Narrative Structure (http://www.primary-film-focus.co.uk/narrative.html) When you sit down to watch a film the narrative structure help defines the story. It needs to be structured to help the viewer understand the message contained within, giving the film meaning throughout. However you need to keep in mind that the narrative structure only applies to the way in which a story is told not the story itself.....meaning the narrative structure is the chronological stages or steps that progress from one to the other throughout the story The conventional narrative structure pointed out by Tzvetan Todorov as a rule has five stages though this can be rudimentary broken down to three stages, a beginning (state of equilibrium), middle (disruption to the equilibrium) and end (reinstate the equilibrium). What do I mean by equilibrium its simply just a state of balance, normality in which the characters find them selves at the beginning Below is Tzvetan Todorov conventional narrative structure complete with five stages Stage 1 A state of equilibrium is defined. Stage 2 Disruption to the equilibrium by some action or crisis Stage3 The Character(s) recognition that there has been a disruption, setting goals to resolve problem. Stage4 The Character(s) attempt to repair the disruption, obstacles need to be overcome to restore order Stage5 Reinstatment to the equilibrium. Situation is resolved, a conclusion is announced With the five stage layout the narrative becomes more comprehensive. However its essential to remember films need to be seamless as the chain of events unfold, with all the questions raised answered and all the loose ends tied up unless you want to break the conventions, induce a cliff hangar, intentionally create doubt in the minds of the audience and leave them questioning. Even though these stages are presented here as a linear structure there is no golden rule that it has to be this way, especially if you wish to create a non-linear structure. Should you wish to you can always muddle up the chronological order and have the end at the beginning. Remember a film should have clear goals and believable characters if its to remain a sense of credibility and to help keep the audiences captivated. Dealing with Characters / Spheres of Action Vladimir Propp states there are seven 'spheres of action' which characters can be well .... characterized to. These spheres are categorised as the hero, villain, donor, helper, princess (though this can be exchanged for a prince), dispatcher and false hero. Not all spheres of action are needed to be addressed for a film as its also well to note characters can portray more than one sphere and vice versa, spheres can be composed of several characters. Vladimir Propp seven spheres of action: Hero: Individual(s) who's quest is to restore the equilibrium. Villain: Individual(s) who's task is to disrupt the equilibrium. Helper: Individual(s) who aids the hero(s) with their set task. Dispatcher: Individual(s) who send the hero(s) on their quest. Fasle Hero: Individual(s) who set out to undermine the hero's quest by pretending to aid them. Often unmasked at the end of the film. NARRATIVE STRUCTURE Closed Narrative ‘Tight’ reading involved with audience aware it’s watching a two-hour story and therefore reading with the likely end in mind. Relatively few central characters; huge range of ‘depth’ of audience knowledge, even interior voice-overs giving characters’ thoughts, hallucinations etc Character’s arranged in a ‘heirarchy’ (central, cameo, supporting roles, extras etc). Often with audience invited to make ‘verdicts’ on them, identifying narrative roles as in Propp – hero, donor, villain. Time usually very compressed: two hours of screen time constructs events as happening over months, years, sometimes centuries Time and events are usually special to this particular story and need have no resemblance to the viewer’s world. Flashbacks and even flash-forwards are possible. Reader or viewer usually has evidence about the characters only from this single text, plus star, publicity and genre expectations. The same audience can be assumed to watch the film from beginning to end. Often elaborate visual image and music as integral part of the narrative Open Narrative Casual reading, without the sense of an ending. For example, soaps proceed as though they could go on for ever. Many more characters, naturalistically represented and producing amulti- strand plot. Characters not usually in a marked hierarchy but shift in and out of prominence. Characters shift also in and out of narrative function. Today’s villain may be next week’s helper. Time usually corresponds to ‘real world time’ within the segments of each episode though across it time is compressed as in cinema. Flashbacks are rare. The difference between time in the serial and outside it are blurred. Episodes may make reference to real-life events going on at the same time, such as elections, Christmas etc. Audiences are assumed to have different kinds of memory and knowledge of a long running soap. Magazines and the press often speculate about the fate of actors’ contracts and thus the characters they represent. Many different kinds of reading are therefore available. The same audience can be assumed to watch the film from beginning to end. Each episode has to try and address both experienced and new viewers. Relatively rare use of music, especially in British soaps, and relatively simple visual image. Narrative Theory Every moving image product (or text) is constructed around the demands of narrative and all moving image products can be classified and understood in terms of genre. The concept of narrative in moving image texts is best understood as the presented and inferred events told through the actions of characters. Usually, these actions take the form of a linear cause and effect structure (something happens, causing something else to happen and so on). At the most simplistic level, a narrative is the way in which a story is told in both fictional and non-fictional texts. Narratives can vary in length: a music video is often a narrative lasting approximately three minutes; a soap opera becomes a complicated narrative drawn out over many years. We experience some narratives in our everyday lives and interactions with other people, some through the process of education, but most through the mass media. Originally, narrative as we now know it emerged out of the folktale tradition. Novels, magazines and newspapers adapted the content and structure of stories from oral and face-to-face traditions to more continually reproducible formats. Modern technology and the advent of film, television and video, as well as the Internet, have allowed storytelling to reach wider and more varied audiences. The larger the audiences these technologies can reach, the more similar and familiar the narratives and their structures have to be. We can talk of a universal narrative structure that people can understand regardless of language or their moving image literacy. The creation of meaning in moving image products is not the result of a random process; the text is constructed deliberately (encoding) and then read by an audience (decoding). Narrative structures are the organisation of plot into coherent sequences that convey meaning. The way the plot is organised creates entertainment or fascination for the audience. Orson Welles’ classic film Citizen Kane has a simple plot: a boy inherits a fortune, runs a newspaper empire, becomes a recluse and dies. The non-linear narrative is more complex: the film begins with Kane’s death and then, through shifts in time and space (editing), explains his life and the events that lead up to his unhappy existence before his demise. Narrative structures Narrative structures can be single strand, focusing on a single central character, such as Spiderman, Becker or Bruce Almighty. Narrative structures can also be multi-strand where several characters form the focus of the narrative, for example in X Men, Friends or Heroes. Narrative structures can be linear: events progressing in chronological order with one following another. Narratives can also be non-linear, for example when stories use flashback sequences or seem to digress from the main plot – the best example is probably Lost. Denouement – the final unravelling of a plot, e.g. when Fred, Daphne and Velma pull away the mask (I would’ve gotten away with it if it hadn’t been for those pesky kids…) The standard Hollywood narrative structure single diegesis (one main storyline) logical chain of events chain of events governed by the actions of central character(s) audience empathises with actions of the central character(s) pattern of enigma (mystery/ problem) and resolution (closed not open endings) dominated by (imitation of reality e.g. editing used to construct space/ time) some films’ techniques of production consciously draw attention to themselves such as the mise-en-scène created in The Blair Witch Project verisimilitude Classical Greek Theatre Classical Greek theatre is usually seen as the origin of modern drama. It was usually organised into three acts: opening (beginning) conflict (middle) and resolution (end).