G235: Critical Perspectives in MediaTheoretical Evaluation of Production - Question 1(b)Narrative

Aims/Objectives

• To reinforce the key narrativetheorists.

• To have a basic understanding of how to evaluate your coursework against key narrative theory.

Narrative• Tim O’Sullivan (1998) argues that allmedia texts tell us some kind of story.•Media texts offer a way of telling stories about ourselves – not usually our own personal stories, but the story of us as a culture or set of cultures.• Narrative theory sets out to show that whatwe experience when we ‘read’ a story is tounderstand a particular set of constructions,or conventions, and that it is important tobe aware of how these constructions are puttogether.

3 important words…

Narrative: The structure of a story.Diegesis: The fictional space and time implied by the narrative – the world in which the story takes place.Verisimilitude: Literally – the quality ofappearing to be real or true. For a story toengage us it must appear to be real to us aswe watch it

The Structure Of The Classic Narrative

According to Pam Cook (1985), thestandard Hollywood narrative structureshould have:1.Linearity of cause and effect with enigma

resolution.2.A high degree of narrative closure.3.A fictional world that contains

verisimilitude especially governed by spatial and temporal coherence.

Tzvetan Todorov (1977)

Bulgarian structural linguist.

Has been very influential in the field of narrativetheory.

1.Stage 1: A point of stable equilibrium, where everything is satisfied, calm and normal.

2.Stage 2: This stability is disrupted by some kind of force, which creates a state of disequilibrium.

3.Stage 3: Recognition that a disruption has taken place.

4.Stage 4: It is only possible to re-create equilibrium through action directed against the disruption.

5.Stage 5: Restoration of a new state of equilibrium. The consequences of the reaction is to change the world of the narrative and/or the characters so that the final state of equilibrium in not the same as the initial state.

Tzvetan Todorov

Finding Nemo(Todorov’s Theory)

• Equilibrium: Nemo living with his dad, first day of school.

• Disruption: Nemo goes on school trip, where he is caught by a diver

• Recognition: Marvin, his dad, sees Nemo being taken and decides to take action by trying to find him.

• Repair: Marvin and Dory go on a sea-wide search for Nemo, getting in to all sorts of situations.

• New equilibrium: Nemo and his dad are reunited, and it feels so good. And they live happily ever after .

Roland Barthes (1977)

Establishment of plot or theme. This is then followed by the development of the problem, an enigma, an increase in tension.Finally comes the resolution of the plot.

Such narratives can be unambiguous andlinear.

According to Kate Domaille (2001) every storyever told can be fitted into one of eightnarrative types. Each of these narrative typeshas a source, an original story upon which theothers are based. These stories are as follows:

1.Achilles: The fatal flaw that leads to the destruction of the previously flawless, or almost flawless, person, e.g. Superman, Fatal Attraction.

2.Candide: The indomitable hero who cannot be put down, e.g. Indiana Jones, James Bond, Rocky etc.

3.Cinderella: The dream comes true, e.g. Pretty Woman.

4.Circe: The Chase, the spider and the fly, the innocent and the victim e.g. The Terminator.

5.Faust: Selling your soul to the devil may bring riches but eventually your soul belongs to him, e.g. Devil’s Advocate, Wall Street.

6.Orpheus: The loss of something personal, the gift that is taken away, the tragedy of loss or the journey which follows the loss, e.g. The Sixth Sense, Born On the Fourth Of July.

7.Romeo And Juliet: The love story, e.g. Titanic.8.Tristan and Iseult: The love triangle. Man loves

woman…unfortunately one or both of them are already spoken for, or a third party intervenes, e.g. Casablanca.

The Russian theorist Vladimir Propp (1928)studied the narrative structure of RussianFolk Tales.

Propp concluded that regardless of the individual differences in terms of plot, characters and settings, such narratives would share common structural features.

He also concluded that all the characters could beresolved into only seven character types in the 100 taleshe analyzed:1. The villain — struggles against the hero.2. The donor — prepares the hero or gives the hero some

magical object.3. The (magical) helper — helps the hero in the quest.4. The princess and her father — gives the task to the

hero,identifies the false hero, marries the hero, often sought for during the narrative. Propp noted that functionally, the princess and the father can not be clearly distinguished.

