Choose your A2 production. Start your exam answer by stating that you intend to answer in relation to Brief 2, the promotion package that you have created, composed of a trailer for your film (name) together with a film poster and film magazine (name).
Apply theories of narrative to one of your coursework productions.
These questions appear quite short and fit a common formula. You will be asked to apply ONE concept to one of your productions. This is a quite different task from question 1a, where you write about all of your work and your skills, as this one involves some reference to theory and only the one piece of work, as well as asking you to step back from it and think about it almost as if someone else had made it - what is known as ‘critical distance’.
Spend 35 minutes.
Narrative is one of the main ways that characters and their characteristics are relayed to the viewer. Narrative also dominates and affects other aspects of film such as editing. For example, if a film centres on the story of a particular character (Shaun in 'This Is England' (2006); Rita O'Grady in 'Made In Dagenham (2002), Jenny and Steve in 'Eden Lake' (2008)), it needs to be filmed and edited to privilege their point of view.
There are many ways of breaking down narrative structure. You may hear a movie described as a "classic Hollywood narrative", meaning it has three acts. News stories have their own structure. A lot of work has been done by literary theorists to develop ways of deconstructing a narrative.
A film trailer is ideal for narrative, as it depends upon ideas about narrative in order to function. A trailer must draw upon some elements of the film’s imaginary complete narrative arc in order to entice the viewer to watch it, without giving too much away. You have been introduced to a number of theories about narrative, but just in case, here’s a link to a PDF by Andrea Joyce, which summarises four of them, including Propp and Todorov.
CLAUDE LEVI STRAUSS
constant creation of conflict/opposition propels narrative. Narrative can only end on a resolution of conflict. Opposition can be visual (light/darkness, movement/stillness) or conceptual (love/hate, control/panic), and to do with soundtrack. Binary oppositions.
Levi-Strauss and binary opposition – Claude
Levi-Strauss identified a narrative system of 'binary opposites' in which
symbols and ideas exist in relation to their opposites, with which they are in
conflict. The theory is that this helps us draw meanings from a text, such as
the need to side with a character who is 'good'. Typical binary oppositions are
Good v Evil; Male v Female; Us v Them (Think 'Eden Lake', 'Ae Fond Kiss').
DAVID BORDWELL
(background biography)
Understand the position of Bordwell's ideas on classic Hollywood narrative in relation to other narrative frameworks here in this Slideshare on narrative theory
Classical Hollywood Cinema
Bordwell & Thompson Narrative Theory
A very interesting text, Three Dimensions of Film Narrative by David Bordwell is at http://www.davidbordwell.net/books/poetics_03narrative.pdf
In 'Three Dimensions of Film Narrative', Bordwell explains that a chain of events within a media form (such as a film or music video) cause effects on a relationship in time and space. The narrative shapes this material in terms of time and space, such as where and when things take place. This can be portrayed by using effects to show the time and space: for example, flashbacks, forwarding time, slow motion and speeding up. There might be titles used, such as in 'The Shining', to show which day it is during flashbacks or flashforwards, connoting the importance of time in the narrative.
Bordwell and Thompson in their book Film Art, An Introduction (tenth edition, 2013) discuss the role of editing in creating temporal (time) and spatial (space) meaning. They also discuss how the way a scene is edited gives it rhythm and visual, or graphic meaning. Rhythm is important in a chase scene such as the one previously described because the rhythm of the editing needs to match the emotion of the scene. Put simply, the pace of the cars and the frantic nature of car chases is communicated almost as much through the temporal, spatial and rhythmic considerations in the editing as through the performance of the actors and the mix of the roaring engines and screeching tyres in the diegetic sound and the fast paced, upbeat music in the non-diegetic sound.
Robert McKee’s lesser known Classic Five Part Narrative Theory, extensively discussed by Joe Nicholas and John Price in their book “Advanced Studies in Media” (1998) may be more appropriate since it allows for the progressive accumulation of events which inspire the protagonist to act. The theory suggests the first stage of the narrative is the inciting incident, followed by progressive complications, then a crisis, a climax and then finally resolution with the rather predictable happy ever after ending.
