Narrative

A narrative is a constructive format that describes the a sequence of fictional and non fictional events.

• Beginning --> Middle --> End

• Exposition --> Complication --> Climax --> Resolution

Narrative Structure is the way a story is organised and shaped in terms of time, events, point of view. 

So Narrative... 

"the process by which stories, fictional and non-fictional, are constructed by the producers and understood"

Narrative Structure:

1. Beginning or exposition - gives us a basic situation of the story

2. Complication - this is where the situation is disrupted 

3. Climax/Crisis- the turning point

4. Resolution - where after crisis, a new situation is established

Todorov's theory of Narrative:

1. Equilibrium - this has to be shown carefully, here the setting is established, the key characters are introduced and the story line is set up.
2. Disruption - the oppositional characters appear and the story takes a particular direction.
3. Recognition - this is where the disruption is being recognized, the lives of the characters and events are interwoven, tension is built up through out this section and this section always tends to be the longest.
4. Attempt to repair - in this section they attempt to repair the damage cause by the disruption, this is the highest point of tension and there is a change in dynamic.
5. New Equilibrium - matters are sorted out and problems are solved and questions have been answered, this is like a new beginning.

Roland Barthes

• Enigma Codes --> to raise questions
• Action Codes --> one action triggers another one

Enigma Code: generates and controls what and how much we know in a narrative, and it holds our interest as a audience. It is like a puzzle waiting to be solved.

Action Code: Events we know will be significant in the development of the narrative, we understand and recognize them instantly from other narratives.

Vladimir Propp


Propp broke fairy tails into sections, through this he could define the tale into a series of sequences that occurred within a Russian fairy tale. There tends to be a initial situation, where the following 31 steps are used.

Absentation, Interdiction, Violation of interdiction, Reconnaissance, Delivery, Trickery, Complicity, Villainy, Mediation, Beginning counter-action, Departure, First function of the donor, Hero's reaction, Receipt of magical agent, Guidance, Struggle, Branding, Victory, Liquidation, Return, Pursuit, Rescue, Unrecognized arrival, Unfounded claims, Difficult task, Solution, Recognition, Exposure, Transfiguration, Punishment and Wedding.

He concluded that all the character could be resolved into 8 broad characters :

1. The villain - struggles against hero
2. The (magical) helper - helps the hero in his quest
3. The dispatcher - character who warns about the villain and sends the hero off
4. The princess - she always ends up getting married to the hero as the hero deserves her, but through out the story the evil (villain) always tries to prevent them getting together but they do get together
5. Her father - gives the task to the hero and often identifies the false hero 
6. The donor - prepares the hero or gives the hero a magical object or a weapon
7. The hero - reacts to donor and always ends up marrying the princess
8. False Hero - takes credit for the hero's actions and tries to marry the princess

Conventions of Thriller Subgenres

Thriller sub-genres is the parts that thriller is broken up into, there are many different types of thriller movies such as Conspiracy thriller, Crime thriller, Disaster thriller, Mystery Thriller, etc. Despite all these being different they still come under the main ‘thriller’ category.

Techno Thriller – This subgenre tends to be fictional most of the time. Where fictional characters such as robots are used and they are attempting to take over the world, this mainly tends to follow science fiction. And there will always be a hero who will save the day and stop the robots taking over the world. Examples of techno thrillers are films such as matrix or i,robot. 

Conspiracy Thriller - This consists of a hero or a heroin, who are some sort of detective or journalist, investigating on a large organisation and then seem to be trapped by this organisation. The organisations are then brought down by the main character (the protagonist).This genre always shows good overruling evil in the world, and this genre mainly consists of secrecy of the government or large organisations.

Political Thriller - In this sub-genre the hero or heroin work for the government and the protagonist must prevent something bad from happening scenarios that are commonly used to represent political thrillers are US government elections or preventing a world war from happening.

Religious Thriller - This sub-genre relates to religion and finding the truth behind religion, it's about questions that people may have about religion. It relates to the good and bad of religion and how the good always overcomes the bad.

Psychological Thriller - This plays with the audiences mind, because the protagonist in this sub-genre is always mental or they may also suffer from amnesia. It shows the conflicts of being mental, and what the protagonist has to go through to become normal or remember his past, or they may never recover which creates more suspense within the film.

Disaster Thriller - This follows a certain group of peoples survival after a natural disaster or artificial disasters such as hurricanes, volcanoes, floods and earthquakes. In some disaster films the disaster had been caused by human activities such as atomic bombs and nuclear disasters. This shows us about the future and how man kind may end up and who will survive and who wont.

Crime Thriller - 

Silence Of The Lambs - 12-Frame Board

This is the opening of the film 'Silence of the Lambs', this is a crime/horror film directed by Jonathan Demme and was taken in 1991. It stars a few a big named actors such as Jody Foster and Anthony Hopkins.

The film begins with a mid shot of a tree, we can see that it was taken in grey woods because everything looks foggy and it you can’t see beyond. This gives the film a mysterious feeling, and the audience can not guess what is going to happen next, but we can easily guess the genre by this. We can see that it must be autumn or winter because all the leaves have fallen out of the trees. Still on the shot of the tree, the actors names ‘Jodie Foster’ and ‘Anthony Hopkins’ start to appear in bold black font.  The film also opens with non-digetic sound, which goes really good with the woods because we get this cold feeling and we can hear another non-digetic sound which seems to be some sort of bird, but it sounds like a strong but such as an eagle or a falcon. This gives us a sense that it’s morning.

