Week 3: Narrative Form Flashcards
What is Narrative?
- The range and depth of story info the plot presents
- A chain of events
- In a cause-effect relationship
- Occurring in time and space
- Read in chronological order
How is narration achieved?
- A narrator (character or non-character. Think Anthony Hopkins in The Grinch)
- Film can also show and tell
Diegesis
The total world of the story action
Diegetic
Things that originate within the films world (In Arrival, the news reports are seen and heard by the characters)
Non-diegetic
Things that exist outside the world that the characters don’t have access to. (The score of a film)
Story
The set of all the events in a narrative, both the ones explicitly presented and those the viewer infers. Story info may be offered out of sequence in the film.
Plot
Everything visibly and audibly present in the film before us. Plot can be selective and rearranged.
Temporal Duration
Assign actual duration to the events we see
- Screen duration (runtime)
- Plot duration (duration of events displayed in film)
- Story duration (duration of all events, even the ones we infer but don’t see)
Temporal Order
We want to oder the events chronologically
Temporal Frequency
Know the actual frequency with which they occurred (In Arrival, Louise’s final encounter with Costello happens once but is repeated in the plot multiple times)
Range
Quantity. When movies show rather than tell, the different ways story information reaches us.
Unrestricted Narration
(Range) We aren’t restricted to the characters knowledge
Restricted Narration
(Range) We are restricted to the characters range of knowledge
Depth
Quality. How deeply we know the key characters’ perceptions, feelings, and thoughts.
Subjective Narration
(Depth) Scenes that invite us to understand and share in the characters emotion at a point in time. Doesn’t always require an optical POV, the films constantly invite us to work out what the character is thinking or feeling.
Objective Narration
(Depth) A moment not filtered through a character. We see what happens but not through someone in the feel. (Toto escaping from Elmira is shown to the audience but no to the character)
Screen space
The visible space within the frame
What is the first quarter of a film referred to as?
Setup
What is it called when a film opens in the middle of things?
Opening in media res
What is the portion of the plot that lays out the backstory and the initial situation called?
Exposition
What is change of knowledge?
A character learns something in the course of the action, with the most crucial knowledge coming at the final turning point of the plot.
What is a goal-oriented plot?
A character takes steps to achieve an object or condition
What is a deadline?
A specific duration for the action created by the plot
What do patterns of development encoruage the spectator to form?
Long-term expectations that can be delayed, cheated, or gratified
What is omniscent narration?
Extremely knowledgeable narration when the viewer knows more and sees and hears more, than any of the characters can
How do you analyze the range of narration?
Ask “who knows what when?”
