Unit1 section3 narrative notes

NARRATIVE:  story of the film / plot and the way the story is organised.
Elements:
- Time
- closure
- Enigma

Classical Hollywood narratives:
- linear (chronological order)
- few, if any, Sub – plots (story behind the main story )
-tendency towards closure

Theories:
- Todorov (surrounds narrative theories)
 Theory name:  Todorov narrative structure (toys story).
- equilibrium
- disruption
-reselution
-new equilibrium

BARTHES
-described all text as complex "bundles" of meaning which can be unravelled to create a whole range of different meanings.
-  According to Barthes texts can be:
-open-   The numerous "threads to pull"
-  closed – with only one obvious read to grasp
-  texts that can be read in a number of ways are known as polysemic texts
- The threads are the narrative codes
- Most significant code is the enigma code
-  this is constructed to attract and hold the attention of the audience normally by creating a mystery or puzzle that the audience want to solve – see solved.
- The enigma code is usually introduced in the disruption phase of Todorov's model
-  enigma codes are designed to attract audiences and hold their attention (silence of the lamb's)

PROPP
- Analysed stories
 Identified eight key character roles in the stories
– The hero
– The villain
-  The donor (provider)
-  the helper
- the father
- the dispatcher
- the princess
-the false hero

- Argues that characters could play more than one role and there could be more than one type

E.G- SHREK
– The hero: Shrek (want to succeed/on a quest)
- villain: Lord farquad (struggles against the hero)
– The helper/donor: donkey (gives hero something special/clue. Dragon and father
– False hero: Prince Charming (mistaken)
– Dispatcher: Lord farquad and the father (person who sends the hero on a mission)

THREE ACT STRUCTURE- field

– Hollywood film narrative tends to be organised in the "three act structure"
– The film must be set up within the first 20 to 30 minutes before the main character or protagonists experiences a plot point that gives him or her a goal that must be achieved.
– Half of the movie is running time must then be taken up with the characters struggle to achieve his or her goal this is the confrontation period
– Field also refers, sometimes, to the midpoint, a more subtle turning point that happens in act two, the confrontation which often has and apparently deverstating  reversal  of the main characters fortune
– The final quarter of the film (the third act) depicts a climatic struggle by the protagonist to finally achieve (or not achieve)  his or her goal and the aftermath of this struggle