Narratives

A narrative is the movies story. There are all kinds of narratives. Theres the linear narative which tell the story from start all the way till the problem is resolved. There is also fractured narrative which is when the story jumps back and forth in time e.g. starting of with a man who then shows his childhood and then jumps fourth and back. You can use flashbacks, voiceovers, multiple perspectives, happy endings. We need narratives to make sense of things, connecting events and making interpretations based on those connections. We contrsuct meaning using our experience of reality and of previous text. When we look at narratives, we examine the conventions of gender, character, form and time and use our knowledge of these conventions to help us interpret the text.

Here are some basic narrative structures that are used in many productions:

Beginning ---> Middle ---> End
Exposition ---> Problem ---> Climax ---> Resolution
A Narrative is needed for humans to make sense of a production (e.g. a film) as we connect events and make interpretations. Narrative's consist of a beginning, middle and end. Todorov's theorey of narrative is made up of 5 stages. These 5 stages are:
1. Equilibrium
2. Disruption
3. Recognition
4. Attempts to repair
5. New equilibrium

Because his theory was thought of in the 20th century, it will be very tedious if every film was to use this structure of narration. Therefore, directors have attempted to rearranged the structure in order to fulfill the wants and needs of the audience.

There are also structuralists, for example, Roland Barthes, who uses narrative codes. This narrative teases the audience by presenting a puzzle or riddle to be solved. Narrative codes can be categorised in the following ways:

• engima code
• symbols and signs
• points of culture reference
• simple description/reproduction

Claude Levi-Strauss was a literary theorist who developed ways of deconstructing narratives. He believed constand  creation of conflict propels narrative. Narratives can only end on a resolution of conflict . The opposition can be visual  or conceptual  and to do with soundtrack (binary opposition; theory of meaning that can be used to look at some of the cultural beliefs built into texts e.g. good vs evil.)