5. The dispatcher — character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off.

6. The hero or victim/seeker hero — reacts to the donor, weds the princess.

7. [False hero] — takes credit for the hero’s actions or tries to marry the princess.

1. The Hero Leads the narrative, is usually looking for

something - a quest, or trying to solve something- a mystery. Does not have to be male.

Example: Batman from Batman

2. The Villain

• Has a conflict with the hero and tries to stop them from succeeding.

Example: The Joker from Batman

3. The Donor• Gives the hero something - a clue, a

talisman, a special power - which helps them complete their quest.

Example: Obi-Wan Kenobi from Star Wars

4. The Princess• Is usually a prize or reward for the hero. If

the hero is female, there can be a price but this is unusual.

Example: Princess Fiona from Shrek

5. T HE HELPER• Helps the hero, often acts as a

sidekick

Example: Donkey from Shrek

6. The Princess’ Father• An authority figure who offers a reward to

the hero for completing their quest. That reward might be a prince, a princess or in more modern narratives, a new car.

Example: The Sultan from Aladdin

7. The False Hero• The false hero takes credit for the hero’s

actions or tries to marry the princess.

Example: Prince Charming from Shrek

These structures are not unique to film but also advertising and news stories.

In fact the structures presented are an integral part of the majority of both western and eastern cultures - details how narrative works in society to inform the audience of events, people, places through mediated ideologies within them.

Narratives have a common structure!

Claude Lèvi-Strauss (1958) his ideas aboutnarrative amount to the fact that he believed all stories operated to certain clear Binary Opposites e.g. good vs. evil, black vs. white, rich vs. poor etc.

The importance of these ideas is that essentially a complicated world is reduced to a simple either/or structure. Things are either right or wrong, good or bad. There is no in between.

This structure has ideological implications, if, for example, you want to show that the hero was not wholly correct in what they did, and the villains weren’t always bad. (Postmodernism?)

You must use these terms!

• multi-strand narrative: telling a story from more than one person’s point of view. or two stories of two different people that intertwine

• restricted narrative: narrative from only one character in the story. Audience has limited access to narrative events as only sees them as this character does. The opposite of this is a non-restricted narrative.

• linear narrative: where the story is told chronologically with a beginning, middle and end. The opposite of this is a non-linear narrative.

Kuleshov Effect• Kuleshov edited together a short film in which a shot of the expressionless

face of Tsarist matinee idol Ivan Mosjoukine was alternated with various other shots (a plate of soup, a girl in a coffin, a woman on a divan). The film was shown to an audience who believed that the expression on Mosjoukine's face was different each time he appeared, depending on whether he was "looking at" the plate of soup, the girl in the coffin, or the woman on the divan, showing an expression of hunger, grief or desire, respectively. Actually the footage of Mosjoukine was the same shot repeated over and over again. The audience "raved about the acting... the heavy pensiveness of his mood over the forgotten soup, were touched and moved by the deep sorrow with which he looked on the dead child, and noted the lust with which he observed the woman. But we knew that in all three cases the face was exactly the same."

• Kuleshov used the experiment to indicate the usefulness and effectiveness of film editing. The implication is that viewers brought their own emotional reactions to this sequence of images, and then moreover attributed those reactions to the actor, investing his impassive face with their own feelings. Kuleshov believed this, along with montage, had to be the basis of cinema as an independent art form.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQNpHELKjn0

• Where did you use Juxtaposition in your music video?

Michael Shore

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3dWZ3fb3Qo

• Michael Shore (1984) used such phrases as "recycled styles", "simulated experience" and "information overload" “cliched imagery”

• Verisimilitude is created within the video through the mimed actions and lip-syncing of the performers, making it appear to the audience that they are watching a real performance.

“Media texts rely on cultural experiences inorder for audiences to easily make sense ofnarratives”. Explain how you used conventional and / or experimental narrative approaches in one of your production pieces.

Answer this question………………