Straight after the first actors name appears there is a panning shot from the tree and it moves slightly to the ground but we cannot see the ground due to the fog instead we can two trees which form some sort of gate or even door, then the title ‘Silence of the Lambs’ is displayed, by this is feels like that they’re saying the journey begins here would you like to enter.

As the camera moves slightly lower we can see the ground, which is brown because of all the leaves that have fallen to the ground and between these two trees we can see a little figure appear. As she moves a bit closer we can see she is holding on to a rope. The woman moves closer and closer to us while holding the rope and as soon as she reaches the end we can hear a bird flying away; this shows that she may be a main character and she maybe mighty. As soon as she lets go of the rope the person stands still for a second and looks around she seems to be out of breath and her jumper has sweat stains on it. Straight after she begins to run through the woods and this is a tracking shot from the back taken from a low angle, this makes it feel like she maybe running from someone or is in a race. As she runs through the woods her foot steps sound like a clock ticking, this could show that she is in a race against time.

The music starts to change and it sounds faster now and we have a mid shot of the woman from the side, which is still a tracking shot with good headroom and good nose room.  Then immediately we have a close up of her shoes but it’s still a tracking shot.  As she keeps running a net appears which she immediately jumps on and starts to climb over and it seems sunny on the other side of this net, which could that it is better on this other side or something awaits her on the other side.  We can see that this is a very strong healthy woman and she may be training for something because she has over come all these obstacles. 

After the net she runs on for a while and we can hear a loud male voice calling out the female characters name. And he soon after enters the frame also running. There is a mid shot of the mans face and we can clearly see his hat with the letters ‘FBI’ written on this reveals to us that this is a ‘Police’ or ‘FBI’ training centre. Then there is a panning shot from top to bottom of a tree and on this tree there are signs or boards nailed on with the words ‘Hurt’, ‘Agony’, ‘Pain’  and ‘Love-it’ the first three are negative words but the last one is a very positive one.

After this we have a change of scenery, we go from the dark grey woods into a sunny green place with buildings. The woman enters the building and then an elevator and in this elevator there are all men wearing red polo shirts and she’s the only female in a blue jumper and all the men are much taller than her, this can show power and who may be superior, but the woman may end up saving the day. The elevator door shuts this is like the gate closing. She is the last person to leave the elevator and she walks towards a place where the board is pointing to with the words ‘Behavioral Science Services’. She then enters someone’s office and as she looks around something catches her e attention and there camera moves straight into her face till there is a close up of her face and then what she’s looking at is revealed and there are these horrible pictures on this persons wall, which shows we’re not expecting a good person.

Past Students Work - Video 2

I think this video was also really good, the editing was done really well and the whole story of the man-on-the run was done really. I think the only problem is that we don't know who the good characters and the bad characters are, if the man with the gun is actually the good guy or the guy running is the good guy, so we don't know what to feel for which character in the opening. 

Past Students Work - Video 1

This film opening was really impressive because, from the start we know something bad is going to happen and through every shot they are able to build up tension, and it makes the viewer more nervous every second. This was also very effective because they didn't use any dialogue. They also show half of the guys face each time which makes us fear the character and we know he may be the protagonist of this story. At the end it had a really good tracking shot as he was at the market/city centre to place the bomb. Overall I think this video is really good, the only improvements they could make is maybe show the characters that may be effected by the bomb because we won't feel sad for any of the people, and also the camera was very shaky from time to time.

Niccs Task - The Bourne Identity

Niccs Task - Just Go With It

Prelim Evaluation

This is the evaluation of my preliminary task. For this project I worked in a group of 3 (Aymen and Aruran). This

Preliminary Task

Notorious Opening Sequence

his opening sequence is on the biopic of the Notorious B.I.G 

On the first shot we can see an image of the film company which in this case is 'Fox Searchlight Pictures'. This is shown with a black background and in white writing, which stands out.

On the second shot we can see an image of the title of the movie, this is presented in a large font and it is very clear to read and you can see biggie smalls (Jamal Woolard) inside the letters of the title.

On the third shot we can are told the director of the film, unlike other movies the credits aren't in the begging but at the end after the movie. This film was directed by George Tillman, Jr. This is shown with a birds eye view over a building. 

The fourth shot is a image of the director of photography Michael Grady. In this picture there's a black top hat on the middle of a wet road and there's building in the background with its lights on.

On the fifth shot we can see an image of the producers of this movie, here we are given five producers of this movie. Voletta Wallace, Wayne Barrow, Mark Pitts, Robert Teitel and Trish Hofmann. In this image there are a few people rolling dices on the street and its a close up of their feet. 

On the sixth shot we are told that the music is by Danny Elfman. This picture is shown with buildings tall sky scrappers which you can't see clearly but u can see the lights from the buildings.

On the seventh image we are told who wrote the story, Reggie Rock Bythewood and Cheo Hodari Coker. Thi picture is shown with a New York road sign and buildings. 

The eight picture is of the main actor of the story Jamal Woolard who plays Biggie Smalls. Jamal Woolard is an actor as well as a rapper. He is now well known due to this film. This picture is shown with the actor Jamal Woolard in the actual shot and his name next to it.

Finally on the ninth slide we are told that its a George Tillman film, which is also a production company. Which is owned by the director. 

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