Film Narrative

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Film Narrative
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Elements of Narrative

• Story and Plot
• - Story
• (1) Explicitly presented (diegetic) events
• (2) Implied events
• - Plot
• (1) Explicitly presented (diegetic) events
  in certain order
• (2) Non-diegetic material

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Diegesis

• Diegesis The total world of the story
• Diegetic elements the events, characters,
  objects, settings, and sounds
• Nondiegetic elements things that we see and hear
  on the screen but that come from outside the
  world of the story (e.g. background music, titles
  and credits, voiceover comment from an omniscient
  narrator)

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Story
Explicitly presented (diegetic)events
Implied events
Non-diegetic material
Plot
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Order Events

• Order of Plot events
• Chronological
• Non-chronological
• Events Hubs and Satellites
• Hubs Major events or branching points in the
  plot structure that force characters to choose
  b/w or among alternate paths
• Satellites Minor plot events that add texture
  and complexity to characters and elements but are
  not essential elements

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Duration

• Definition length of time
• Story duration amount of time that the implied
  story takes to occur
• Plot duration elapsed time of those events
  within the story that the film explicitly
  presents
• Screen duration movies running time onscreen

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• Relationships
• Story and Plot duration usually stable (plot
  event duration story event it implies)
• Story and Screen duration
• Summary relationship
• screen duration
• Real time relationship
• screen duration story duration
• Stretch relationship
• screen duration story duration
• Cinematic time usually ? Real time

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Suspense vs Surprise

• Surprise taking unawares
• Suspense anxiety brought on by a partial
  uncertainty - the end is certain, but the means
  is uncertain (or sometimes both the results and
  means known)

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Frequency

• Definition Number of times with which a story
  element recurs in plot
• Purpose
• Symbols and Metaphors?
• Memory Flash-backs and slow-motion
• Stream-of-consciousness

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Characters

• Treatment
• Beings who like real people have discernible
  traits, habits, and dispositions
• Formal elements that help develop the narrative
  (stock characters)

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Types of Characters

• Complexity
• Flat Characters
• one-dimensional
• one or very few discernible traits
• predictable behavior
• Round characters three-dimensional
• three-dimensional
• Several traits, sometimes contradictory
• Unpredictable behavior

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Types of Characters

• Roles
• Major characters
• Protagonist
• Antagonist
• Minor characters
• Marginal characters

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Determining Character

• Traits, motivations (social, economic, ethnic,
  racial, religious, emotional, or psychological),
  actions
• Description by narrator or other characters
• Style by which actors interpret
• Natural vs. Probable

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Setting

• Definition time and space in which the story
  takes place.
• Not only date, city, or country, but also
  provides the characters social, education, and
  cultural backgrounds and other identifying
  factors vital for understanding them such as what
  they eat and drink
• Provides implicit explanation for actions or
  traits normally considered eccentric by providing
  cultural context

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Point of View

• Physical point of view the position or angle
  from which the camera or a particular narrator or
  character observes an event or a scene
• Mental point of view the perspective taken by a
  particular narrator or character in a story in
  seeing and hearing an even or scene, reflecting
  on an idea, creating a relationship between two
  or more things, or remembering events or dreams
• Beyond camera or the characters

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Omniscient POV

• Definition camera has complete or unlimited
  perception of what the cinematographer chooses
  for it to see (most common), however, it does not
  mean it has to show everything, editing always
  leaves out aspects of the story and plot

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Subjective or Restricted POV

• Definition perceptual, subjective point of view
  of an individual character.
• Direct POV character is in the frame and we see
  what he or she sees
• Indirect POV like Direct POV, but is a result at
  least two consecutive shots achieved by such
  editing techniques as eyeline-match cut.
• Interior Monologue

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Scope

• Definition related to duration, setting and POV,
  it is the overall range, in time and place of the
  movies story