Narrative theory

In media terminology, narrative is the organisation given to a series of the facts. The human mind needs narrative theory to have a full understanding of things. We connect events based on what we see with are own eyes and use those connections. In everything we seek a beginning, middle and an end when watching something to have a full understanding of things. We understand and construct meaning using experience of reality and previous texts. Each text becomes more apart of the previous and the next through its relationship with the audience.

Narrative conventions:

When looking at a narrative in order to find its meaning, there ar a series of codes and conventions that need to be considered. When we look at a narrative we examine the conventions of

·         Genre

·         Character

·         Form

·         Time

We use the knowledge of these conventions to help us understand narrative. Thus time is something that we understand as a convention narrative does not take place in real time but telescope out for example in Al Pacino’s Scarface we witness the gangster’s rise to power in a max of 2 hours, but we are not shown every aspect of how reached it in a matter of years we are only shown important parts of his life to fit the narrative by showing everyday of his life it would be unnecessary as the audience does not need to know everything for example shootings or robberies.

It is only because we are used to reading narratives from the start of our life's that we are able to compare texts with others that we understand these conventions. A narrative is a series of events, but in order to understand its meaning from the narrative those events must be linked somehow for example settings and characters matching each other.
Film as fairy tale:

VLADIMIR PROPP A Russian a critic who examined 100s of examples of folk tales to see if they shared any structures.  Propp looked at many of folk tales and identified 8 stock character roles and 31 narrative functions. Vladimir Propp extended the Russian Formalist approach to the study of narrative structure. In the Formalist approach sentence structures were broken down into analyzable elements and Propp used this method by analogy to analyze Russian fairy tales.

The 8 stock character roles are-

·         The villain: who opposes or actively blocks the hero’s quest

·         The hero: a character that seeks something

·         The donor: who provides an object with some magic property

·         The helper: who aids the hero.

·         The princess: reward for the hero and object of the villain's schemes.

·         Her father: who rewards the hero.

·         The dispatcher: who sends the hero on his way.

·         The false hero: who disrupts the hero’s success by making false claims



The stock character roles and the functions identified by Propp can be applied to all kinds of narratives. In films we are often are shown with 'heroes' and ‘villains'. For example in the thriller 'The Dark Knight' we are shown the typical hero, villain, helper, princess (damsel in distress), false hero and dispatcher(s), thus giving the audience an expectation of how the film will be set for example a fairy tale or action genre by having a heroes, villains and damsels in distress.

Tzvetan Todorov

 

Tzvetan Todorov is a Franco-Bulgarian philosopher who wrote books and essays about literary theory. Tzvetan Todorov suggested a basic structure for all narratives. He said that films and television shows begin with equilibrium, a calm period. Then agents of disruption cause disequilibrium this is when the film turns unsettling and uneasy for a period of time. This is then followed up by a time of peace and harmony for the characters and a new equilibrium brings the chaos to an end for example 'Harry Potter' films normally start of calm by showing surroundings and peace but then suddenly it takes flight when a new narrative is introduced when an enemy shown which is a common narrative theory in films.

Todorov suggested that stories begin with equilibrium or a current situation where everything is in balance. This is then unsettled by some type of event or setting sin the series of events. The problems is then taken into action and resolved so that everything may come back in to the balance from the start of narrative.

Claude Levi-Strauss



Claude Levi-Strauss looked at narrative structure in terms of binary oppositions. Binary oppositions are sets of opposite values which reveal the structure of media. An example would be GOOD and EVIL, we understand the concept of GOOD as being the opposite of EVIL as one set doing the opposite of the other for example in the film 'I am Legend' the audience understand that it is the healthy who are trying to heal the sick but the sick are trying to kill the healthy, thus healthy being "good" and sick being "evil". Levi –Strauss was not so interested in looking at the order in which events were arranged in the plot. He looked instead for deeper arrangements of themes. For example, if we look at Thriller genre films we can identify a series of binary oppositions which are created by the narrative:

·         Police/Detectives/Army

·         Waste lands, cities, towns, and space

·         Good

·         Evil

·         Innocent people

·         Terrorists

·         Past

·         Present

·         Weapons

·         Strange

·         Known – killers

·         Unknown – ghosts

Aristotle’s Unities

A narrative which is created within a unity of time, place and action that is, it should all take place in the same location, in real time, and with all action moving towards a logical and moral conclusion. Normally this use of narrative is used in army/historical films when a battle takes place on a battle field and shown amongst the audience for example 'HENRY V'.

Barthes’ Enigma Code

Barthes' Enigma Code is a theory that tells a text (whether that be television, film, a poster etc) portrays a mystery to attract an audience. For example a murder mystery will often not reveal the identity of the murderer until the end of the story, which asks the question "Who is the murderer?" a good example of this is the film 'Scooby Doo the movie' which prolongs which who the corporate is till the end of the storyline.

Thriller film

In my production I will use Props and Aristotle theories of different characters and time setting (beginning, middle, and end, all moving in one location at a reasonable time. The reason I will use these theories is because the connection between setting and action mentioned above, can further notify that even chance factors for example props and characters may be determined by the setting.  In my production we will use the theme of thriller as the chance factors are believable within a this setting, the narratives of these genres which are mainly kidnappings, mystery and murder cases are easier to exploit as the element of surprise is a natural chance factor by making them occur in unlikely settings for example a villain appearing behind the princess as she closes her mirror cupboard.