Narrative techniques: The Ugly Truth

Technique	Description	Effect	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.	At the start of the movie they show us the characters and in the situation they are. Abby the main character is the producer of morning news a very successful tv program. She hasn’t had sex with anyone for a long time, and neither has been with someone. She isn’t very fortunate with guys and she is a controller. She has a checklist with the items about the ideal man for her.
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.	She meets her new neighbor which she really liked and wants a date with him. Accidentally the TV turned to a program called the ugly truth were this man talked about relations and what woman had to do to conquer boys. She hated him as she did everything he told not to do.
3. Obstacle	Stands in the way of the characters reaching their goal	Makes it more interesting and dramatic as it demands that things happen.	The ratings of the program were she worked start to go down so her boss hires the guy of the ugly truth which she hated and doesn’t want him to work there.
4. Deadline	A time limit placed on a protagonist to accomplish a goal	Increases tension, makes the film more goal orientated.	The guy of the ugly truth finds out she wants a date with her neighbor, as he gets in when she was calling him. So he tells her that he would help her get him and if at the end she was with him she wouldn’t hate him anymore and let him be in the channel, and if she didn’t get him he would leave, so she accepts the deal.
5. Dialogue hook	Creates a link between two consecutive scenes	Makes two unrelated scenes make sense.	At the end she ends up falling in love and being with the one of the ugly truth although the neighbor was in love with her. As they spended so much time together and he is sent to another place to work that was in another city, the company sends her to try to convince him to stay and they stay in the same hotel and fall in love with each other.