure where the events of my character is told in order however will always return to his dream and goal and how he has to do certain things to reach where he wants to be. • I can use both the main narrative viewpoints to exaggerate my film, for example I can use restricted narrative to give my audience my characters perspective in certain things and also use omniscient narrative to show the challenges he has to overcome from a different perspective and the audience can judge whether he will do it or not. • Narrative time and space will also affect my short film because it can slow certain scenes down to make it more dramatic and also speed it up it skip some irrelevant things, furthermore ellipsis will be used throughout my short film because it will jump from scene to scene meaning that the audience will assume certain things have already happened. • Lastly the theorists will also affect my short film for example in Propp’s theory he has 8 main character types which affect the short film in my case the hero will be my main character because he is aiming to achieve his goal and showing the audience what they can achieve, furthermore the princess would be reaching the goal in my video by either scoring or reaching the places they want to reach. However the villain in my film will be the mental hurdles my character will have to break through to reach the top.