2 - Narrative Form

Question 1

-Narrative

Answer 1

We can consider a narrative to be a chain of events linked by cause and effect and occurring in time and space.

Question 2

-Plot

Answer 2

If we use flashbacks instead of linear time, or if we decide to organize events around one character rather than another, or if we make other choices about presentation, we will be creating a different plot

Question 3

-Diegesis

Answer 3

The total world of the story action is sometimes called the film’s diegesis

Question 4

-Diegetic/nondiegetic Material

Answer 4

The characters can’t read the credits or hear the music. Credits and a film’s score are thus nondiegetic elements.

Question 5

-Story/Plot Temporal Order

Answer 5

Filmmakers can choose to present events out of story order.

Question 6

-Flash-forward/backward

Answer 6

then the plot that uses a fl ashback presents something like 2-1-3-4, or 3-1-2-4. The fi lmmaker can also shuffl e story order by employing a fl ashforward.

Question 7

-Story/Plot/Screen Duration

Answer 7

In general, a fi lm’s plot selects only certain stretches of story duration. The fi lmmakers might decide to concentrate on a short, relatively cohesive time span, as North by Northwest does. Or they might let their plot unfold across many years, highlighting signifi cant stretches of time in that period.

Question 8

-Ellipsis

Answer 8

The plot skips over years of story time, as well as many hours of Thompson’s week of investigations

Question 9

-Story/Plot Frequency

Answer 9

This increased frequency may allow us to see the same action in several ways. Repetition can take place simply on the soundtrack. Sometimes only a single line of dialogue will reappear, haunting a character who can’t escape the memory of that moment.

Question 10

-Story/Plot/Screen Space

Answer 10

Normally, the locale of the story action is also that of the plot, but sometimes the plot leads us to imagine story spaces that are never shown. In Otto Preminger’s Exodus, one scene is devoted to Dov Landau’s interrogation by a terrorist organization he wants to join. Dov reluctantly tells his questioners of his duties in a Nazi concentration camp (3.16). Although the fi lm never shows this locale through a fl ashback, much of the scene’s emotional power depends on our using our imagination to fi ll in Dov’s sketchy description of how he survived.

Question 11

-Exposition

Answer 11

The portion of the plot that lays out the backstory and the initial situation is called the exposition

Question 12

-Narration

Answer 12

the plot’s way of distributing story information in order to achieve specifi c effects. Narration is the moment-by-moment process that guides us in building the story out of the plot.

Question 13

-Range of Narration

Answer 13

On the whole, in The Birth of a Nation, the narration is very unrestricted. We know more, we see and hear more, than any of the characters can. Such extremely knowledgeable narration is often called omniscient (“all-knowing”) narration.

Question 14

-Restricted vs. Unrestricted Narration

Answer 14

Restricted to a certain perspective vs all knowing

Question 15

-Depth of Narration

Answer 15

A film’s narration manipulates not only the range of knowledge but also the depth of our knowledge.

Question 16

-Objective vs. Subjective Depth

Answer 16

A plot might confine us wholly to information about what characters say and do. Here the narration is relatively objective.
Or a film’s plot may give us access to what characters see and hear.

Question 17

-Perceptual vs. Mental Subjectivity

Answer 17

For instance, in North by Northwest, point-of-view editing is used as we see Roger Thornhill crawl up to Van Damm’s window (3.20–3.22). Or we might hear sounds as the character would hear
vs
The filmmaker can go deeper, beyond the character’s senses and into her or his mind.

Question 18

-Character/noncharacter Narrators

Answer 18

Character narrator, vs external narrator

he filmmaker can go deeper, beyond the character’s senses and into her or his mind.

Question 19

-Reliability of the Narration

Answer 19

“reliable narrator” is one who is accurate and impartial
the “unreliable narrator”, who lacks objectivity, and may conceal, or be ignorant by happenstance, or design, of significant information.

Question 20

-Narrative Elements of Classical Hollywood Cinema

Answer 20

Make sure your main character wants something. Emphasize conflict. Take your character on an emotional journey. Be sure that your ending resolves the initial situation

Question 21

-Story

Answer 21

The story is the chain of events in chronological order

Question 22

-Setup

Answer 22

Indeed, the first quarter or so of a film’s plot is sometimes referred to as the setup.