ROLAND BARTHES: FIVE CODES
Roland Barthes describes a text as
"a galaxy of signifiers, not a structure of signifieds; it has no beginning; it is reversible; we gain access to it by several entrances, none of which can be authoritatively declared to be the main one; the codes it mobilizes extend as far as the eye can read, they are indeterminable...the systems of meaning can take over this absolutely plural text, but their number is never closed, based as it is on the infinity of language..." (1974 translation)
What he is saying is that a text is like a tangled ball of threads which needs unravelling so we can separate out the colours. Once we start to unravel a text, we encounter an absolute plurality of potential meanings. We can start by looking at a narrative in one way, from one viewpoint, bringing to bear one set of previous experience, and create one meaning for that text. You can continue by unravelling the narrative from a different angle, by pulling a different thread if you like, and create an entirely different meaning. And so on. An infinite number of times. If you wanted to.
Barthes wanted to - he was a semiotics professor in the 1950s and 1960s who got paid to spend all day unravelling little bits of texts and then writing about the process of doing so. All you need to know, again, very basically, is that texts may be ´open´ (ie unravelled in a lot of different ways) or ´closed´ (there is only one obvious thread to pull on). (MediaKnowall site)
Barthes also decided that the threads that you pull on to try and unravel meaning are called narrative codes and that they could be categorised in the following five ways:
Barthes - semiotics, enigma codes, 'steak and chips'
Barthes, a French media theorist writing from 1950s to 1970s, developed the theory of semiotics - where any text is a complex bundle of meaning which can be unravelled to create a whole range of different meanings. These threads are called narrative codes. Texts that can be read in a number of ways are polysemic texts. The handiest code to refer to in essays is the enigma code - found in all successful texts from 'Bob the Builder' to 'CSI'. These codes are constructed to attract and hold the attention of the audience, usually be creating a mystery or puzzle which the audience want to see solved - why has this man been murdered?
See Barthes' article 'Steak and Chips' on p62 of his book, 'Mythologies': https://soundenvironments.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/roland-barthes-mythologies.pdf
VLADIMIR PROPP ( Morphology of the Folktale, 1927) narratemes explained here
In Propp's theory of character function, characters and events can be seen as constructs to drive the narrative. Propp set up a list of character types with clear functions: the hero, villain, donor (who gives the hero some magical key or information), helper (assists the hero on the quest), heroine (used by the villain and a reward for the hero). See all Disney Princess films, Star Wars, The Lord of the RingsVladimir Propp’s theory was formed in the early twentieth Century. He studied Russian fairytales and discovered that in stories there were always 8 types of characters evident. These are: the hero, the villain, the donor, the dispatcher, the false hero, the helper, the princess and her father. He did not state these characters were all separate people e.g. the provider could also be the helper. There are only 8 different character types and only 31 things they ever do (character functions). Once you have identified the character type (e.g., the hero) it’s easy to guess what they will do (save the maiden, defeat the villain, marry the maiden or whatever) because each character has a SPHERE OF ACTION. This easily relates to films and programmes today.
(see here for The Hero's Journey which is an outstanding explanation of Campbell's ideas)
TZEVESTAN TODOROV
Todorov's theory of equilibrium - basically, the pattern where many narratives begin with a state of equilibrium, which is then disrupted by an event, forcing characters to face up to the disruption in order to reclaim equilibrium.
This approach suggests narrative is simply equilibrium, disequilibrium, new equilibrium.
Todorov proposed a basic structure for all narratives. He stated that films and programmes begin with an equilibrium, a calm period. Then agents of disruption cause disequilibrium, a period of unsettlement and disquiet. This is then followed by a renewed state of peace and harmony for the protagonists and a new equilibrium brings the chaos to an end. The simplest form of narrative (sometimes referred to as ‘Classic’ or ‘Hollywood’ narrative). (Source: ESMedia)
LEARN THIS!!! Second question of the exam.
Media Language
At A2, I made the promotional package for a new film called RISK. This comprised a trailer, a film poster and a film magazine cover. My trailer for RISK introduced the drama of a psychological thriller in which a group of young individuals find themselves being controlled by science and taking part in a risky scientific medical trail which subjects them to mind- altering substances injected into their blood stream that are designed to test the science behind distance mind control. the young people find themselves swept into dangerous behaviours that verge on the criminal, exposing themselves to involuntary self -destruction when their 'doctor' find them expendable (such as stepping into traffic and killing people).
