Narrative Structures

Closed NarrativeA closed narrative structure mans that there are no loose ends and the documentary has a clear conclusion and has answered all questions that could be asked.

Open NarrativeAn open narrative structure is when the documentary ends with unanswered questions and all the ends are loose as they haven’t been concluded, leaving the audience to wonder.

Todorov said about Narrative StructureMost narratives have the same pattern

1. Equilibrium – everything is content2. Disruption – something disrupts the calm3. Realisation – where everyone realises the

problem4. Restored Order – where the characters fix the

problem5. Equilibrium – Restored once again

Linear StructureHaving a linear narrative structure means that the documentary follows a timeline of events and the different pieces of the documentary are shown chronologically in order of time.

Non-Linear StructureA non-linear narrative structure means that there is no order to what is shown in the documentary.

Propp said about Narrative Structure7 Characters

Villain Donor Helper Princess False Hero Dispatcher Hero

Single StrandThis is where the documentary follows one story.

Multi StrandA multi-strand narrative is where there are more than one narrative strand being told in the documentary and they can sometimes overlap or be being told at the same time.

What Levi-Strauss said about Narrative Structure After studying hundreds of myths and legends

form around the world, Levi-Strauss observed that we make sense of the world’s people and events by seeking and using binary opposites everywhere.

He observed that all narratives are organised around the conflict between such binary opposites.

Key Words: Mythemes, Mythological time, Synchtony and dianctrony in relation to myth.Circular Narrative

A circular narrative strand is where a documentary starts and finishes on the same point. This can bring quick closure to a documentary and not leave loose ends.

What Roland Barthes said about Narrative StructureHermeneutic Code – Not fully explained.Proairlec Code – Builds tension.Semantic Code – Connotation over the basic meaning.Cultural Code – Canonical, assumed to be the foundation for truth.

Potential Narrative Structures to use:

Closed Narrative: this is a potential narrative structure we could use, as we want to answer any questions the audience could have in order to let them draw their own conclusion along with their personal experiences with mental health.

+ Is suited to a clear informative approach and would suit the documentary style+ Allows us to mediate the content and the opinion that the audience form- Means we would have to draw a clear conclusion about a very broad and contested topic

Non-Linear Structure: this is a structure that we will most likely use for our documentary as there is no clear chronological order for our topic, using a very loose non-linear structure would suit our documentary much more than a series of events shown in a chronological order.

+ Allows us to present events and arguments in different orders than which they actually happened in (Eg. Vox Pops presented before Interviews)+ Allow for different opinions to be placed throughout the documentary- This would mean a lack of continuity for the parts of the documentary such as Vox Pops

Multi-Strand: this is another narrative structure that we will most likely use in some way, it would mean we could have multiple storylines looking at different people who have suffered from mental health.

+ Is suited to our documentary style as we would be able to focus on many different stories+ Would allow us to include a variety of different interviews, news reports, and Vox Pops- Could easily get confusing for the audience

Closed Narrative: this is one narrative structure that whilst being very interesting, would be very difficult to incorporate into our documentary.+ Similar to the closed narrative, we would be able to have a closed documentary with mediated content- Due to us only producing the first 5 minutes of the documentary, created a circular, closed narrative in 5 minutes would be incredibly difficult to incorporate and

ssssssssswould make the documentary drop in quality overall