Introduction.
in this lesson, we learned about the narrative of movies and tv. this will give us a basic knowledge foundation to help structure and build up our own narratives and stories from.
Narratvie, plot and story.
narrative is the art of storytelling – how a story is told.
a plot is what is visibly/audibly present in the film, and the order in which you watch/listen to it.
the story is everything that happens in the world of the narrative, including everything that happens outside of what we see on screen.
Narration.
restricted narration – when the audience sees an event through the viewpoint of one person. this can add surprise as the audience only discovers events alongside the main character.
omniscient – when the audience sees events from multiple viewpoints. This can add suspense as the audience knows information that some characters do not.
Types of narrative.
linear narrative-
non linear-
parallel action-
multi narrative-
Mode of address/audience positioning.
the way in which a film/show will speak to the audience visually or through dialogue/sound. this helps set the tone and create the way in which the audience responds to the film. for example, voiceovers are used to convey factual information (that the aucience rarely challenges) or someone’s thoughts (that are more open to criticism or interpretation).
Open/closed structure.
a closed structure means that the story ends satisfactorily with all storylines and character arcs ended.
an open ending means that there is less of a final conclusion or no conclusion at all.
Propp character types.
russian formalist Vladimir Propp studied folk tales and theorized that certain character types repeated themselves consistently.
the hero (protagonist)
the villain (antagonist)
the princess – a prize or reward for the hero, usually a love interest that the hero is fighting to save from the villain.
princess’ father – an authority figure over the princess (the mother from tangled).
helper (a sidekick)
donor – provides the hero with something that helps them complete their quest (an object, skills or information).
dispatcher – mentors the hero and teaches them before sending them on their way.
false hero – a character that falsely assumes the role of a hero (prince charming from shrek).
personally, i think it does nothing for films and tv to attempt to categorize every character into an archetype. i think that it is detrimental to the evolution of people’s understanding and ability to appreciate film and tv. i think that in some cases, characters need to be complex and fleshed out and treated like a real person – however, his is not the case all the time. the characters in spongebob don’t need to be super complex and deep.
Propp character task.
in groups, we chose peices of media to categorize into the propp character types.
here is the link to the powerpoint.
Todorov’s theory.
Tzvetan Todorov analysed traditional stories and narratives and theorised a formula that many narratives fit into. this starts wqith an equilibrium, which is then broken, the disruption is realised and attempted to be repaired. whether the equilibrium is restored or not, there is a new equilibruim by the end.
monsters inc example:
equilibrium: monsters collect children’s screams to power their cities.
disruption: one of the children gets into the monster’s world.
recognition of disruption: when other monsters find out that boo is in the monster world.
attempt to repair distruption: sully and mike try to return boo to her home.
new equiluibrium: the monsters decide to collect laughs instead.