Narrative

Narrative = the coherence/organisation given to a series of facts.

• Human minds need narrative to make sense of things.
• We seek a beginning, middle and end for everything.
• Understand and construct meaning using out experience of realist and previous texts. 
• Each text becomes part of previous and next through the relationship with the audience.
• EG -The Little Mermaid - Ariel sees boy and falls in love, she has a spell put on her to give her legs to find the boy and confess her love, she nearly loses her voice but she finds/marries the boy and lives happily with him. 
• 'Story is the irreducible substance of a story (A mets B, something happens, order returns). Narrative is the way the story is related (Once upon a time there was a princess ...)". - Fiske et al (1983)
• Aristotle's theory in application - Heather packing bag - sets off trigger - sign that action is occuring. 
• Aristotle's theory is that without action, a narrative cannot progress and that all meaning is gained as a result of this stimulus. In my production I depicted Heather pacing her bag hurriedly. This is a sign that action is occurring and the narrative couldn't occur with this happening. 

• Genre, character, time conventions used to interpret text.
• THRILLER - characters lead others down certain routes. Time faster in films - more happens in shorter space. Manipulated using flashbacks - fill in back story. Films about time travel - time subverted. Time condensed/manipulated.

TIME

• Telescope out - slow motion shot which replays a winning goal/an 80 year life can be condensed into a 2 hour biopic. 
• We consider "the time of the thing told and the time of the telling" (Metz)
• Use of ellipsis in editing = use of gaps in filming to make it seem time has passed.
• Time telescoped in my MV - Heather's deterioration over time.
• Time telescoped in my thriller - Heather packing bag and then in woods = time passed but can tell it's the same person. Ellipsis - conveys lots of action in a short time. 
• Time of the thing told quickly condensed using ellipsis, as demonstrated by Metz.

NARRATIVE STRUCTURES

• Todorov, Propp, Levis-Strauss
• Todorov - equilibrium, disequilibrium, new equilibrium (status quo, disruption, order restored).
• Narratives involve transformation - characters change. 
• Expected stages.