structure of Narrative

• Narrative is also much more than just a series of cause- effect events.
• The overall narrative structure of a film comprises, in the vast majority of cases, a beginning, middle and end.
• More technically (After Tzvetan Todorov)

Narrative structure applied to a specific film

13 going on 30 (Dir. Gary Winick, USA, 2004)

1. The state of equilibrium

Jennifer Garner is 13 and its her birthday, she has her best friend called Mathew but wants to hang out with a group of her school which are the “cool” girls. She gets angry as the girls cheated her and wants to turn 30 and be pretty.

2. Disruption to that equilibrium

Jennifer Garner wakes up and she was 30, and living the life she wanted when she was 13. But she realises that it wasn’t what she really liked and wants to go back to her old life.

3. Successful restoration of the equilibrium

Goes to Mathews house were there was the powder that had made her wish when she was 13 true. And asks again to be 13 and lives her life as normal.

Narrative

What drives narrative?

• Cause and effect
• One event causes another to happen
• E.g. Psycho (1960)
• Marion and Sam have little money; Tom (the wealthy man) hands over a lot of money; Marion is given the money by the boss; the motive is establish by the rest of the film.
• In psycho, initial events occur more less independently to the main characters
• Marion is quickly killed off- and the film continues without her. Her boyfriend never reappears meaningfully

Cause- effect logic + needs of the characters

• The cause effect logic all relates directly to Thornhill
• In other words, narrative development also has to de seen in relation to the characters themselves, who motivate the cause effect logic
• The forward momentum of North by northwest is driven by the needs and wishes of Thornhill

Structure of Narrative

• Narrative is also much more than just a series of cause effect events
• The overall narrative structure of a film comprises, in the vast majority of cases, a beginning, a middle, and an end.
• More technically
• A state of equilibrium
• Disruption to that equilibrium
• Successful restoration of the equilibrium

The liminal period

• The middle part of a film is generally more dramatic
• It is sometimes refers as the liminal period
• This is when narrative transgresses normal social events, before the equilibrium is restored.

A satisfying film is guaranteed if the main character ends up with more than began. 

Narrative

What drives narrative?

• Cause and effect
• One event causes another to happen
• E.g. Psycho (1960)
• Marion and Sam have little money; Tom (the wealthy man) hands over a lot of money; Marion is given the money by the boss; the motive is establish by the rest of the film.
• In psycho, initial events occur more less independently to the main characters
• Marion is quickly killed off- and the film continues without her. Her boyfriend never reappears meaningfully

Cause- effect logic + needs of the characters

• The cause effect logic all relates directly to Thornhill
• In other words, narrative development also has to de seen in relation to the characters themselves, who motivate the cause effect logic
• The forward momentum of North by northwest is driven by the needs and wishes of Thornhill

Structure of Narrative

• Narrative is also much more than just a series of cause effect events
• The overall narrative structure of a film comprises, in the vast majority of cases, a beginning, a middle, and an end.
• More technically
• A state of equilibrium
• Disruption to that equilibrium
• Successful restoration of the equilibrium

The liminal period

• The middle part of a film is generally more dramatic
• It is sometimes refers as the liminal period
• This is when narrative transgresses normal social events, before the equilibrium is restored.

A satisfying film is guaranteed if the main character ends up with more than began. 

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.

Narration

Narration- Mechanism for conveying information to the spectator

Restricted narration

Omniscient narration (either jumping from one character to the next, or representing the directors vision) –knowing things from many different points of view.

Restricted narration- effects

·        Mystery- because we can only see it from one persons eyes, so we don’t know what is going to happen next.

Omnicsient narration- effects

·        Suspence- you have a very good idea of what is going to happen so you are waiting for it to happen.

North by North west

Generally restricted except certain points

1.     Bar of the plaza

2.     leaving the kidnappers house the next day

3.     public lounge on the UN

4.     CIA discussion scene

5.     Cashier at the train station

6.     message sent to vandamm by Eve on train

Ordering events in film

•What is the classic structure for the way a story is told on film?

Start, middle, and end

•What is the traditional system by which the main events in a film are ordered?

Chronological or linear

•What terms can we use to describe this pattern or order?

The start is called equilibrium, nothing happens but characters are introduced. Then we have a crisis were we move from the equilibrium to high tension. Then we have the climax, and at the end we have a happy ending were the characters are at a better situation than at the beginning.

•How are events ordered in the early scenes of ‘Psycho’?

Marion is at a hotel with her boyfriend and they cannot get married because they don’t have enough money. She goes to her office and gets money to put in the bank. She goes to her house instead than the bank and she steels it as she runs away with it.

•Are all films always ordered in this way? Find examples where the events are NOT ordered in this way?

No, sometimes there are flashbacks, example; Harry Potter, momento, slum dog millionaire.

•Why do you think a director would choose this approach to the ordering of events?

To mess around with the audience mind but trust there will be sense to it. To do it predictable, and create interest and tension to it.

•What is the chronology in Pulp Fiction (1994)?

The chronology in pulp fiction is not linear.

• Look at the sheet to see the main events rendered in chronological order (fabula)

Is this the order used in the film?

What is the order in which these events appear in the early part of ‘Pulp Fiction’

4(a), 2(a), 5, 1, 6, 2(B), 3, 4(b)

• Draw a timeline. Can you see a pattern?

•How does this change in the order of events affect the film’s cause/effect logic?

It doesn’t follow a chronological effect as there is a break in the scenes between cause and effect; normally it is cause and then effect.

•What do you think is the effect on the audience?

The effect on the audience would be more interest, curiosity, engagement, confusion, don’t understanding.

•The narrative ordering of a film plot (NOT its chronology) is known as the sujet (see Markham Film blog for full definition)

-          So the fabula is the ‘raw material’ of a story in chronological order

-          The sujet is the way a story is then organised by the director on film.

So how would you describe the sujet of Pulp Fiction? 

There is a pattern which isn’t too obvious, as it changes times between scenes.

•What impact does the complexity of its sujet (narrative order) have on the audience? What risks is the director taking if he presents a film with a complex sujet?

The audience of Pulp Fiction would be adults as it is a little complicated to understand and requires thinking. The director must make sure the complex sujet isn’t too complicated as that could lead to confusion and the public may not understand the movie, and if they don’t understand it they wont like it, they might also misinterpret it.

•  How would you re-construct the sujet of the film so that we don’t simply follow

the fabula but we can still make sense of what’s going on?

We could start by the end of a film were things are completely changed in the characters life’s and then come back to the beginning so the audience would wonder what has happened and would be more interested in the movie.

Alfred Hitchcock

Characterisics about him 

He makes himself apparent in the movies.

He uses a lot of music, which increases the tension in movies. Also digetic sound.

Audience; teenagers and adults

As the tension increases the shots become shorter

Naturalistic dialogue often in the tension or feeling he is trying to get

Heavy irony- the audience knows more than the characters

Mistaken identity.

Chronological order 

Themes: suspense, tension, bad conscience, mistaken identity.