Narrative techniques

Technique	Description	Effect (in term of driving forward the narrative of the film)	Example from a film
1. Exposition	Fills in the back story of the characters and their situations	Shows our interest in the characters and we want to see what happens to them next.	The narration of the beginning of Amelie explaining the background and her parents.
2. Dangling cause	Information or action that leads to no effect or resolution until much later in the film	Our interest in the film is retained, and allows the film to have many different stories going on.	Shrek 2, the king is actually a frog and the fairy god mother turned him into a prince so he could be king.
3. Obstacle	Stands in the way of the characters reaching their goal	Makes it more interesting and dramatic as it demands that things happen.	Psycho. The police man follows her.
4. Deadline	A time limit placed on a protagonist to accomplish a goal	Increases tension, makes the film more goal orientated.	Inception, you have certain time in the dreams as they are synchronized.
5. Dialogue hook	Creates a link between two consecutive scenes	Makes two unrelated scenes make sense.