Narrative Theory

Narrative Theory The Goal Orientated Plot and narrative theory

Aims and Objectives • Critically review films and its narrative • Apply narrative theory to your assignment • Gather research to define narrative theory

What did we do last week?

Assignment 4 Write a textual analysis of a moving image product. Consider: • Critical Approaches: content analysis, semiotic analysis, structuralism • Genre: according to production technology, eg film, video, audio, print, digital; distribution method, eg television, cinema, radio, internet, CD, iPod, mobile phone, home computer, hand-held consoles; generic codes and conventions (content, style, symbolic, cultural, technical); changes over time, eg in audience, ideological shifts, re-definition, obsolescence, spoof, pastiche, parody • Narrative structures: narrative, eg single strand, multi-strand, closed, open, linear, non-linear; alternative narrative; enigma; climax; equilibrium • Representation: negative; positive; of social groups; of social issues; stereotyping; presence and absence • Due (27/06/12)

How to do this assignment? • Codes and conventions: define it, why so popular, what does the genre say about audience • Genre • Personal response to product • Narratives • Representational issues • Semiotics – structuralism • Binary Opposition

What is Narrative? • Narrative is defined as • “a chain of events in a cause-effect relationship occuring in time” • (Bordwell & Thompson, Film Art, 1980) • The way that stories are told, how meaning is constructed to achieve the understanding of the audience. • In film, narrative is constructed through elements like camerawork, lighting, sound, mise-en-scene and editing.

What drives a narrative forward?

Why is a goal orientated plot useful for story telling?

Examples • Kill Bill – Kill Bill • The Hangover/2 – Find friend • Children of Men – Save the girl • Inglorious Basterds – Kill Hitler • The Bicycle Thieves – Replace the bicycle • Scott Pilgrim Vs The World – Defeat the evil ex’s

Other examples

Aristotle Theory • Beginning • Middle • End

VladmirPropp theory of characters • Vladimir Propp’s theory was formed in the early twentieth Century. • 8 types of characters: the hero, the villain, the donor, the dispatcher (the messenger), the false hero, the helper, the princess and her father. • He did not state these characters were all separate people e.g. the provider could also be the helper. • There are only 8 different character types and only 31 things they ever do (makes stories predictable) • Todays film and TV: The hero, the villain and the damsel in distress.

Apply Propp’s theory to star wars The hero – Luke Skywalker The villain – Darth Vader The donor – Obi Wan The dispatcher – Obi Wan The false hero – Darth Vader The helper – Obi Wan The princess - Leia The father – Leia’s father

IzetanTodorov • Todorov suggested that conventional narratives are structured in five stages: 1. A state of equilibrium at the outset; 2. A disruption of the equilibrium by some action; 3. A recognition that there has been a disruption; 4. An attempt to repair the disruption; 5. A reinstatement of the equilibrium

Allan Cameron Theory • Anachronic – Flashback • Forking Paths – Contradictory narrative, alternative story • Episodic – a series of shorter stories that appear to be disconnected • Split Screen – screen split into two or more times to show separate events

Guess the Narrative techniques • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsQuNu4NBmQ • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-xJ15AN9ts • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cC_jddH_0MI

Levi Strauss Theory • Binary Opposition • Narrative tension is based on opposition or conflict. • This can be as simple as two characters fighting, but more often functions at an ideological level – e.g., in Westerns, what do the cowboys and Indians each represent? What ideologies are embodied by the opposed sides in LOTR or Star Wars? • The Wickerman shows key elements of Binary Opposition

Narrative Theory