2. What is narrative?
Narrative is not a concept that can be described objectively,
however it was famously defined by ‘Bordwell & Thompson’ of
‘Film Art’ in 1990 to mean “a chain of events in a cause-effect
relationship occurring in time”. Narrative is found in all areas
of entertainment, predominantly in literature and film.
Narrative is most familiar to us in the form of spoken word,
whether that be through a cassette, the voice of a character or
even through song. There are less common angles to take
narrative, like a sequence of images, often coming with text,
for example comic books. However the narrative that is being
put into particular focus here, is film narrative.
Narrative in film is generally identified in a variety of different ways.
Philosophical researcher Owen Flanagan gave some significant insights into
his thoughts on narrative, Flanagan believed that all humans were
storytellers. This idea is particularly interesting, when telling a story,
whether it being your favourite party or most embarrassing moment, we
move backwards and forwards in the story, as the listener, it is at times,
difficult to follow. Story and plot is a huge part of narrative, a ‘story’ is
generally defined as: ‘All events referenced both explicitly in a narrative and
inferred.’ Plot on the other hand, meaning ‘the events directly incorporated
into the action of the text and the order they were presented.’
In film, time is something that sometimes has to be manipulated, this is known in film as ‘Montage
Condenses’, meaning ‘compresses time’, this is done to show the time span of a narrative, which is
particularly useful in films like ‘The Shining’ and ‘City of God’ which occur over a long period of time.
3. Why is narrative important?
• Narrative is absolutely essential for any film to make sense for the audience. Many different
aspects of narrative are derived from the basic principle, including Narrative range and
depth.
• Narrative Range is generally defined in two ways, ‘unrestricted narration’ and ‘restricted
narration’. Unrestricted narration meaning a narrative which has no limits to the information
this presented, for example a news bulletin. Restricted narrative on the other hand offers
only minimal information regarding the narrative, usually for climactic reasons. Restricted
narrative is a theme often found in the likes of thrillers.
• Narrative depth is also defined in two ways, ‘Subjective character identification’ and
‘Objective character identification’. Subjective character identification basically means the
viewer is given unique access to what a range of characters see and do, objective on the
other hand restricts the viewer, however they are given unique access to a character’s point
of view such as seeing things from a character’s mind, dreams, fantasies or even memories
(reverse chronological).
As an audience we begin to recognise the various codes
and conventions that construct narrative in film. Things
like: Cinematography, editing, sound, performance,
character types, cultural codes, themes, connotations,
genre awareness and events (alienation / identification)
all help us to make narrative assumptions.
Narration is commonly told from one specific viewpoint, however there are specific ways in which the
story is narrated, for example by a: First person narrator, third person omniscient narrator (all knowing),
retrospective narrator (told after events have occurred, often a reflective tone), homo-diegetic (the
narrator is part of the story), heterodiegetic and also, in rarer cases there can be multiple narrators.
4. CAUSALITY – Syd Field
The Three Act System
Different sequences are joined together to create a general structure for
the film. This structure is known as causality, one leads to another which
leads to another etc. The causality structure is easily identified as a film
progresses, watching a structure develop of events providing the seeds for
other events throughout the film. The best account of how this works to
produce an overall structure for a film is given by the American
screenwriter Syd Field in his book Screenplay.
Act One
The first act is known as the ‘set
up’. The set up is in many ways the
most imporant act for Field, he
claims that within the first ten
minutes of any screenplay the
audience will have made up their
minds on whether they like the
film and are usually reluctant to
change their view from the point
onwards. In terms of narrative, the
first act commonly gives us a feel
for the type of film it is, the
general story, who we are to like
and not like and what the problem
would typically be that the
hero/heroin is facing.
Act Two
The second act on the other hand is
the longest act of the film, and was
labelled by Field as the
‘confrontation’. In this act the
protagonist is usually in a number of
problematic situations whereby they
are finally confronted with the issue
that is introduced to us in act one. It
is now we are usually revealed to the
noble acts of the protagonist in
conquering the enemy. Midway
through the second act there is often
a turning point whereby the
protagonist begins to prevail in what
appeared to be a helpless battle.
Act Three
The third act is known as ‘The
Resolution’. In which we usually see
the succession of the protagonist
taking control of his problems and in
some cases his inner demons that
have been his hindrance through the
entirety of the story. The protagonist
will approach the enemy, usually in
what is the enemies home teriroty
(to show the fearlessness and
certainty of succession) and will
achieve their eventual and definite
victory. The good will always prevail
over the bad, a theme that often
takes all three acts to be verified.
5. Tzvetan Todrov
Tzvetan Todrov is a Franco-Bulgarian philosopher, accredited for writing books and essays about literary theory,
thought history and culture theory. But more so for publishing insightful narrative work from the 1960’s onwards. He
is famous in film for coming up with a type of narrative structure very familiar to us, that can be applied to many
mainstream film narratives. This narrative structure is known as ‘Todrov’s five stages’.
Todrov suggested that in every story or narrative, it begins with an ‘Equilibrium’ a state whereby all opposing forces
are in balance. Todrov believed that this was then disrupted by some event, creating a chain/series of events. Todrov
stated that for order to be restored in the world of fiction, this disruption. Todrov believed that this theory is more
simply structured in 5 stages, Todrov believed this could be applied to all conventional narratives:
• Stage one: A stage of equilibrium (power balance) at the outset
• Stage two: A clear disruption of the equilibrium through some action
• Stage three: The recognition that this disruption has occurred
• Stage four: An attempt to repair the disruption
• Stage five: A reinstatement of the disruption
1. EQUILIBRIUM
2. DISEQUILIBRIUM
3. NEW EQUILIBRIUM
6. Different types of narrative
Writer Allan Cameron gives some insightful analysis of modular narrative in
contemporary cinema. Cameron believed that modern narratives “articulate a
sense of time as divisible and subject to manipulation”. He identified four different
types of modular narrative:
1. Anachronic: involve the use of flash backs/forwards, with no clear
dominance between any of the narrative threads. These narratives also often
repeat scenes directly or via a different perspective. Examples include: Pulp
Fiction and Memento
2. Forking Paths: juxtapose alternative versions of a story, showing the possible
outcomes that might result from small changes in a single event or group of
events. This form of narrative introduces a number of plotlines that usually
contradict one another. Examples include: Groundhog day and Run Lola
Run
3. Episodic: Organised as an abstract series of narrative anthology. Abstract
series type of modular narrative is characterised by the operation of a non-
narrative formal system which appears to dictate the organisation of
narrative elements such as a sequence of numbers or the alphabet.
Anthology on the other hand consists of a series of shorter tales which are
apparently disconnected but share a random similarity, such as all ‘episodes’
being survivors of a shipwreck.
4. Split Screen: Different from the other types of modular narrative discussed
here, because their modularity is articulated along spatial rather than
temporal lines. These films divide the screen into two or more frames,
juxtaposing events within the same visual field, in a sustained fashion.
Examples include Timecode.
