AS FILM STUDIES

“A story should have a beginning, a middle and an end….but not necessarily in that order.”

(Jean Luc Godard)

Filmmakers talk about stories and scripts.

Film theorists talk about narrative.

Essentially they are talking about the same thing but using different words to do it.

To clarify we need a definition…

The Art of telling a story

NARRATIVE DEFINITION:

“ a chain of events in cause-effect relationship occurring in time and space.”

Bordwell and Thompson Film Art: an introduction

Timothy Corrigan in A short guide to writing about film identifies two principle components in a narrative:

• the story is all the events that are presented to us or that we can infer have happened;• the plot is the arrangement of those events in a certain order or structure.

The study of a film’s narrative then is both the study of its story and also the study of how the story is told:

by what means (mise en scene, cinematography, editing and sound)

and in what order.

In your assigned groups, create a presentation explaining the narrative theory and applying it to Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Compression of Time:Most films operate a high degree of ellipsis

or time manipulation. In order to move the story forward, the audience only ‘sees’ the moments in time which are relevant to the Narrative.

Some texts operate time as a more balanced ‘Real time’ construction but Classical/Post Classical Hollywood Narrative maintains strict control over Narrative Time.

Use of Narrative to create Suspense and Audience expectations…

Restricted or Unrestricted Narratives determine how much information is released to the Audience at a time… What do they need to know and when?

e.g. Spielberg withheld the identity of Indiana Jones at the beginning of Raiders to intensify the mystery and awe of the action-adventure hero.

The world of the Film’s StoryEverything that is going on in the fictional reality on screen. This is why the most common use of the term is to describe SOUND as either Diegetic (as in dialogue & naturalistic background noise)

or Non-Diegetic (use of ‘mood’ music in a scene)

For meanings to be interpreted correctly by audiences, narratives can function in many ways:

OPEN – questions remain unanswered e.g.. a cliff-hanger.

CLOSED – all questions are answered. LINEAR – the narrative is in order, it makes sense. NON-LINEAR/FRACTURED – out of order e.g. a film

trailer or use of flashbacks. SINGLE STRANDED – one storyline in the media text MULTI-STRANDED – several storylines weaving into

an overall narrative.

Narrative serves a number of purposes:1) It delivers the Story in Visual & Dialogue 2) It decides what order information is to be

delivered and when3) It places the audience on the side of the

protagonist by way of ‘privileging’ their perspective above others

4) It establishes the pace of the text5) It delivers implicit messages & values

(Ideology) which support the perspectives of the makers.