Trailers, as a genre, have a set of conventions such as inter titles, ellipsis and fast paced editing with hard cuts (discuss when talking about editing), focusing on the protagonist (to establish key payers for audiences who need to pick up very quickly the bare bones of the narrative); Tracking shots to link narrative sequences; emotive sound that establishes mood and anchors visuals; text that offers key information (release date, stars, director, institutional information, 'puffs') and overall should generate a sense of anticipation, drama and excitement.
Our production is a part of a promotional package that includes a film poster and film magazine cover, both of which have their own visual languages and sets of print conventions regarding layout, framing, typography, colour choices, font sizes, 'House' style (for magazine), bar codes, dates, prices, QR code, billing block (posters), social media & web links (posters). The one over-arching, most important part of media 'language', however, is that the promotional package as a whole delivers a cohesive, integrated visual package that creates a visual synergy in making the production (the film) memorable.
Editing:
Inter titles help understand narrative, they function as cues throughout our trailer. For example, the inter titles provide key narrative anchors about the protagonists and the jeopardy that they face, which increases by the second during our 2 minute trailer, ratcheting up the tension and suspense. For example, the text 'three test student' is intercut with 'That take the risk?' culminating in 'only one can be cured' with an immediate shift of mis-en-scene from medical facility to a drone shot of woodland. 'From the producers of...' is a distribution tactic that inspires audiences by building a relationship with them (Blumler and Katz, uses and gratifications model of audience behaviour).
Camera work:
All of our camera work (movements, camera angles, shot types) was designed to serve the overall sim of the production which is to generate intense interest in the trailer as a means of persuading audiences to see the film itself. One of our most effective sequences uses a drone cam to take the audience from the apparent safety of the medical centre to the wild woods where the murder victim will be entrapped. the sets are therefore visual symbols. The murder victim is clearly beyond help as the students have moved beyond the law.
Sound:
In common with most trailers, there is highly selective diegetic sound and fas uses made of dialogue as the genre requires maximum impact which minimum information, thus a great deal of information is conveyed visually though action codes and through non-diegetic sounds that set the emotional temperature, building up to a climax that is compelling enough to drive audiences into cinemas. In RISK, the voiceover in the establishing shot is dialogue in which the doctor addresses the guinea pigs: "welcome to the trail" and shortly after "Are you ready to take the risk?" the word 'RISK' is reiterated throughout the trailer as well as on the poster and magazine coves as it is in the film title and emphasises the trailer genre.
the other snatch of diegetic sound occurs after a triplet of CUs show the students each separately receiving identical commands via text messages (Will you take the risk?): we hear them agreeing on a joint plan action, driven by inner compulsion.
The soundtrack build tension throughout both by the use of increasingly fast and tense percussive bats and very importantly in our film work, electronic 'noises' that signify the way the students' brain waves are being controlled. The visuals representation of those 'noises' is also key:visuals that look like glitches or electronic static that can represent the changes happening to all the students, distorted lines, neon colours that create a sense of disorientation for the audience and herald the dangerous finale of the trail that drives them to commit murder.
Editing at this final point if fast-paced with series of rapid hard cuts, using specific types of camera angles such as of a long blade hidden behind the back of one of the students approaching a screaming girl who has been boxed into a corner by the group. This creates unbearable tension for the audiences, leaving them on the edge of this seats in anticipation. Unlike conventional Hollywood editing a trailer should not move smoothly though the native explains very detail, but through ellipses, it should sketch the narrative arc and leave enough enigma to draw audiences into the cinema.
Mise-en-scene:
If you have seen Ghost in a Shell, they will be familiar with the disconcerting use of neon colours and electronic visual codes to suggest danger as I do in our film as well in my film magazine cover and poster. I have decided to include the glitch like effect in my poster and magazine creating a very static atmosphere. We use a 'forbidden forest' scenario (signalled by the wooden sign 'out of bounds'), an abandoned shed to imprison the murder victim, white coats and medical equipment to stage the medical facility.
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