Revison - narrative (Section A)

“The way in which a story is told (fiction or non-fiction)” Media Studies An Essential Introduction (Rayner)
Todorov : 3 Act structure Equilibrium à Disruption à New Equilibrium
Levi-Strauss: Binary Opposites can be used to tell a story – opposite events and actions enable a story to develop.
Propp’s character roles:  Applied to film, updated roles for characters to perform to act out the narrative.
Barthes: Narrative codes: Engimas to pleasurably delay the ending, Action codes to speed up events, Symbolic codes to make meaning and Cultural codes to add depth to events (Cultural awareness further informs audiences)
Contemporary narrative à Shark Model (Eejit’s Guide to Filmmaking – hook audiences in with an instant bite)
Twist ending often used in short films.
Anti-narrative, non chronological order, circular narrative (as the name implies we go round in a circle)
Narrative devices:  Helping to tell a story:
Mise-en-scene informs us about people and places and events, short cut devices.
Editing transitions can be read in certain ways (fade to black end of a moment progress to new time, dissolve – pass the time – same or linked events or to indicate a dream or thoughts, fade to white often suggests a flashback)
Sound can help to tell a story – Non-diegetic music can set the mood, the tone, indicate something about the situation.
Voice over can tell the story – but from a particular perspective to alter how the audience respond to the story. (Objective, subjective), Script / dialogue aids narrative.
Superimposed titles can also anchor instant meanings to visuals.