Narrative Lecture Notes

Narrative ● What is narrative? ○ A chain of events ○ Linked by cause-effect relationship ○ Occurring in time and space ● A narrative needs three things ○ A story ○ A storyteller ○ An Audience ● And also needs ○ People ○ Places ○ Problems ● Film Narrative is a type of Form ○ It is the dominant way most films are structured. ○ Common in fiction films, though most documentaries use narrative form to tell a story. ○ Narrative form guides the audiences to pick up cues, anticipate actions, and recall information ○ Events are linked to a cause-effect relationship ● Narrative in the Wizard of OZ ○ Events are linked to a cause-effect relationship ○ Toto bites Miss Gulch ○ Miss Gulch thereatends Toto ○ Dorothy runs away to save Toto ○ The tornado lifts them up, deposits them in Oz ○ The Wicked Witch’s sister gets killed, she vows revenge ○ Dorothy must travel to the Emerald city to get help ○ We meet scarecrow, the tin man, and the lion ● Narrative in Late Spring ○ No Rico is happy living at home with her father Shukichi ○ Lots of marriages are not working out in their milieu ○ But Shukichi’s sister, Noriko’s aunt plants fear that Noriko could remain single forever - unless he acts now ○ Shukichi tries to convince Noriko to meet potential mates ○ Noriko resists, claiming she does not want to abandon him ○ So Shukichi pretends he will get remarried ○ Finally, that convinces/forces Noriko to accept and change ● Cause and effect ○ Character motivations create the drive the chain fo events linked by cause and effect ○ Nature, physical circumstances, and conditions, can also drive cause and effect ○ Characters create causes and experience their effects (“reaction shots”) aka how do the characters feel about an event? ○ ● ● ● ● ● ● ● Character’s thoughts and emotions - needs fears, desires - power their motivations and actions Causality Connects Events ○ When viewers perceive causal motivation/connection this can create: ■ Suspense ■ Surprise ■ Other reactions Story ○ A “chain of events” that flows chronologically ■ To the audience, it includes all events represented and inferred (scenes that are not shown but references, or occurred before start of film) ■ The story world is called the “digests”, the world that the characters and events and locations exist within Plot ○ Plot communicates or represents the story’s events and characters and locations ■ Story events can be represented out of chronological order (emotion) ■ Plot can in include “non-diegetic” elements like titles and music and uses mise-en-scene, cinematography, sound, editing to represent characters, events, and locations (information) Story.v Plot ○ The plot presents that narrative, structural and stylistic elements to the audience ○ Audiences build the story in their minds from what we see, hear, and perceive ○ Presumed and inferred events ○ (Ie character back story, events before film starts) ○ + explicitly presented events and info (plot) ○ = story ○ + audiences (experience, reaction) ○ = a narrative Narrative and Time ○ Story time is always linear & chronological ○ Plot time does not have to be linear; events can be presented out of chronological order ○ Narrative contain three time frames: story duration, plot duration, and duration of film ○ Story is longer than the plot, because the story represents evening that happened in the film, as well as references of other events that were off-screen (might be wrong idk) Classical narrative includes ○ A journey from one space to another ○ A character who grows/changes over time ○ Three acts structure, a beginning, middle, and end The audience is part of the narrative ○ We react, infer, put pieces of the story together ○ We expect and anticipate ○ We critique and evaluate ○ It is the audience member who contstructs the story ○ Which is why meaning. Interpretation, evaluation differ ○ We each construct a different story ○ Narrative is the relationship between the story, plot, and the audience ● Where does three act structure come from? ○ Rituals ○ Myths ○ Fairytales ○ The Hero’s journey Narration ● Narration is the means by which audience gain story knowledge ● How plot distributes story information ● What we know and when we know it ● Narrative needs ○ A story ○ Storyteller ○ Audience ● Range of information ○ Restricted / limited through character POV ○ Unrestricted / omniscient / “objective” ○ Suspense (we are waiting for it) v. Surprise (we had no idea) ● Depth of information ○ Objective ○ Subjective ■ Perceptual ■ Mental ■ Cultural ● Synonymous with narrative activity ● The activity of the “storyteller” ● The means by which the audience gains knowledge ● Narrative activity ○ What we see and hear ○ When we see and hear it ○ How we see and hear it ● All films have narration, not just ones that tell stories ● In many films, the activity of the narration is “invisible” ● The story just seems to tell itself ● The narrative agency is not a person - it isn’t the director, writer, producer, etc.. ● It’s a device, a concept, a construct - a way for us to analyze how the story is being told ● Narrative Agency ○ It can be internal or external to the story ○ It can assume an objective or subjective perspective ○ It can - and often does - shift during the course of the film ● ● Narration is a term that is commonly used to refer to verbal voice over Written/spoken narration can be ○ Diegetic ○ Non-diegetic ○ A combination of both (films that look back at the past such as Stand By Me) Story knowledge ● What the audience knows about story events, and character motivations, thoughts, and emotions ● When do we learn important info? ● How do we learn? ● Does the audience know more, less, or the same as characters? ● Since not all characters know the same information, we might know: ○ As much as some ○ More than others ○ Less than one or two ● The film communicates story information through ○ Mise-en-scene ○ Cinematography ○ Sound ○ Editing ● It guides and affects our response to the film ● Two categories: Range and Depth ● Range of story knowledge ○ How much information the audiences as about events and cause-effect in relation to one or more characters ○ Restricted: when viewers knowledge is restricted to that of a main character ○ Unrestricted: when viewers know more and heart ore than any of the characters know ○ It is a continuum ● Depth of Story knowledge ○ Depth refers to how deeply the plot takes the audience into a character’s psychological state, or subjectivity ○ If story depth stays objective, we can see and hear what people do, but not understand what it means to experience the events through them. ○ This is also a continuum between objective and subjective points of view Non-Feature narrative ● Episodic series ○ Stand-alone episodes ○ Tend to be restorative ● Continuous serials ○ Designed to never end ● Sequential series/ limited series ○ Episodic affected by one another ● Flexi-narrative ○ ○ Hybrid of series and serial Some storylines end, other continue